Purchased this and the 100 easy lessons - we loved this one and our(then) 5 year old was able to complete in 6 months (he did not do well with 100 easy lessons) - he reads FAR above his age level - at almost (now)seven he is reading fourth and fifth grade levels. Our second son has taken much longer to finish the book, but at just turning five he is halfway through and can read other 1st grade readers.

There are no "frills" and the simple black and white is not distracting, which we appreciate(especially with our very easily distracted 2nd son). IF you are looking for bright colors, attention grabbers, look elsewhere. This is a VERY thorough program that covers from beginning to about the 2nd grade level. Different children will go at different paces. We were able to dive right into 2nd grade readers and other phonics/reading upon finishing "The Reading Lesson" - we primarily use rod & staff and this book was a good prep for the reading and phonics of that 1st & 2nd grade curriculum.

We did utilize the "use your finger" and blending sounds approach that the 100 easy lessons teaches and use this with both of our sons - that tactic seems to really help with any new words or difficult words -

Our first son covered 1-2 pages at a time (sometimes 3 but only when at the end of chapter) We do homeschool 6 days a week and did reading each of those six days- we never spent more than 10 minutes at a time. There were days when our older son would do 1-2 pages in the morning and 1-2 at night. Would not recommend to all children this, as it doesn't work for our other son, but some children it will work.

Our youngest is quite the opposite - some days we get through maybe half of a page!!! BUT that is OK! We don't stress and he LOVES reading, we did print off the certificates from the publishers website and he enjoys getting those. It isn't about how fast we get the program done, but rather being diligent and consistent in completing it. His learning style is very different than his brother.

My strength is math and science and weakness is english, I was concerned that I would have difficulty teaching our children to read and am thankful this book was recommended to me - it has certainly been one of the best investments we have made in our childrens schooling.

We highly recommend "The Reading Lesson" and our second pick is "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons"

This program is affordable and easy for the parent to use with a simple format and no distracting pages. I have already used it successfully with one child, and have just started it with another. You can also give your child the option of coloring the pictures on the pages if desired. This is a great choice for children easily distracted by busy pages and requires no preparation to teach the lessons. This program builds confidence early on, and you can customize the amount of time spent on each lesson to suit the needs of your child. Extra items are not necessary, although the Explode the Code series is a wonderful supplement.

I taught my daughter to read using this book alone! We started when she was 4 and asked me to teach her to read. We completed two pages per day, a few days per week. By the time she started Kindergarten at age 5, she was reading at a 2nd grade level (level 2-3 readers, reading smoothly, able to sound out new or difficult words). The book includes both phonics and some sight words. The book is perfect for young children learning to read - it has cute little illustrations and stories. We did not want a "workbook" because my daughter did not know how to write yet - I just wanted to teach reading and this did the trick. I did not need to supplement, we just checked out leveled readers from the library for practice. It did not include difficult phonics like "aught" but that was easy to teach through reading real books.

Last fall, I purchased the book and CD-rom for my 6 year old.

It was a disaster. She quickly became bored with the CD-rom games and the book. There is very, very little in the book for the child to actually complete with a pencil. Plain black and white pages with me just reading, sounding out and having my daughter repeat. By Christmas, we were only on lesson 5 and couldn't take it any longer. Every time I would pull out this book, she would start crying and eventually we couldn't even get through one page because of all the crying. Just not worth it for me. We switched to MCP Phonics last month and I now have a child that is enjoying the learning to read.