Reading Made Easy?

[twoxcell]

I'm starting Little Hearts with my dd on Monday, and I decided to go ahead and give Reading Made Easy a try with her. I have Phonics Pathways, and it worked for my ds, but my dd hates it. I just got Reading Made Easy yesterday, and after looking through it I'm really excited about using it. It really looks great, and more her style. She even looked through it and said it was good, which is funny because she rejected Phonics Pathways and 100 EZ lessons after the first glance.Is anyone else using this right now, and any advice?

[inHistiming]

We are. I used this with dd and now with ds 7. We've really enjoyed going through it...ds loves to put together the word worm, and he is getting progressively quicker now that we're on lesson 70. I would say just go with the program...it is thorough, and really works. The recommended number of days is three a week, and that is enough. Enjoy it!

[twoxcell]

Cool that is good to here. So you only do the phonics three days a week? What do you do on the other two days if anything for phonics?

[inHistiming]

I don't know how old your dd is but since my ds is 7 and I feel he is 'older' learning to read, my actual goal is to do RME every day. Our average is probably 3 days a week. It is recommended to do 3 days a week and that is enough if you get through it doing 3 days every week. We have had quite a lot going on over the past couple of years (I began this with him the fall after he turned 5 ) so it is taking us FOREVER to get through. Now that we have been doing it regularly he has really made excellent progress. On the 'off' days I don't do a whole lot...sometimes we review the words from the word worm and sometimes he'll read a book to me. He has begun reading books on his own too and that has helped tremendously. I believe the book recommends reviewing previous lessons on the two days you don't do a new lesson. HTH We really have enjoyed the program, just haven't been real regular with it until this summer.

[twoxcell]

My dd is 4 will be 5 Oct. 31st, so no real rush here. She is very ready to learn. She knows her basic letter sounds, and is sounding out cvc words quite well. I think I will start from the beginning for a review and to get used to the books style.

[holyhart]

My dd enjoyed RME (well most days....we had some days of tears and frustration, but I think that can happen with any program). I'll be using it this year with my ds as well. When we started with my dd, we did the 3 days a week of a new lesson and the other 2 days were a review of the lesson before. It worked really well for us that way and is how I plan to go through it with my ds as well. Once we progressed through most of RME, we did start going through it a bit faster. Depended on how much new material was covered and if she "got" it right away or not. We also started out doing all the index cards and such that she reccomended and eventually didn't seem to need those either. Although the word worm was quite fun and cute!

[Marcee]

I will be using this for my first grade son. One thing I've learned about reading is that PS pushes it too quick. The average age for boys to pick up reading is age 9! Girls usually read earlier. But if your kids don't pick it up right away-put it aside. There is NO reason to push your kids into reading. In fact the later they read the more quickly the excel. Pushing your kids will not help them develop a love of reading, it may do the opposite. They will eventually learn to read! I highly recommend Ruth Beechicks books,especially the Three R's.

[inHistiming]

Marcee is right...at least for me this has been true. We had to wait, just because of all the things that were going on in our lives, until ds was almost 7 to start working regularly on his reading. We had done some here and there but it was pretty dfficult and took a really long time to get through a lesson. Once we picked back up this summer...on a regular basis, he excelled. He could probably just skip the rest and be fine, but I am going to finish anyway just to make sure he doesn't miss anything. He is already reading easy 'chapter' books on his own, and can actually read much harder books (his brother's Lego manual) just without the ease of comprehension. Anyway, just chiming in here to agree that if you find it is a struggle and you're having tears, it is okay to set a program aside for a while and come back to it....your dc will probably be more ready then.

[twoxcell]

No pushing here dd loves doing school and has been asking to learn to read for a year now. I tried to introduce some learning to read last year, but she was reluctant. She has known all her letters and sounds since she was two, so like I said she can read cvc words, and blends really well. My dd is very stubborn, so no amount of pushing would make her read anyways. My ds is 7, and I started him on Phonics when he was 5, and he hated the program we were using. When he was 6 it all really seemed to click, and he reads excellent now. We are going to start today, and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice ladies !