Teaching Reading - what did you use?

[Teresa]

Need ideas on how and what to use to teach my son to read. He is learning the alphabet now.
Thank you

[Shelly in MD]

I have used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" twice now, and while I would highly recommend it, I will say that both times, we did *just* the reading portion (not the associated handwriting), and that both times the kids were reading well and I was tired of it by around lesson 80!

I also used BOB books to reinforce what they were learning, once they started to read.

Hope that helps!

[Chris in VA]

We started teaching dd to read at birth, by reading to her! LOL (no flashcards...)
Seriously, tho', I did research in college on early readers and found someone had already correlated early reading with being read to--but we just did it because it's fun.

Our main lessons were with Phonics Pathways, but that's not all we did. We added some sight words (I picked ones that would be most helpful for the stories dd wanted to read), we made sticky notes of words and put them all over the house, we used Montessori objects and Bingo games and homemade books and Bob Books and wrote our names in notebooks, and read to the dog....

Make it fun, make it a game, use lots of modalities, have a decent phonics plan, don't take "I don't want to" as the final answer, read to him a lot, let him catch you reading, make his reading meaningful, encourage the heck out of him, and...relax. He'll get it.

[Susie in MS]

Subscribing to this thread cuz I would like to know too. :)

[Beth in Central TX]

It depends on the boy:

Oldest son learned to read in public school.
Middle son learned to read using 100EL and Phonic Pathways.
Youngest son started with 100EL twice. He's now learning to read with OPGTR and Phonic Pathways.

Once they start reading, I begin using the Reading/Bible program by Rod & Staff.

[Susie in MS]

I did get a Dick and Jane 6 pk book set with tote to go with what ever I use for lessons. It is like this:
http://warmbiscuit.com/dickjanebooks.html
but I didn't pay that much. I find Warm Biscuit to be very high on most of their stuff. But that set of books is hard to find now. I saw used here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dick-Jane-Ready-SET-Go/dp/0448435233

[Susie in MS]

What age were your children when you started teaching them to read?

[mcconnellboys]

I used Phonics Pathways and Bob books and other phonics readers and then graded readers (all from my local library) to teach my younger son.

Regena

[Kathie in VA]

AlphaPhonics has worked twice so far with great results. It's low key. My kiddos are easily distracted so this worked great because it didn't have any pictures to zoom into. It is also very fast... about 10-15 min per day which leave lots of time to go a play with things meant for playing. It covers all the phonograms (being based on Orton Gillingham like SWR), so it's complete. We didn't need any phonics lessons after finnishing the book.

We did supplement with Bob books (although they do have their own readers now). My younger son likes workbooks so we did some ETC but kept AlphaPhonics leading the way.

hth

[Sue in St Pete]

Dh used Reading Reflex (http://www.readamerica.net/page9alink.asp) with ds5. It worked wonderfully. It gets good reviews and is inexpensive. We bought it used at Half Price Books.

[Ellie]

with a brief foray into one of R&S's books, now titled We Learn Letter Sounds.

[ABQmom]

That's my favorite. I start with 100 easy lessons because it teaches blending sounds so well and the stories are fun for a young one. Then somewhere between lessons 50 and 75, we usually switch over to OPGTR to get a more complete phonics program which my dc have needed.

[Jennefer@SSA]

We started with Get Ready, Get Set and Go for the Code. Then we moved right into Book 1. We used lots of Primary Phonics Readers (published by the same company that puts out ETC) and Bob Books.

[KristineIN]

dd-taught phonograms, she started reading Dick & Jane books on her own at 8 or so.
ds-taught phonograms a while ago, but he just now started picking up chapter books at 8.
ds we are teaching phonograms and using Starfall material. He's just starting to get cvc & some long vowel words, he'll be 7 in July.

We read, read, read, I just don't think some kids are ready until later.
Kristine

[wide eyes & laughter]

and it's truly a very thorough program for spelling and reading. I've been using it w/ds9 for 2 yrs and he is an excellent reader and speller. Although he can pick up any book and read it, we are continuing to plug through the rest of the program -- very tempting to quit midway! But, I'm laying that foundation!LOL

I started dd6 on it last month and she's doing fine with it -- not reading yet but progressing nicely.

One comment that I'll pass along re: Teaching in 100 Easy Lessons. A friend swayed me away from this program b/c she noticed her dc who had used it were poor spellers and she felt that impacted their reading abilities (certainly their writing). After switching to SSRW, she noticed a huge improvement in her dc spelling and reading. I realize this is one person's experience.

I did not want to spend that much on a reading program so this is one reason I went with SWR. I'm glad I did.

HTH!

[JWSJ]

Montessori here.

[attachedto4]

My oldest taught himself at age 3. He had a photographic memory and we read to him every day. He had a vacuum obsession so we would cut out vacuum ads and read them over and over, and tape them to his bedroom wall.

My second ds I didn't start teaching until he was 5 3/4. I was glad I waited a bit since he is a very wiggly boy and it was so much easier waiting until he was ready. He watched some Leapfrog videos, read BOB books to me for practice everyday, and was read to a lot. He quickly transitioned to Dr.Seuss books and we started ETC 1 and went through them.

Dd I tried some various things with starting at age 5,(ETC, suggestions from Beechicks The Three Rs, SL LA K) but phonics were not clicking with her at all, so I let her be. She is a whole language learner and we kept reading to her a lot and now at 5 3/4 she is reading well above grade level and is going through MFW 1st grade, mostly as review, and phonics seem to be clicking now.

Ds 3 3/4 is reading cvc words and writes very well and I keep waffling about worrying about it right now. He gets frusturated that he can't read much though. (He doesn't seem to understand that he's 3 and his siblings are older). So I might try OPGTR.

[Tutor]

Hooked on Phonics and lots of reading aloud and reading along (I read a sentence then ds reads a sentence).

[Karenciavo]

Ds14 - Saxon Phonics
DS13 - 100 Easy Lessons
DS5 - TATRAS

I like TATRAS best.

[8FillTheHeart]

I absolutely love Sing, Spell, Read, Write. I cannot recommend it enough. It is systematic, fun, and produces excellent readers. :)

[Closeacademy]

Spell to Write and Read.

I've tried a variety of programs and found most of them did not work for us. We tried 100EL (we hated it), Sonlight LAK (too much, too little), Phonics Pathways, sight reading activities, Hooked on Phonics, etc.

Spell to Write and Read allowed my dd to actually distinguish the sounds in the words. She had to slow down and then she got it. The phonograms are excellent and so logical.

For my PreK to K we just work with learning sounds. For 1st & 2nd I work with the lists and charts some and teach my children words.

[Tammy in Germany]

When Ron II was learning to read we started with 100 easy lessons and then went to A Beka phonics..which was awesome. :D

[RhondaM.]

We used Phonic Pathways and ETC for 5-10 minutes per day.
I also had some little readers around the house while they were in the early, early stages of reading, that we used. An old Abeka reader....the little books from Learning Language Arts Through Literature (Blue level)..Bob Books are much the same. As soon as they were strong enough we switched to real books...and I just let them read the words they knew. I kept it really simple.

With both kids we never even finished the phonics book ...they just took off on their own and were reading 3rd to 4th grade level books by the end of kinder. I LOVE Phonic pathways and ETC. The combo made it very easy to teach them. I believe this combo is also the reason they are both such good spellers.

[Teresa]

THANK YOU all for your wonderful suggestions and sharing what worked for your family.

Blessings,
Teresa

[Susie in CA]

I used this with both boys. It took a long time to get through the book but when we were done they were able to read pretty much anything. I would use this again!

Susie

[Baseballmom]

We used Alphabet Island Phonics for my oldest who didn't learn how to read until he was six. He is very visual and loved all of the bells and whistles. My youngest son asked me to show him how to read a few weeks after he turned four. He already knew all of the sounds of the letters. I showed him how to blend the sounds to read a word and he started reading immediately. He completely skipped the sounding out stage and was fluently reading 5-6 letter words within a few days. I went through Phonics Pathways with him just for fun. He couldn't stand Alphabet Island Phonics.

[Cadam]

I started with OPG but dd found it boring. She liked the colors and little books and charts of HOP so that worked well and now that she is lder we are going over the last bit of OPG because it covers more than any of the other things I have looked at.

[BusyBee]

I used PP with oldest child and used PP, OPG, and finally settled on Bob Jones Reading for my second child.