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Edited--I've referred to the wrong book below! I'm using The Reading Lesson, not 100 EZ lessons. Don't know what I was thinking-just had the wrong title stuck in my head!!

...painful and tear-filled lessons? Let me just say there seems to be nothing "easy" about this lately!! I really think my 6 yo son can read this stuff better than he is, he just refuses to try. When he sees a letter anywhere in a word, he just makes up a word that starts with that letter. He looks at the tallest letter in the word, or the letter at the end of the word and tries to put that sound at the beginning. He cries when I say it's not right. We're taking well over 30 mins. a day (sometimes closer to an hour) to get through 2 pages of his book. If I tried to set the timer for 10 or 15 mins, I don't think we'd get through the first 3 words on the page! By the time we're done, we're both ready to cry! I was given a different reading program for free, and thought I'd try to back up to the concepts he's having trouble with, and try teaching them with a different approach and then dive back into our 100 Easy Lesson book. It went worse than normal. He hated it-it was too easy, too boring, the narrator's voice (it was on the computer) was annoying... (I agreed with all of these!) He ended the day by saying that he NEVER wants to learn to read. Any suggestions?? Math is seeming to go about the same rate lately! Is it just a discipline issue? Seems worse after Christmas Break-will it just take a few more days to settle back into our school routine?

Have you thought about The Reading lesson, the other phonics program suggested by Carrie? We are doing well with that one.


Christina

We HATED 100 Easy Lessons!

I'm not saying you have to use an HOD recommended reading program, but 100 Easy Lessons did NOT work for us.

We have also used The Phonics Museum, McRuffy Phonics, K12 Phonics...you name it. I like "An Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading" by Peace Hill press.

For What It's Worth

I've successfully used 100 easy lessons.
The first time I had tears, tears, tears, I bribed her with rewards and set timer etc. and bludgeoned my way though lessons 50-78. Then some how it got better. Strangely the beginning and the end she actually enjoyed.

As I look back on those days I realize it was not the method or program that would have changed anything. I didn't know at the time that my first daughter had the short term memory of a 3 year old till she was 9... (its improving with therapy) shear determination and perseverance though the tears, is what got her reading. The Special Ed teacher In school was always amazed at how well she read for her learning disabilities.

Now my second Child I also had a few days of tears, she did not understand how word blended... you see in chinese if you put the character for boy and the character for girl together you get the character for good. Which sounds entirely different from boy or girl. Sound blending mystified her. But thank goodness I figured out what the issue was pretty quickly. 6 Dick and Jane stories later and when we tried lesson 3 again she had the ahah moment and she learned the basics of reading. D&J is sight reading like Chinese characters so it made sense to her. Then when Easy Lessons decoded the words for her it clicked.

For me now if the child is at the point of tears in school, to me its a huge flag that Something else is going on.
It's not that they hate school but rather I need to pinpoint the issue. For our family there are 3 of them.
Culture if I eliminate this one I move on to:
Neurological if I eliminate this one I move on to:
The Heart. if I eliminate this one I move on to:
Prayer... cause I have no clue!

It is quiet possible he is not yet ready to read, or something else is going on, like the letters are dancing or he can't hold them in his head.
You will figure it out eventually.

I also wanted to add that setting the timer and only doing 15 of each lesson maybe the speed he needs to go at. So he only get 3 words.. if he's crying though the lesson he's not learning... take it from me.. he's not... and your just setting yourself up for pain.
When he knows it will end in 15 minutes he may have a change of heart.

The picking the tallest and last letter would have me making an appointment for an eye exam asap. DD1 needed glasses and that really helped her focus. Do the ol walk in his shoes bit... if he can't focus on the page and the letters are blurry or jumping cause his brain is switching eyes (strabismus) he won't be able to do math or reading. Asking him to will just frustrate him and you.

We have used 100 Easy Lessons successfully too. For my ds he flew through the first 40 lessons begging to do 2-3 lessons a day. For my dd she is doing about 1/2 lesson a day. We try to make it more "fun" by using different voices to read (soft, low, accents) and relate the words and sounds to other things we know or sentences about ourselves/our family. And of course, the picture at the end of the story we keep hidden until after they read it. We treat it as a big surprise. Cheesy, I know, but it worked for them.

I do know the program is definitely not for everyone and there are so many great ways to learn to read. I'd read reviews of other programs and maybe give another one a try. Are you a part of a co-op or homeschool group? Maybe you could borrow a few to look over/try?

I agree with the pp about getting his eyes examined if you haven't already done so...that may make a HUGE difference. I know it has for my oldest 2 dc - they both wear glasses.

mom23,

I'm so sorry that you're having struggles with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ Lessons! The ladies have already given you some wonderful advice of things to try. With HOD, you are welcome to use a different phonics program than those that we carry and recommend, however I'll just mention that on the HOD Board we try to keep the discussion to products that we carry at HOD as those are the ones that we can help our customers use better. If you wish to discuss either The Reading Lesson or Reading Made Easy, we'd be glad to help you further.

Blessings,
Carrie

I'm sorry! Carrie (everyone!), the book that I'm using is The Reading Lesson! How embarassing-I don't even know the right title!!! I guess I remember in researching this book that the two methods were similar.

Carrie, I've stuck with all of you're suggestions so far and found them to be very appropriate! Sorry to seem to be pushing another curriculum .

Thanks so much for all of the feedback and helpful suggestions!

Wow, I could have written your post. My ds (6yr) seems to be having lots of tears with The Reading Lesson too. I have tried going super slow, backing up a lesson or two, playing games with the words, ect. Finally after pulling teeth to do a page or two a day for a year and a half and lots of tears I have backed up all the way to lesson 3 and that is what we have been doing this week. Today he smiled at me and said "Mommy, reading isn't frustrating anymore". Maybe its a break through, maybe its just because it is super easy, I don't know but that is the plan for now. I am just going to try and go through the book again and hopefully he will be able to gain confidence again and not dread reading for the rest of his life. I have thought about switching programs but honestly I think no matter what we use he would have a hard time because he just wasn't ready at the beginning and needs to go back and review before he learns anymore new things. I think he was becoming overwhelmed with all the different sounds vowels make and trying to use the right sound for each word.
I also purchased The Complete Book of Phonics to help review. It starts with the very basics, ie. letter phonemic awareness (listening for beginning, middle, and ending sounds), which I am noticeing is helping ds to look at all the letters in the word and not just guess after looking at one. It also gives my ds something to do independantly, since he likes to do things on his own.

Hang in there! My oldest son zipped through The Reading Lesson at age 6. My youngest son is working slowly through it. We are on Lesson 12 after one year, at a rate of one lesson per month. Everyday, we review previous lessons too. He'll choose a "story" from one of the previous lessons and I'll choose a "key lesson" page or another page I feel he needs practice with. We spend about 10 minutes per day. Sometimes we only get one (or less) new page completed, but I have had to learn to relax and be ok with that.

Hi there! I am so sorry that you are having a tough time. My older daughter struggled with The Reading Lesson also. I realized that while she knew the letter names, she wasn't remembering the letter sounds. I stopped The Reading Lesson and got the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory DVDs to help her with the sounds. I also started her on Queen's Homeschool Language Lessons for Little Ones vol 1 for reinforcement. Once she started to really grasp all the sounds, we started back on The Reading Lesson. She has done so well with it since then! It was like something clicked. She loves The Reading Lesson now and should be done in a couple months! Yay! I don't know if it was all the things we tried or just a timing thing. All kids start reading at different times. I think she may not have been ready when we first started. We just take it slow. I do agree that maybe his eyes need to be checked.

Good luck and hang in there.

mom23,

Thanks so much for clearing that up! That makes more sense. One thing that the previous poster mentioned, which is so important, is that kiddos truly need to have their sounds down pat prior to beginning with The Reading Lesson. We typically do this through LHTH, but if your little guy is struggling so much with the lessons, I'm thinking he just needs some review of his sounds for awhile. The Leapfrog DVD Letter Factory is a great one for this. If you did LHTH, then the letter flashcards are another great way to review. Do both daily for awhile for reading and that is it! This could go on for a month.

Next, when you are sure he has his 26 alphabet sounds down, set your timer for 10 min. for your reading lesson, telling your son that as long as he works hard, then at the end of 10 min. you are done. Add 1 minute if he is having a bad attitude. Don't let your lesson exceed 15 min. even if you add time for lack of hard work. Even if you truly get through 3 words... that is enough for the day. Take heart that it won't always be this way. Another thing to do would be as I suggested in the last entry in this post: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6790

This can really help with the word lists so that they do not seem overwhelming. Instead of having him read out of The Reading Lesson book, have him do his words the way I described above on the markerboard one sound at a time. This will give him a new approach, without seeing "the book" as the thing he must read from but still allow you to progress through a bit of the lesson each day.


Here's another tip from my3son's on doing words on the markerboard too:
When my ds was struggling, I spent more time modeling than he did reading. Then, he just had to repeat after me for awhile. That worked well and took the pressure off him at first. One other thing that helped was to write the word he was sounding out in black on a markerboard. If the word was "mat", I'd write the letter "m" in black quite large and I'd say the sound for it, then I'd write the "a" and say the sound for that, and then I'd write the "t' and say the sound for that. Then, I'd put a black line under it all and say it blended, "mat". Then, he'd do it that way with me writing as he did it. Another trick is to pronounce the first sound the loudest. One more idea that worked for our dc was to use a rubberband to stretch as we were saying each sound and then snap it back when we blended it.

Last, if you do not have The Reading Lesson CD, it is important to get it. This makes a huge difference in how successful the lessons are in the book and is a terrific pre- or post-lesson.

As far as math goes, the lessons should last about 15 min. Make sure you sit with your child for the whole time and help as much as needed to help him get done. All of the concepts in math will be new and won't be needing mastery right now. Think of this as an introduction where you partner with him to help him understand. Make sure you are doing the corresponding hands-on lessons in the LHFHG guide too as they really make a difference. Set the timer if needed so your lesson goes no longer than 20 min. at the most. Then, put it away and pick it back up the next day. Keeping the lessons short and sweet and partnering with him to give him any needed help will go a long way toward his overall impression of math and reading too! The lessons for a little one should never exceed that amount of time or their little attitudes will reflect it.

Hope this helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

Sounds like us too...its so frustrating! I know my ds CAN do the work, but he seems to be having a harder time now. It so hard because I really want him to learn to love to read and enjoy books, but at this rate, I don't know. We too are coming off a 3 week break and I am sure it will get better as we settle back into routine.

What lesson are you on?

mommadonna wrote:What lesson are you on?

We've just finished lesson 13 this week. It seemed like he flew through the first 7 lessons or so, and then since then our frustrations have begun. It was like he just hit a big brick wall-it really seemed like he just suddenly quit trying, but I know he's easily frustrated, and he tends to give up if something isn't right the first time...I think that's just where it ceased to be review (he had phonics in ps K) and started to be more of a challenge to him.

Carrie, thanks so much for your helpful suggestions-I can't wait to try some of them out this coming week! I think he's got good grasp of his sounds, but maybe we'll spend the first day or two this week reviewing that, just to make sure! We did not do LHTH, as this is our first year homeschooling. We don't have the Reading Lesson CD-guess I should check into it! Anyway, you've given me lots of good ideas and approaches to try-thanks!

Actually, for his math, we're following the plans in Beyond-I had started the year with him in Beyond with his older sister, and then realized a couple of months ago that he just wasn't getting everything out of it that I wanted for him to. So--I backed him up into LHFHG and that's going sooo much better for us! He's really enjoying his history, storytimes, poetry, etc. much more . For math, I'd started him out in 1A, since he'd done K math at public school last year. It was a challenge, so we've been taking it very slowly-my goal is just to get through this one workbook this year, and then look at 1B and maybe 2A next year. The activities are a huge help to us-whenever I've gotten lax about using them, we begin to struggle much more . Do I still need to sit with him through workbook time at this level? I feel like as long as I'm sitting there he's depending too much on me to re-explain the concept at every problem, or give hints, and I really want him to try to do the work! He's definitely more frustrated when I leave him alone to do it...like I said earlier he's very quick to want to quit trying.

mom23,

Thanks so much for popping back in to share your thoughts. I think you have a good plan in first taking a day or two (or as many as needed) to make sure he has all of his letter sounds down. Next, I'd move on to the markerboard approach, as it is likely he's getting bogged down in the word lists. It will be good to set the timer too and keep the lessons very short and sweet.

If you get a chance to order the Reading Lesson CD that is also a huge help. We don't sell the CD separately, but on your Reading Lesson book in the back there should be a link to their website where you can order the CD separately. We only sell the CD with the book right now.

As far as math goes, I'm wondering if it may be a good idea to back up to Earlybird K Math book 2B, or even 2A if he hasn't had a strong introduction to math, and do it along with the schedule and activities in LHFHG? If you're having to go so slowly then the math is likely over his head right now, and the levels definitely get much more challenging as you go up, so now is the time to get the foundational skills down. It would be better to have it be a bit too easy rather than so very difficult. I would still keep math to 15 min., and I would encourage you to stay with him during math time. I still go over the lessons with my 6th grader and stay nearby to make sure he's on the right track, and he is very mathy. It's just good to keep me in the loop and keep him encouraged (which is something I didn't do in math with my oldest that I really regret)! Math is one area where it is good to always be there to give any help as needed.

Blessings,
Carrie