The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

There are many positive things I could say about this book, such as, it was simple, straight forward, uncluttered and effective. The BEST thing I think I can say, though, is that it took my child from a non-reader to reading on a third grade level in just one year. IT WORKS!

There are so many things out there to aid in teaching reading. I have bought many of them. But this is the best approach I have seen yet. I love how simple the lessons are. My child is excited to do each lesson. I have homeschooled for 9 years and am teaching my third child to read. I love this book....

I've only used this book for a week--gotten through just the vowels--and so far I love it. Each lesson is short, but includes plenty of repetition to help you child hear and remember the letters sounds. And the use of poems and other techniques are working--after just 5 days, my son is confident about the short vowel sounds. The lessons are completely scripted, giving the instructor the exact words to say, along with instructions about things to show or write down for your child and suggested responses from the child. We tried the 100 Lessons book for teaching reading and found it confusing and a little awkward. This one is super straight-forward and easy to follow.

I (homeschooling mom) was very skeptical when I first received the book: No pictures! Then we (my 6-year old twins and I) started. And we loved it! We are half way through the book, and both kids read fluently. In their free time they pick up other books or anything else readable that they can find. The (231) daily lessons are very well structured, take about 10-15 minutes each, and provide excellent in-text directions for the teacher, so there is no preparation time. And I learned that because there are no pictures, the focus is on decoding the letters and applying the phonics rules without any distraction. Optional activities/games are fun to choose from. I recommend getting the pre-printed index cards that go along with the lessons and games (directly from Peace Hill Press, about $5.00). The book ends with "Reading a Really Long and Silly Word": supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Imagine your new reader to read that properly without problems, and YOU helped them to get there.

This book not only begins with a straightforward, easy-to-understand method, but it keeps going where most expensive reading programs leave off. It wholly maintains phonetics and encourages the student to sound through longer words without any integration of the whole language approach. The result is children who can read more difficult passages fluently at a very young age thus giving them literary freedom.