Which do you prefer Reading Made Easy

[Marsha]

or The Reading Lesson?

Pros and cons of each?

[Kuovonne]

My daughter just finished "The Reading Lesson" yesterday, so I'm biased.

I didn't find "Reading Made Easy" until after we had started "The Reading Lesson," and I didn't want to change programs. However, if I had found "Reading Made Easy" (RME) earlier, I still personally prefer "The Reading Lesson." (TRL)

As far as I could tell, both books had an almost identical approach. Every day, read a new page. New letters are introduced a few at a time, and only one sound at a time. The text starts out with special typography and is gradually converted to normal print.

The main thing that I prefered about TRL was the fact that the special typography was more subtle.

RME seemed to have more "activities" involved if you actually followed the instructions instead of just having your child read the pages. For example, write the words on index cards and have your child form a sentence. You asked more comprehension questions, etc.

I tried using some of the activities suggested in RME with my daughter as we went through TRL. However, my daughter didn't seem to need the reinforcement, and eventually we dropped them, with one exception.

I got one idea from RME that I absolutely *love." At the end of each reading lesson session, my daughter could pick out any book and I would read it to her. I think that me reading to her reinforced how wonderful books were, and reminded her that her learning to read didn't mean that I would stop reading to her. It added only a few minutes to the lesson, and ensured that her last impression of each lesson was a pleasurable one.