Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, Elaine Bruner - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

I purchased this book when my first child was only one month old. I was at a homeschoolers' curriculum fair in Arlington, Texas, scoping out the whole homeschool scene for the first time. My husband and I had agreed to homeschool our children when we were just newlyweds and didn't have any children; I was a teacher in a rural high school, and was appalled at the attitudes and behavior of the students. We had met some homeschool families and were struck by the difference between their children and the ones I taught, so we decided that we would do whatever we had to do for me to stay home once we had kids, and eventually homeschool them.

Four years later (in 1994) our beautiful little daughter joined our family, and I quit my job for good. About a month later, I was invited to attend a curriculum fair with a veteran homeschool mom, so I thought I'd check it out and see what was available. I was amazed at the number of vendors and the wide selection. Of course, I had no reason to buy anything, because my daughter was only a month old, but you know how hard it is to look without buying something, so I asked my companion what she would recommend that I purchase. Unequivocally, she said, "You need to buy Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! It's the first thing you'll probably ever use with her, and it won't change between now and then." I plunked down $15.50 at one of the vendors' booths for my own copy, and proudly toted it home, where it sat on the shelf for about four more years.

When Martha was newly four, I sat down with her and began the lessons. They are highly scripted; you don't embellish on the lesson but instead read it exactly as it goes, then elicit the response from your child as prescribed. There is an extensive section at the beginning of the book for you to read and familiarize yourself with before you begin, so you learn the techniques taught within each lesson.

Lessons also include a brief handwriting lesson, and the parents' guide even walks you through the correct method of teaching each letter. This is where my one quibble resides; the Distar method teaches the typewritten lowercase "a," which looks exactly like the letter "a" right here (with the little hook at the top). Most other methods teach the manuscript one, which is just a little ball and then a little short stick alongside. I understand why they use it; it doesn't resemble any other letters when it's made like that, but it also doesn't seem to match up with most other curricula that I have seen, so it can be a tad confusing. At seven years old, my daughter uses both forms interchangeably when she writes, depending on whether she's copying it from something or just writing it by herself. It's a minor issue, but I did want to mention it.

The first lesson begins with two sounds - "mmm" and "sss". This entire book relates those letters to "sounds" rather than "letters" or "what the letters say", etc. As an interjection here, sometimes it's helpful if you haven't taught your child all the letters of the alphabet prior to beginning these lessons, because these lessons refer to letters as "sounds," which may be confusing to your child. Lessons at the beginning also have repeating games, where your child learns how to say sounds slowly and say them fast. Each lesson will usually take not more than fifteen or twenty minutes. By lesson fourteen your child will read his/her first "story" (brief, but legitimate!).

Because my daughter was fairly young, I broke the lessons down even further, doing only a half lesson a day in order not to burden her with too much too early. This seemed to work fine. We also repeated the first eight lessons several times over, because she seemed to "hit the wall" after lesson 8 the first couple of times through. Observe your child; if there seems to be an inability to grasp it or a lot of stubbornness or anger, then halt right away and deal with the other stuff first. Reading lessons should be effortless and fun, not all bound-up in tension and pressure. Some children truly are not ready to read well until age eight or nine, or even later, and unnecessary stress at an early age can ruin the experience.

The foreword states that the hundred-day program is appropriate for preschool children (3 to 5 year olds) or older children who have been in school but have not yet learned to read. They do not recommend the hundred-day program for "poor readers" who have been taught to read but who make frequent mistakes (remediation).

The only negative opinion on this book declares that this book does not use phonics but instead teaches sight-reading. This person was either smoking his socks (!) or was reviewing the wrong book, because this book is PURE phonics.

My daughter is now seven and reads well (she has always been a reluctant learner). She has completed one set of first-grade readers this past year, and now at the beginning of summer I'm starting her on another set of first-grade readers with accompanying workbooks in order to reinforce her skills and help her gain confidence before plunging on ahead. She's gradually realizing the delights of being able to read signs, packages in stores, and other words that she encounters in daily life. I am very pleased with the results of using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and have recommended it to many others.