Why this book is the only book you need to teach your child to read.

Objective: To get your child to read independently and fluently with little to no help.

Each Child Learns Differently

The book is broken down into lessons of usually a few pages. These can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour depending on the child and their attention span. For our eldest child, he was highly motivated to read. He completed a lesson per day with some mild frustration but mostly excitement. He liked to hear the sound of the words and the accomplishment of completing a lesson.

For our middle child, it was very challenging. A lesson took almost an hour for him to complete because of his ADD and being distracted by the sentences and pictures in the stories. We had to make accommodations for him including using a sheet of paper to hide the page. Our youngest also had trouble. He got easily distracted because he simply wasn’t interested in the reading. So the lessons went much more slowly and we often had to repeat a lesson to help him remember. But eventually, he found a rhythm and learned just like his brothers.

Now, years later, it’s as if those challenges are a distant memory. Every one of our three boys learned to read and are now reading well above their grade level because of it. We believe this book truly laid that foundation and allowed them to learn how to read to the highest confidence level.

Now they are not afraid to try a new book that may be more complicated or higher level because the basics are established in their minds and the foundation gives them the confidence to keep reading and trying. We are often told that practice makes perfect and the same goes for reading. If you read a lot and solidify that foundation by encouraging and being consistent in the beginning – it means future success.

The Pros:

• It’s broken into easy to see, clearly established lessons
• The lessons increase in a steady difficulty level
• There are many pictures to go with the stories
• The explanation for the sounding out and repeat patterns sections are clear for teacher
• Book presentation is pleasant, not overwhelming and user-friendly

The Cons:

• Can be challenging for some children who get distracted easily
• The first 20 lessons are very tedious and you feel like it never will get better
• Lesson 50 is a major shift – the point that may be the most challenging lesson to push past
• Must be a consistent process or child may forget the previous concepts

Some take it slow, some take it fast

Regardless of your situation, learning to read is essential and key to your child’s homeschool learning future. If a child is not a successful reader, everything else in school become more frustrating and challenging. This book is the best foundation to combat the stress. It’s an all-in-one, simple text that takes all the confusion out of teaching reading. It puts the concepts all in one book. By completing this book alongside your child or children, they will have the key skills to become a fluent reader.

After you complete this book or possibly even after lesson 50, it is best to start working alongside your child to read Level books to encourage and add some variety. What I enjoyed most about this book is that as soon as it was complete, our children were able to select all types of beginner books from the children’s section in the library.

The Next Step:

Here are some of our favorites to increase your child’s reading level as you complete the book and after –

Don’t get discouraged – it does work with a little persistence

Any parent knows that teaching a child a new concept or a new skill is never one and done. It’s not simple and it is an ongoing process. For some learning styles, even the basics of tying shoes becomes a painful, long task. We’ve experienced that with our children many times over. The point is to remember your end goal. you want your child to be independently reading with confidence.

I know that for us our love of learning and love of reading made the importance of teaching our children to read all the more crucial. We knew that they could have the world at their fingertips – literally. They could learn and read about anything they could conceive. So with that in mind, many painful frustrating days came. But also that came with many joyful and rewarding days where we saw the lightbulb click and our son understand and hear the words he spoke off the page clearly without needing our help. But it all takes time.

Overall it is a win-win

This book is by far the most successful “curriculum” we used for our young boys as we taught them to read. We tried it on our eldest to see if the hype about it was really true. Well, it is true. We were so happy with this book that we worked through it again with our middle and younger child and although challenging and very differently paced, we still had success.

No matter how old your child is, what their challenge may be or how daunting reading may seem, don’t give up. This all-in-one book is the ticket to seeing success. Even if it takes a full year or maybe more to get through this book, your child will be able to read and read well by the end of it and you will be so glad you did.