Teach Your Child toread in 100 Easy Lessons

Read this review of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to learn everything you need to know before trying this curriculum!

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What is Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons?

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann is a book designed to help parents teach their kids how to read. The book is divided into 100 sequential lessons. Each lesson includes a script so parents know exactly what to say to their kids, and words and stories for kids to practice reading. The lessons get more difficult as the book progresses. The lessons take kids from learning the sounds of individual letters to reading multiple page stories. The book is based on the Distar method of teaching reading.

What is the Distar method?

Distar, which stands for Direct Instruction System for Teaching and Remediation, is a system of teaching developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Becker based on their research in Illinois preschools in the 1960s. In direct instruction, teachers follow a very specific script for each lesson. Because the teacher doesn't have to worry about what they will say, or what they should do next in the lesson, they are free to concentrate on interacting with their student. In addition, the lessons can be studied and the scripts perfected with research to make them as effective as possible. DISTAR lessons move at a slow pace and include lots of review.

What is Distar Orthography?

The book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons uses a special set of characters to write the words that kids will be reading. These characters are an orthography, or a set of conventions for spelling or writing language. In the Distar Orthography, additional letters are added so that each letter only has one sound.

Each vowel has 2 different letters. When a vowel is written with a line on top of the letter, kids read the long vowel sound. The letter written without the line makes the short vowel sound.
Some extra joined letters are added for blended sounds. Ch, oo, qu, sh, th, and wh are all written with the 2 letters connected to show that those two letters work as a team to make only one sound.
Silent letters are written smaller than the other letters in the word.

Why Use Distar Orthography?

When kids are first learning to read, this alternate Distar orthography can be really helpful to make a confusing language like English make more sense. This is the main reason that the book uses Distar orthography- to help kids understand the sounds that letters make. However, it can be tricky for kids to read other books at first, as they become used to seeing the Distar orthography. As the book progresses, the lessons slowly transition to using standard letters to replace the Distar orthography in the text.

What kind of experience do I need?

The great thing about using a book like Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons that follows the Distar Direct Instruction method is that you don't need any teaching experience or specialized knowledge in teaching reading to teach your child using this resource. Because the lessons are organized in the book with a script for each one, you will just open the book to the next lesson and read the script to your child. No lesson planning or prep work is required. This makes the book a great starting point for families that are new to homeschooling.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Review

How is Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons Organized?

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons starts out with an introduction section that is written to the parent who will be teaching the lessons. The introduction explains how the book works and stresses the importance of following the script exactly. Because the script has been scientifically tested, the author argues that lessons will be most effective when taught exactly as presented. The introduction also explains the characters used in the Distar Orthography and includes a helpful chart for pronouncing all the letter sounds correctly.

The main portion of the book is divided into 100 lessons. The lessons are designed to be taught one per day over the course of several months. Each lesson includes both the script and the passages for kids to practice reading, together on the same pages. The book ends with a list of ideas for what kids could do now that they have completed the book. It also includes a suggested book list of next reading books.

How Long Does it Take?

The book suggests that while most lessons can be completed in 12-15 minutes, it is best to plan for 20 minutes just in case. In our experience, the early lessons in the book didn't even take that long. However, by the middle to the end of the book each lesson had a huge list of tasks and some took 45 minutes or more to finish. It worked best for us to split these lessons up into 2 or even sometimes 3 different sessions. At the end of the book, reading really "clicked" for my son, and we were able to skip parts of the lessons and concentrate mostly on reading the stories. This made the lessons go faster again.

It took us about 4 months to complete this book. During that time we were working on the lessons for about 15-20 minutes per day most days.

What age do you start teaching a child to read?

I purchased this book shortly before my son turned 4, because I wanted to learn more about how to teach reading and start exploring strategies. We started using the book shortly after my son's 4^th birthday, and finished it when he was about 4 ½. This book can be used for any child from preschool through elementary school that is learning to read.

I tried this book briefly with my son a few months before we really started using it. He was easily frustrated and did not want to sit still during the lessons. I put the book away for a few months. I found that when we tried again, he was much more willing to pay attention to the lessons. If your child is struggling with the lessons on a consistent basis, it may help to put the book away for a few months and try again when they are older.

My son is definitely on the young side of the range of ages for this book. I have seen stories of this book being used successfully by kids as young as 3, and as old as 3^rd grade. However, the older your child is, the more likely they will be to have success without getting frustrated. If you are in doubt about whether your child is ready, it would be a good idea to wait a bit to use the book if you can.

How are the lessons formatted?

The lessons each include a variety of different "tasks" or activities for the child to do. Common tasks for kids in the early lessons include practicing the sound for a new letter, repeating sounds they hear, sounding out words slowly, and reading by saying the words fast. By lesson 50, kids are practicing sounds and sounding out words, using rhyming patterns to read words quickly, practicing sight words, and reading short stories written using Distar Orthography. In lesson 100, kids read a 200+ word short story that is written using standard letters. The lessons also include practice writing letters, copying words, writing from dictation, and making up stories about pictures.

Another thing that is unique about Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is the way that words are sounded out. The book teaches kids to use their finger to follow along under the words that they are reading. The book includes dots under each letter that makes a sound, and an arrow under each word. Kids will move their finger along the arrow, from dot to dot, saying a letter sound at each dot. The book stresses that it is important to connect the letter sounds together when saying the words slowly. This is a way for kids to begin to be able to sound out words on their own.

How do I Use Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons?

One of the best things about this book is how easy it is to use. When it is time to practice reading, all you need to do is open the book to the next lesson and begin reading the script to your child. The words that you say to your child are written in red for clarity. The book also includes directions for things you should do, such as point to specific letters, in parentheses. The book even includes information about common mistakes kids may make, and what to say to correct them if you notice those problems.

I did find that it helped to look ahead at the next day's lesson as I was finishing the lesson each day with my son. I took about 30 seconds before putting the book away to make sure that I knew how to pronounce any new sounds that would be introduced in the next lesson. There is a helpful table at the beginning of the book that includes the correct pronunciation of each sound. This was especially useful since I'm long removed from learning any phonics myself. In the later lessons, the stories were often illustrated with a picture. The book suggested covering the picture until after the child reads the story. Each day I would take a minute to cover the next day's picture with a sticky note as well.

The author of the book provides supplementary videos and materials to help you use this book as well.

Our Experience Using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

I started using this book with my son shortly after he turned 4. I had purchased it several months earlier and tried it briefly. Unfortunately, it was obvious pretty quickly that he was not interested in the lessons and was struggling with them. When he turned 4 we tried again. This time, the lessons were much easier for him and his attention span was longer which helped as well.

Early lessons

At first, we found that the lessons were very easy. We were able to do multiple lessons per day and still come in under the 15-minute mark. Our biggest struggle at first was that I was trying to follow the script for the lessons exactly as it was presented. This meant that each lesson included a LOT of review. My son started to get bored with the lessons because there was so much repetition included. I found that the lessons went better once I Was willing to be more flexible with the lesson plans. If I felt that my son really understood a concept, I learned that I could skip some of the repetition with no consequences. (This is not what the introduction of the book says, by the way!) I found that my son was more patient with the lessons when I followed his cues.

We decided early on not to do any of the writing activities that accompanied each lesson. I really wanted to focus on reading, and I wanted to spend all our reading time practicing reading only. I also already had a handwriting curriculum that I loved and wanted to stick with. In addition, the handwriting lessons were teaching kids how to write lowercase letters. This was not a skill I was ready to introduce.

Middle lessons

As the lessons got more advanced, the book added more and more tasks to each lesson. By the middle of the book, some of the lessons included 10 or more tasks each. I realized that for us, this was too much for one lesson. Because my son was younger, his attention span was shorter and these longer lessons were just too much for him.

We started splitting the lessons into 2 parts and completing one lesson over the course of 2 days. This helped me to feel like we had plenty of time to get all the tasks done without rushing. When I was less stressed, I was able to be more patient with my son.

I quickly learned that trying to push a lesson past the end of his attention span was not productive. Those last few minutes were never when the good learning got done. Instead, they were almost always when one or both of us would get frustrated. For me, my relationship with my son, and the fact that I wanted him to enjoy reading, was much more important than getting the whole day's lesson done in one day.

Later lessons

At some point towards the end of the book, reading began to "click" for my son. He discovered that he could read other books, not just Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We have books available at child-level in several different rooms in our house all the time, and my son started to choose reading as an activity on a regular basis. Because he was doing so much practicing outside of our formal reading lessons, the lessons in the book started to get very easy for him again. By the time we reached the end of the book, we were just reading the stories and skipping all the extra practice activities- because he didn't need them! He could read!

How Will I Know if this Program is Working?

One of the biggest signs that the program is working is that lessons are mostly fun to do, and not a huge struggle. Because the book includes so much review, the lessons should never seem hard to your child. If your child is struggling with the lessons or really resisting doing them, it might be a sign that they are too young or something else is going on. If possible, it might help to put the book away for several months and try again. During that time, you can focus on making sure your child knows the sounds of all the letters. This is a great way to prepare them for success with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

What Should We Do After Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons?

The book claims that after completing all 100 lessons, kids will be reading "on a solid second grade level." The end of the book includes a suggested reading list of a few books that kids who have finished the 100 lessons might enjoy reading. We found that after spending so much time reading out of a reading curriculum, it was fun to find some "real" books that my son could read. He was so excited to see his skills from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Days transfer to stories that he knew! We were able to take advantage of our library's easy reader section to find a variety of books that were appropriate for his reading level. We also celebrated by taking him to the library to get a library card of his own!

One Year Later

At the time of writing this review, it has been about a year since we finished the last lessons in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. My son has continued to progress in reading, mostly on his own. I have been very intentional to make sure that he has access to books that are at an appropriate reading level for him. However, we have not needed to spend time drilling phonics or sight words since finishing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

After a lot of research, I chose Learning Language Arts Through Literature as our curriculum this year. We are using both the blue book for 1^st grade and the red book for 2^nd grade. We are focusing mostly on grammar and vocabulary but enjoying the readers as well. I found that my son is WAY beyond grade level in reading and phonics skill, but has no experience in the other areas of language arts. Because of this, we are taking this year to practice some of those other areas.

Pros and Cons of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Pros of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

It is easy to use.
No advance planning or prep work is required. Simply open the book to the next lesson and you are ready to begin.
No knowledge or experience teaching reading is required. Just follow along in the book and read the script to your child.
The book includes simple stories with silly illustrations that are fun and motivating to new readers.
The lesson scripts are scientifically tested to be effective.
The book is very well organized. New concepts are presented sequentially, and lots of review is included.
The Distar orthography helps simplify English so each letter only makes one sound, which makes reading easier to learn.
The book is inexpensive, especially compared to the cost of other learn to read phonics systems.

Cons of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

The lessons can be boring or dry for some students.
The lessons and illustrations are black and white. There is no color in the book. (Except for the script, which is written in red)
Because the lessons are scripted, it is easy to become more focused on following the script than following your child and meeting their unique needs.
It takes commitment to stick with this curriculum through all 100 lessons. Kids can get frustrated if they are too young or if they get bored by the large amount of review.
The content of a few of the lessons might not be appropriate for some families. We skipped a story about a hunter who wanted to shoot animals with a gun. There were also a few places where I needed to re-word some sections that seemed to motivate kids through shame.
Kids who are still in the early lessons of the book can only read with Distar orthography and not regular letters.

Try Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for Yourself

Have you used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons in your homeschool? You can learn more about the book and purchase a copy for yourself here. If you have used this resource, please share your thoughts in the comments!

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Source: https://homeschooling4him.com/review-teach-your-child-to-read-in-100-easy-lessons/