Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson vs. OPG...

[Sue G in PA]

Can anyone compare these 2 books? We have OPG and ds6 hated it (too bad, cause mom really likes it!). How does Teach Your Child to Read...compare to OPG? Similar format? All oral? Similarities/differences? Thoroughness and effectiveness of Teach Your child to Read...? Just curious as my ds5 is beg. to learn letters and to read. My library has a copy which I will get to check it out, but just looking for some other opinions especially on Teach Your Child to REAd. TIA

[ABQmom]

I think 100 easy lessons does a good job of teaching young children how to blend the sounds together. I think younger children really enjoy the pictures, and the silly stories. I use it for about the first 50 -75 lessons or so, then I switch to OPGTR. OPGTR goes through all the phonograms (100 easy does not); therefore, I feel like it is the better and more thorough program.

To me, they are very different programs. I would say, that if you try it to be sure you don't depend on it solely to teach your child how to read. Of course, there are those children who use 100 easy and can read great when they are finished with it, and need nothing else. Just be aware that that may not be the case for your child.

[Beth in Central TX]

Sydni gave a great review of both programs.

It really depends on the child as to whether which program works best. My middle son did fine with 100EL. He went through all 100 lessons and hasn't looked back. He didn't need any supplemental work. My youngest son, however, stalled twice in 100EL. I've switched him to OPGTR, and he's doing better, but I do need to supplement with Phonic Pathways. He needs a little more work with blended sounds.

The only downside to 100EL is the written work assigned with each lesson. I ignored the written part with both sons; neither was ready to write before they were ready to read.

[Classical Michele]

I haven't used OPGTR, but I can review 100EZ which I've used for all three dc. We loved it. If you can get past the orthography, you'll find that it's an exceptionally easy program to teach. The book is scripted and the lessons are not too long. Take as long as you like on each lesson, then move on. We generally did one lesson a day.

As mentioned in posts above, children tend to like the silly stories. Also, as Beth mentioned we skipped the writing parts too. My dc were all reading on (approximately) a 1st - 2nd grade reading level by age 6 - way ahead of their penmanship skills.

After 100EZ we did some Phonics Pathways just because I had it on the shelf. It wasn't necessary in our case to supplement.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I think both books are similar in format. EZ lessons has the child write the letters as well. My son did great with EZ lessons until about lesson 70, when they dropped their lexicon. My son simply could not read without those visual cues, so we put it away. We ended up using The Phonics Game and MCP Phonics workbooks (Plaid series) along with Pathway Readers to get him up to speed.

With my daughter, we have had more success with OPGTR. However, she does find it a little dull, so, again, we try to mix it up. Also, we did have to put it away for 6 months because she found it overwhelming. We will be finishing this up in May.

YMMV,

[frogpond1]

but with the 4th I used Funnix which is an improved and expanded version of 100 EL on the computer. I have to say my kids loved the stories in 100 EL and Funnix. My 5th grader was just reading the Funnix book again for fun yesterday and she is a great reader. I like the method used on the computer, but we did fast forward when we didn't need as much practice on a certain skill. 100 EL and Funnix gets them reading quickly and painlessly and we followed up with Rod and Staff phonics or Explode the Code and it has worked wonderfully. I'm sure OPGTR would work well, but it just didn't fit our style.

[FlockOfSillies]

I always describe 100EZ as a quick-start method. It's excellent at teaching blending, but it's not as thorough as other programs.

My ds6 still isn't a huge fan of OPG, but it works. If you find out that your boy just doesn't like the look of the page, you can try using a lap-sized white board and a dry erase marker to write out the words in the lesson. That did the trick here, along with the flash card game described in the early part of the book.

Another thing I did early on was hanging up sheets of paper around the house with words for ds to review. He had a bad habit of guessing (still does sometimes). For every word he sounded out, he got a penny. If he guessed, I took away a penny. He saved up the pennies to buy a super soaker. :-D

HTH.

[Cadam]

They are a similar format. I think if your child doesn't like OPG then he isn't going to like 100 EZ lessons. We switched to HOP and since we are through all 5 levels and now we are back to OPG because it goes over more phono-grams. We are just finishing up the last 60 lessons or so, mostly to give dd confidence and practice.

[TengoFive]

I think my kids liked 100 EZ Lessons better because of the pictures, but in the end didn't learn as well as my one that has used OPG. We like others, could progress through 100 EZ Lessons to about lesson 70 and then hit a brick wall. They would actually refuse to read anything for about a year after getting that far. Then something clicked and they could read fluently.
OPGTTR is much more boring, but the lessons are so short I figure they can live with boring for 10 minutes a day if they're learning effectively. My one child I've used this with transitioned to books very easily.

[Hotdrink]

My son doesn't enjoy OPGTR but I like it and he tolerates it because it is very effective for helping him learn. We use it in conjunction with Fitzroy Readers, which has nice engaging stories and pictures, so once he's slogged through a section of OPG we do a book or two, that way he enjoys the Readers and can easily see how far he's come along.

[LizzyBee]

I checked OPG out of the library to try it twice, but I didn't like it. OTOH, I've used 100EZL with two of my kids and I like it a lot. I wish I'd used it with all 3 kids.

They seem very different to me, but since it's been awhile since I last tried OPG, I can't give a point by point comparison.

[gardening momma]

We used 100EL--I have not even seen OPGTR. I really liked it. Dd liked it, but not as much as I did. I decided I didn't want a program with all the bells and whistles--it would probably distract my dd. And reading isn't about pictures and colors and music--it's about words on a page. So I was perfectly happy with plain ol' 100EL.

I heard partway into it that 100EL didn't cover all the phonograms. I was a little concerned about how we were going to cover the rest when we finished the program. I chose AAS for spelling because it is scripted in the way I like, and it covers the rules we've missed in 100EL (that would be ALL the rules, LOL). We've finished 100EL and are doing "reading practice" with various phonics books, including A Beka Reading for Fun books (love them!). We've started AAS Level 1. In our reading practice, when we encounter phonograms dd hasn't seen yet, I just help her out with them. Off the top of my head, 100EL didn't teach /ph/, /gh/ (and things like /igh/ and /ough/) and /kn/.

Dd did not have any trouble transitioning from the 100EL orthography to "regular" font 3/4 of the way through the book. I thought the orthography was pretty simple, not much different than different fonts on your computer are.

There were definitely times when dd did not want to do a lesson, but I found that the more regularly we did reading lessons, the more she did it without fuss. In her case it was an obedience issue more than a compatibility (with the program) issue.

ETA: around Lesson 79 I started printing lists of review words for her, and we went through one sheet of those a day at the beginning of our lesson. It was a big help.