100 Easy Lessons /Reading Made Easy

BrandieinTN · Post by **BrandieinTN** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:24 pm

We uses 100 Easy Lessons with my oldest. It worked fairly well. We tried with my almost 5yr old and she was not interested past the first lesson or two. It may be her age, but she is not as wiggly as my oldest dd was. I was wondering what makes Reading Made Easy different from 100 Easy Lessons. Is it worth using instead of 100 Easy lessons?

silly · Post by **silly** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:30 pm

I just posted a new thread about 100 easy lessons! Not asking the same, but it was kinda funny to see this

BrandieinTN · Post by **BrandieinTN** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:31 pm

I know I just saw it.

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:55 pm

I don't know, but I thought I'd jump in and say none of my boys liked 100 easy lessons, either.
so, that's probably not helpful. I'll go now.

blessedmomof4 · Post by **blessedmomof4** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:18 pm

I've heard they are kind of similar, but Reading Made Easy has more writing in it? I used 100 Easy Lessons with my oldest girl and it was great, but it was not a fit for the next 2 at all. I've never used Reading Made Easy.
I have never done The Reading Lesson either, but have looked at it, and I wish I had known about it for my middle daughter, because I think it would have been perfect for her. Very different from 100 Easy Lessons.
Hey, there are sample lessons here:

http://www.readingmadeeasy.net/ReadingMadeEasy.aspx

and here:
http://www.readinglesson.com/

That may help more than my comments

Post by **Carrie** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:26 pm

Brandie,

Here's a couple of links to some past threads about Reading Made Easy and The Reading Lesson that may help some:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=123

You may want to use the search feature at the top of the board and type in "Reading Made Easy" to see other posts, if you're not getting enough feedback. The boards are slower on the weekends!

Blessings,
Carrie

susie in ms · Post by **susie in ms** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:40 pm

I have looked at these samples a few times. And I read the post that were linked here. I am taking this quote from a post made my inHistiming:
"The use of different shades of gray or dotted letters, circles for special sounds, all of those things were wonderful tools for teaching her to read."
Can someone tell me a bit about these dotted letters, ect. I have never heard of this before. Also is GRAY necessary. I am not happy about my feelings here (I feel weird), but gray does not set well with me. It literally makes me feel sick to my stomach. Go figure!

Oh one more question: Are the teacher's note AND the text for the student to read in the same book as it appears on the sample lessons of Reading Made Easy?

momof4 · Post by **momof4** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:09 pm

Brandie,
I started the post that Carrie pointed you to earlier. We started 100 Easy Lessons because ds was begging me to learn to read and they had this one at the library so I thought I'd give it a try. He did not get the say it fast at all and he looked at me funny with the rhyming pieces. He did start to sound out the words and was getting pieces of it. We had to give it back because someone else requested it. Not sure if we were able to give a full blown try.

After talking to my dh we decided to purchase Reading Made Easy. There are similarities, but it hasn't introduced rhyming or saying it fast. My ds likes the gray letters for the short vowels and black,bold letters for the long vowels. I wrote a word on the white board all in black for fun one day and he pronounced it wrong. When I corrected him, he said it wasn't in gray. I understand they phase these out later in the book, but we aren't too far, yet. I believe the dotted lines are for silent letters. We aren't doing much of the handwriting, yet. He did write his first sentence, though. We like it alot better than 100 Easy Lessons, but every child is different.

Both parent and child read out of the same book. I do cover part of the page while we are doing it (especially pictures - too distracting for him). He likes that we cuddle up on the couch or floor to do reading. It has been fun for both of us.

We were about to get into 'ch' sounds and I didn't think he was ready for this concept, yet, so we are taking a break and just working on past lessons. He just turned 5yo and we'll start Little Hearts this Fall. We will probably do alittle this summer - not much though.

I'm so new at this, so I don't know if I said anything you didn't already know, but I HTH some.

Laurie

susie in ms · Post by **susie in ms** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:16 pm

Thanks for that explanation Laurie! That helps me a lot!
Susie ~

inHistiming · Post by **inHistiming** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:36 am

I just want to add that by the time we got to the end of the book my daughter said that the gray lettering/dotted lettering "gets in my way." This is when I felt she was ready to move to reading easy books, and she's done great. I had been concerned that she would need those special colorings permanently...I'm so glad she was able to make the transition.

So, if you're feeling uncomfortable about trying it, I'm sure you can find other programs that would work great. However, I wanted to encourage you that she didn't become'hooked' on their methods. Make sense?

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:34 pm

Not to add to your stress, but have you evaluated Phonics Pathway for your family? Author Dolores Hiskes? We have used that for two boys now.