The Reading Lesson

This is a wonderful, wonderful book to teach your child to read. I bought this book mid-January and started using it more or less straight away. Now, about 4 months later, we're on lesson 10 and my son is an impressively good reader. He turns 5 in August and will be starting school then. However, the main reason I decided to start teaching him to read is that he had taken a great interest in reading and was always trying to read words on my/his t-shirts, signs around him, titles of books, etc. I started teaching him somewhat adhoc-ly (I know that's not a word :) but decided I needed something more systematic. This book fits the bill. It's very systematic and gradually builds the child's confidence and skills. It's not rushed or too basic - just right (at least for us). I also love the design of the book - very uncluttered, large print and pictures on the page to colour. I found the pictures very useful to keep my son's interest - I use it as a sort of reward and we also tick each page once he's done with it (he loves ticking the page). Do take the time to read the instructions and understand the system before starting him off. For example, it tells you about the progress chart at the back - but if you don't read the instructions, you might miss it. We've been ticking off and dating the progress chart and my son loves that as well - seeing his progress, even if he doesn't understand the dates. To start with, I stuck with just a couple of pages per day, but now sometimes, we do 4 or more pages, depending on how easy/complicated the pages are. I try not to do much at once, but enough to make him feel like he's accomplished something. To improve his reading even further, I would suggest buying other books that you can read together and that won't feel like "work". Although he loves using this book, he sees it as his reading "work" (probably because that's what I call it). But we also use Usborne's My Very First Reading books (note: not "First Reading," but "My Very First Reading") which are great for learning to read, but not systematic like The Reading Lesson. So I use the Reading Lesson for teaching him and My VFR for practice . And he doesn't see Usborne's as "work" - just our usual reading together (I make sure not to call it "work") so it doesn't become tedious for him. If your child is ready - buy this book, I think it's great and works well for us. About the book being American - as others have mentioned, the only difference I've noticed is in the spelling of "mom" instead of "mum" and this doesn't really matter. Even if there are other words (I wasn't educated in the English system, so there might be other differences that I didn't notice), the important thing is that your child learns and enjoys to read, and these differences can (and will) easily be corrected later.

I'm British, and live in France with my French husband and 2 young children. Keen to teach my 4 year daughter to read English, I started this book last summer. She won't be taught to read English at school in France any time soon... We've worked steadily on the book, and now, nearing the end of chapter 7 of 20, I liken her in my mind to a bird who's just about to take off - running fast, flapping those wings - sort of floating between steps on the ground!!!! I love the book. I love how it works through the different sounds, and keeps it simple enough to make a child want more. My little girl loves to colour in the pictures too. I have a little boy who I intend to use the book with too, so have photocopied the pages for my girl- this works out great as when we do the lesson she puts the different sound pages ( 1st student page of each chapter ) in front of her to help her sound out the words. This may be tedious if she had to flip back in the book to find the right page when she ( inevitably) forgets some sounds. It helps her confidence to know she just has to scan the photocopied pages on the table to spot the sound - brilliantly portayed by an image. I got the book on Amazon uk, then afterwards found out on Amazon U.S. that there's a dvd with the book too. I hung the expense (!!!!!!)and ended up getting another copy to have the dvd. It is worth it, I'd say for the added interest ( she buzzes off the 'Your score is 100'!!! ) It is American English, though, and some sounds do sound different!!! Just be there to say 'Giggle Bunny's American, we say it differently'......!!!!! I also got my daughter the Fun with Phonics ( BBC ) dvd and started watching it with her from now - unit 7. She picks up lots of sounds, and I think it's a good point to introduce other sounds to come. I'm really chuffed at the progress my 4 year old is making. I push a little, and heap on the praise. It's true that at times it seems like it's not going in ,then suddenly she'll just read you a word off the page!!!! The book seems to go at a realistic pace. Some words that have been seen alot in the book are not underlined by sound, the child is expected to know them, so read them without sounding first. Personally, I let my girl do as she wishes here - she prefers to sound the word, so I let her. Sometimes she says a sound underlined word right off, so I would say don't push the child to read the word just because the book says it's been seen enough to recognise it. The child has to feel safe before taking to flight!!!! Be there as a co-pilot!! Let them call for help as they need, otherwise, once you've read them that first page of the chapter, let them flap their wings and try!!!!!!!!! It's such a heck of a skill to watch them learn. Enjoy the priveledge of being a part of it!!!!!!!!!

I bought this book recently for my 3 and a half year old son, hoping that he might get the hang of simple blending of sounds before starting Reception class in September. His birthday is late July so he will be young for his year and I didn't want him to start school playing catch-up with the older children. As a primary school teacher myself I was looking for an alternative to the big reading schemes that are often found in schools today as a) they can be very expensive and b) I think they are often too repetitive and boring! I thought it'd be nice for him to have something different at home. Having read lots of reviews I finally settled on this book. I must add at this point that my son already knew his letter sounds before starting this book, but had no other phonic skills - he couldn't blend sounds etc. So we weren't starting quite from scratch (however the book is perfectly suitable for you if you are as it works through letters and their sounds at the start of each chapter), but he could in no way shape or form "read". We have been doing just 5-10 minutes each day for the past week and he is now on chapter 4, he can read short sentences and is able to sound out and blend pretty much any 3 letter word. He is at the stage I was hoping he would be at in 6 months, after only 1 week! As his mum I am so proud to see him reading already (and he is loving it too!), but as a primary school teacher I'm astonished! I have never seen any child progress like this in their reading before, and I am not claiming that my son is einstein, I think his progress is totally down to this excellent book. I would not hesitate to use it in my professional life! I only have a couple of points that are at all negative (and they are totally outweighed by the brilliance of the book). Firstly, the typeface uses the letter 'a' in the same way that this Amazon typeface does, rather than the way that children are taught to write it. This confused my son for a couple of days but he soon accepted that it could be written either way but sounds the same. So actually, in the long run, it may actually have been a good thing to get over that little hurdle so early on in his reading career! Secondly, it is an American book so there are a few "moms" etc. We tend to just ignore these or talk about how Americans say things differently. So again, not a massive negative, just something to be aware of if Americanisms annoy you! So, if you're thinking about buying a book to teacher your child to read, or improve their reading skills, definitely buy this one! You certainly won't regret it and I have no doubt you'll be astonished at the progress your child will make. My son has 6 months before starting Reception class and at this rate I can't possibly imagine how confident he will be at reading, but I can't wait to see!

I have 4.5 year old twins and we live in Spain. My husband is Spanish, our kids were born here too, & I'm British so the kids are both bilingual. However, they don't learn to read in Spain until they are 5-6 years old so I have been looking for a book to teach them to read. This book is fantastic! I bought it based on the reviews here and took the plunge and ordered two! I am so glad I did as each child works at their own pace. I'd say we study every other day, sometimes every day, as I want them to be the ones to be keen. I have almost finished the first unit with one child and she can already read short sentences like "a cat sat", etc! I'm so proud (and excited)! The first unit teaches the letters C, O, S, A, T and they are taught in a phonetic way, initially with pictures then later without, i.e. C as in Cat, O as in Octopus, S as in Snake, A as in Alligator, T as in Turtle. It then goes on to a mix of letters on the page for the child to identify. Then it builds on the letters with various, simple exercises. It really is good and both children are keen to do more. I 'reward' each child with a sticker of their choice after each page (which the book advises) so have some handy just incase. What I like is that it's all in quite large print therefore the book is quite thick. The kids are keen to turn the page so it is ideal there is little on each page! I really am excited with this book and I think it will give my two a good grounding before they get taught to read in Spanish (and hopefully differenciate the two alphabets more easily rather than learn both at the same time). Highly recommended!

I have started working through this with my 3.5 year old, aiming for him to be reading before he starts school in September. The book is very well set out with individual lessons focusing on different letters, starting off with sounding out and identifying the different letters, then paired up, then into 3-letter words etc, and my son enjoys it and asks to go through a page or two every evening. However, the real challenge I have found is it is very difficult to get across to my son the concept of "blending" the individual sounds into a word, and I am not sure the book is as helpful as it could be in this. It guides you to sound out to your child the individual letters (c-a-t) and then say them quickly enough that it sounds very much like the real word. The problem is, however quickly you sound out c-a-t, it will never really sound like "cat" until you are able to make the conscious step of blending the sounds together, something my son has not yet grasped and I feel a bit unable to actually get the concept across. Once we have got past this I imagine the rest of the book will be easy though.

I started doing this book with one of my children about ten months ago - two, three or four pages several days per week - and now today we have finally completed this hefty tome. So three weeks after his fifth birthday he is now a fluent reader who has reached a level about one year ahead of what is expected of him at school. Teaching my son how to read through this very effective book was a good bonding experience for the two of us and has given him both a great sense of achievement and a love of reading. Although this is an American book, the only times in the whole 448 pages that I noticed this was the use of "Mom" instead of "Mum" in some early lessons and on the page with the seasons when "fall" was used instead of "autumn". Otherwise the American origins were not an issue at all. Be sure to find the page near the back of the book on which to write down the date on which your child completes each lesson. I only came across it months after we started, and regretted not keeping an accurate record from the start. We definitely slipped at times. In other words there were multiple occasions when I left too many days between reading sessions with my son, and I am sure that had I been keeping track of how long it was taking us to do each lesson, we would have completed the book months earlier. By the way, although there are 20 lessons, given young children's short spans of attention and tendency to get tired, in my experience it is wise to only do a few pages at a time, taking only five to ten minutes on each occasion. So one lesson can easily end up taking a whole week or more to complete. A little and often is best. Also at the back of the book are useful advertisements for other products by the same company. I am going to buy some of the teaching maths material now. To conclude, I heartily recommend this book. Buy it!

My daughter has always loved books, since she was a year old she would just sit and leaf through looking at the pictures. We read to her up to 15 times a day and she would still ask for more. At age three I asked her if she would like to learn to read she replied "Yes please Daddy". As a result the next day I bought this book. I tried it as soon as I received it, at first she struggled to concenrate, so I shelved it for three months and then gave it another go. I soon realised that this book was going to work, we started off doing 5 to 7 minutes every night without fail. After the first few chapters we started doing about ten minutes a night. I let her stop when she had had enough and I always ask her if she wants to do it (she has never said no!). We are now on chapter eighteen, she is four years old and in reception class. Last night I went to her first parents evening and this is what they said. " Charlotte is streets ahead of everyone else in the class, she has an amazing attention span for an August baby. We normally expect children that start young to struggle but she is a fantastic little reader, she just wants to learn. Quite often she puts her hand up and asks if it is her turn to read yet, she would read every day if we let her." This result is a combination of three things: 1. The child has to want to read (I have no doubt that some children will not want to sit and do this!) 2. Parents have to be committed. 3. This book is fantastic. Every parent that wants to help their child to progress at reading and has a child that is keen to learn should buy this book, but remember the book alone will not teach your child to read.

It’s a good book and it will definitely help children learn as a lot of the stuff in here is used in school & speech therapy however my complaint is that this is £20 and looks like it’s been used. I had a red pencil mark on the front page and has been scratched/scuffed all over so I’d say this is preowned which means this is way too expensive for a damaged scuffed up book. I would return this but it does look really useful

Well recommended. I teach my celebral palsy child using this book.

A versão impressa é em preto e branco e muito pouco atraente para crianças. As atividades são muito repetitivas. O livro é muito grosso e dificulta o uso para crianças pequenas. Estou tendo dificuldade de usar. Seria melhor uma versão digital que possa ser impressa folha por folha.

Mi hijo tiene solo tres años pero mostraba muchísimo interés por aprender el nombre de las letras y jugaba con los fonemas de manera "autodidacta" por lo que lo compré para ver si le apetecía empezar a leer, y efectivamente página a página, cada día va siemdo capaz de leer. Él está muy orgulloso de sus progresos y yo de acompañarle en su proceso :)

I used this book to teach my 5yo son to read, it helped him a lot. The book is well done, very progressive. The method has worked well with my son who is now (a year later) a passionate reader who can read full story book with passion!

I have 100 easy lesson and alpha phonic book but my son dint read in those books when I introduced this book he started reading 3:letter word but not fast,, I hope he will pick up