This is an area in which I have had great success. I taught my son to read before he entered school, and I am currently teaching my four year old daughter to read. My son was evaluated to have a 12.9 grade reading level - a college reading level in the third grade. He loves to read more than anyone I have ever seen. Part of this is due to the love of reading constantly displayed in our home - everyone reads or gets read to every day, but I give a good deal of the credit to the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Englemann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner. This book uses what is known as the DISTAR phonics method to let parents teach their children. Research has proven that this is one of the best (most effective methods) for teaching children to read. By completion of the program, your child will be reading at the second grade level.
What is involved is 20 to 30 minutes of time spent with a parent and a child doing the lesson. Everything the parent must say and do is laid out in the lesson, even directions on how to correct the child when he/she makes mistakes. You do not have to do a lesson every day. The book says you can start some children at age three and a half. I didn't start lessons on my son until he was four because I didn't know about the book. I did start lessons with my daughter when she turned three and a half, but it just didn't go too well, so we stopped by the 14th lesson. Although she was learning the sounds associated with letters (phonics), when it came time to put the sounds together into words, she just couldn't get it.
We waited about a year and tried again, starting over on lesson 1 on June 21, 1999 (less than a month ago as I write this on July 20th). Last night, we did lesson 24. The story she read for the lesson was "A rat is in a sack. That rat is not sad." She is having no problem with the lessons and is sailing right through them every evening. It is a wonderful bonding time between us. The moral of this story is DON'T PUSH YOUR VERY YOUNG CHILDREN THROUGH THIS PROGRAM IF THEY ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY. If it is not working well when they are three and a half or four, wait a few months or a year. Eventually, they will be ready for it and the reading lessons will be a joy instead of a chore.
To see over 45 parents' rave reviews for this book at Amazon.com, click on the picture of the book below.
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