Reading Made Easy vs Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading?

[Elizabeth in Missouri]

I'm getting ready to start teaching reading to my preschool boy (4 1/2) in the fall, and I can't decide between reading programs. Which have you used and what is your recommendation between Reading Made Easy (Valerie Bendt) and The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (Wise)?

Thanks!

[ELaurie]

and each has strengths to recommend it.

Here's link (http://www.valeriebendt.com/ReadingMadeEasy.aspx)to sample pages of RME.

Here's link (http://www.peacehillpress.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=72)to sample pages from TOPG.

It was s struggle for my 8 you ds to learn to read, and I felt he needed the explicit instruction provided by TOPG. It's systematic, comprehensive, and very thorough.

Ds 5 would probably just teach himself to read if I left him alone ;), but RME is the kind of resource that can efficiently provide him with the the tools to get started.

Please reply if you have other more specific questions, and welcome to the WTM forums!

[Ravin]

Just to make your life interesting, have you looked at the Tanglewood School's phonics curriculum? It has the bonus of being free.

[Elizabeth in Missouri]

So what I'm hearing is that OPGTR is more structured, whereas RME is a little looser? Does RME teach the letters first, or is that my responsibility to do before starting the curriculum? Also it seems that OPGTR goes further with blended sounds.

[Donna A.]

RME assumes your child knows the individual letter sounds before beginning, as it starts off with two-letter "blends". (At least, I think that's what I remember... it's been a while.) But RME is very complete. You can take either one or two years to cover the entire book, depending on whether you do it 3 days a week or 5, and how much review you have to do. We never actually finished it because my dd was reading real books long before we got to the end of RME. We didn't supplement with any readers except for practicing with Dr. Seuss books, not as part of "school", but as part of our regular mommy-daughter cuddle time. (So it was informal and unplanned supplementation, I guess. ;) ) But there are many practice word lists and stories within RME. So no, I've looked at OPGTR but I wouldn't say that it "goes further with blended sounds" than RME.

[gandpsmommy]

The Reading Lesson by Michael Levin and Charan Langton worked wonderfully for my dd. The authors claim that when a child finishes the book, he/she will be able to read on a second grade level, and this was true of my dd. It might be worth looking into. I purchased it on Amazon. I believe that there are a cd and dvd available to complement the book, but I can't comment on them as we only used the book. I highly recommend it.

[LlamaMama]

OPGTR covers letter sounds in the first lessons. I skipped most of those and just had my child watch the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD a few times.

[Gretchen in NJ]

I just love TOPG. I used it to teach my youngest to read and to also teach my oldest how to read better. My oldest went to PS for 1st grade and was taught 'whole reading.' She had little or no phonics instuction, but was reading chapter books.

I was very happy with the completeness of TOPG.

Plus, we so love their sense of humor in their stories.

Gretchen

[Sahamamama]

We are using OPG with my 3 year old -- I know, I know, she's only three! BUT last year she came to me begging me, "Mommy, I want to read this book, but I don't know the words, so could you PLEASE teach me to read TODAY?" At the time, she was only 2 years old, and I had sick newborn twins who were projectile vomiting all over the house... So..... I told her, "Not today, Sweetie, maybe next year."

She kept asking all year, so in the fall, we learned the consonant sounds (as in b stands for /b/ in /b/, /b/, bat), then the short-vowel sounds, then began putting words together (at, sat, cat, bat), and now she is working on ending and beginning blends.

This is just the beginning, I know, but she can read the whole set of Bob books by herself, along with many words in other books we read together. She likes to do this, and is usually the one who says to ME, "Don't forget, Mommy, we have to do our schoolwork today." Good grief!

The amazing thing about this approach is that it teaches the phonics SO WELL that it turns around into spelling. The other day my daughter was playing with the alphabet magnets. I had put up onto the board the magnets for pig, cat, dog, hat, bat, fan, and top. My daughter picked through the letters in the box and SPELLED all the words -- on her own, then said, "Look, Mommy, I spelled the words." I was stunned.

Tonight, she was dancing around (naked) wrapped in her frog towel (it was bath time). She said to my husband, "Daddy, do YOU know how to spell frog? It's ffffffffffffffff, so that's F. Frrrrrrrrrr, so that's F-R. Froooooo, so that's F-R-O, and guh at the end is a G. Frog, F-R-O-G." My husband was stunned, but by now I'm used to it.

We rejoice that this little one LOVES to read and be read to. There is no pressure with this resource, not on the parent nor the child. There is always room to review and go back, in fact there is encouragement to do so, to take things SLOWLY and lay a good foundation.

We bought the cards that come with the book, and we use them a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing how she takes in the new information with the blends. It's actually a neat process to get to be a part of and to watch how it all begins to make sense in the little one's head. When she finished her first Bob book, it was BOUNCE, BOUNCE, BOUNCE, all over the house! :001_smile: