The Reading Lesson Vs. Reading Made Easy for Phonics?

[Voice of Truth]

Preferences on one over the other? I will be teaching two 5 year olds and a 6 year old to read this year. On The Reading Lesson website, I found a lot of info on how and why they teach phonics and reading the way they do. I couldn't find any similar info on Reading Made Easy. Are there major differences between the two curriculums? Is there anyone that could compare the two for me to help me choose? Would I need to order extra books for The Reading Lesson? I guess I could just make copies. Although, I am always one that prefers to pay for the extra book over paying 20 cents a page to make copies at our local library. I'm gonna be a busy Momma of 7 under the age of 7 so the easier the better when it comes to that. It appears that I would have the option of purchasing extra workbooks or a separate printable workbook CD for Reading Made Easy. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions Just wondering if there are any major differences in teaching philosophy or quality of curriculum.

Thanks So Much! Everyone on here has been so helpful and welcoming! Can't wait to get started!

Candice

[my3sons]

Hi Candice! I think they are both excellent, but here is a good thread that may help you choose...

Carrie compares The Reading Lesson and Reading Made Easy
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2503

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

[Kathleen]

Candice,

I've used The Reading Lesson, and can say that it is open and go!! It would be so easy to let your little readers go at their own pace with it, too. If you get a pack of those post-it tabs from WalMart or Target or an office supply store, you can give each child one of the three colors and keep track of their place. When Allison went through it, we typically did 2-4 pages per day once we got going. As I've been using it with Garret, we do a page per day. So far, that's working for us.

There are very few pages that would need to be copied from the book. Maybe 1 or 2 per "lesson"? So that would be 1 page in every 20 or so. And even those could be done just having the child sit next to you and do the work by pointing instead of drawing lines. They're usually pages where there is a list of words that the child connects to the right picture.

Kathleen

[Motherjoy]

I chose TRL because it seemed so much easier to implement. I taught my oldest with a blend of Phonics Pathways and 100EZ, so I had a good background in phonics, which is helpful with TRL, but not necessary. TRL has been wonderful for my three middle guys (7,5,4). They all made great strides in reading this year and they love TRL.

[mamanlait]

Another vote for The Reading Lesson. We really enjoyed the book at our house (colored it and all). I had dd read 1-2 pages a day and then review 1-2 pages a day (I love using sticky tabs! ). This was really our only major keepsake for the year so I didn't mind the consumable aspect of the book.
Amy

[netpea]

One of the suggestions in TRL was to let your child put a sticker on each page they read as a "reward". I let my son put his in the upper outside corner of each page and my daughter put hers in the lower outside corner. My third child will put hers in the middle of the outside edge. Since you have more children who will be using it, if you want to go that route the easy answer for you would be to simply use different colored star stickers for each child and just put them straight down the outside edge. You don't have to do it but my children loved seeing the stickers marking the pages they had mastered.

Also TRL has printables on their website to track the kids progress. We used the one that showed the twenty lesson numbers and we put a sticker on each lesson they finished. They loved tracking their progress.

[skwmackey]

We have been using Reading Made Easy this past year. I have never used The Reading Lesson, so I can't compare. Overall, we have been pleased with the program. It has been a really good fit for our second son who is slowly blossoming into a reader. I almost want to try The Reading Lesson with our third son just to see the difference.

[bethelmommy]

I have not used Reading Made Easy, but I am VERY pleased with The Reading Lesson. I chose it because the pages are neat and uncluttered, which is important for my oldest two. I also appreciate how open and go it is. My 5 yr. old is on Lesson 5 and does 1-2 new pages a day. My 3 yr. old just started Lesson 4 and does one page a day. The lessons are short and both dc enjoy them.

[christina101902]

I have been using TRL with my daughter . We are currently on lesson 7, I love it. We began with reading 2 pages then reviewing 2 pages daily. Now we just keep moving ahead with 2-3 pages per day. Its amazing how much she is reading now.

[holyhart]

hI used RME with my dd8 (5-6) at the time and it worked fine. However when trying to use it with my ds5, it didn't seem to work as well. TRL is a much better fit for him. All in all I like TRL a little better.

RME
*Each lesson is 1-2 pages.
*Each lesson has a script for the parent to read which can be helpful if the thought of teaching phonics is overwhelming.
*Some teacher prep is required. Most lessons have index cards that need to be made (flash card type thing.) Sometimes I liked this, other times I didn't, depended on how much time I had. With more kiddos now and teaching more than one guide, I'm sure I would like it less!).
*Easy coding of letters for child to decode.
*Fun projects from time to time for children, like, making a sight word worm and sight word bingo (I'll still be doing those even though I'm not using this guide currently, but maybe instead of doing a worm I will do cars or trains or some other thing my little guy likes).
*Pages are cluttered (biggest reason my little guy has such a hard time I think). Three types of script per page; 1 for parent instruction, 1 for parent script, and the last for child to read/decode. Also, the pictures included destracted both my dd and ds from the text (not sure why the pics in TRL don't have the same effect???)
*A little longer time wise than TRL, less "open and go".

TRL
*Very "open and go". No teacher prep. Litterally open book, start lesson.
*Each "lesson" is about 20 pages. Lots of review with in each lesson.
*Fun pages to do with in book. I just print out the pages as needed on our home printer. As Kathleen previously said, there are only 1-2 pages per lesson, so it's not that much.
*Easy coding of letters for child to decode. Perhaps even easier than in RME.
*Simple, clean pages. One text per page. No teacher script. Simple pictures.
*As lessons pregress, the text starts to become smaller preparing child for real books with smaller print. Child feels sense of "growth" when seeing the text change.
*Pages on-line to record progress as well as some free goodies.

I hope this helps some!