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Hello everyone! I'm new here and just about to begin kindergarten with my oldest son. We are using LHFHG and the last piece I haven't quite decided on is which Phonics program to use. I bought Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons months ago but hadn't started it yet. I have been told, however, that it may leave gaps in my ds's phonics knowledge. We did 2 sample lessons from TRL today and ds did fantastic on them. I like that the program has a cd rom too. I havent looked at RME at all yet. What are your thoughts and opinions? Should I use the 100 lessons program since I have it or is it worth it to go ahead and start with one of the other programs? Thanks so much! I am so excited to be a part if this HOD community!

Blessings Abundant,

Brandy
www.livingwaterhealthandwellness.blogspot.com

Hello and Welcome! I cannot speak to Teach your Child to read in 100 Lessons as I have never used it. I am currently using TRL with my dd and she really enjoys it. I also have a close friend who used RME with her dd and they really enjoyed that one. Soooo I guess you can't go wrong. I will say that the pages in RME are a lot busier than those in TRL so if your child is distracted by visual clutter I would suggest TRL. Hope that helps a little. Blessings.

With my older son, I used a different phonics program that is very rigorous. With my second son I started the same program (since I had it), but decided to give TRL a try and I absolutely love it. I had a copy of RME, but it looked to busy to me. Just in case you did not find this post yet, it may be a great help you in deciding. Carrie explains RME and TRL and why those are the 2 choices she put in for phonics.
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The tips from 100EZ are great, especially showing the child how to put his finger under the letter and sliding it. Also, I use 'say it fast' all the time with my kiddos. That said, I LOVE TRL! Its been great for us.

We did 100 EZ lessons last year and it was easy and my son did great with it. He is now reading fine.

We are currently doing The Reading Lesson we are on 10 of the 20. My daughter was 4.5 when we started and she never struggled. I will always use this program, so simple yet impactful.

Thank you all so much! You have been so helpful! I am leaning toward TRL and it sounds like that is a good choice! I'm so glad to be connected with so many experienced homeschool moms!

I just wanted to add I'll be checking out TRL after putting RME in my shopping cart. Thank you!

I used 100 easy lessons with my oldest, and am now doing it with my 4.5 year old. It does leave gaps, there are a lot of common phonics rules that aren't covered, but it's very solid, the lessons aren't really easy (for the child) but the coaching and stories you read help them grow in it each day. I may take it more slowly with my 4.5 year old just because she's still so young and she also gets very upset when she struggles.

I haven't seen TRL or RME so I can't really compare them. I would say that 100 easy lessons gave my DD a great foundation. After that we just read books together. I was able to help her with rules that she hadn't learned in 100 easy lessons (it seems like there are so many obscure and weird things in the English language there's no way any phonics book that only takes a year to go through could cover most of them). Now she is a very good, very solid reader and we are doing emerging readers.