I have a confession to make.  Teaching the little ones the fundamentals is not my most favorite part of homeschooling.  I used to feel VERY guilty about this…because, afterall…if I don’t enjoy laying these fundamental building blocks in my children’s education what kind of message am I sending to them?  What kind of learning experience am I providing them with?

I think it’s very important to not only teach these fundamentals to children…but I also think it’s even more important for them to discover that learning is FUN and ENJOYABLE!

We finally managed to figure this out in my house with the discovery of one very simple, yet very important program. It’s not fancy and it is not expensive. In fact, it is one basic soft-cover book…yet when I purchased Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons when Ruthie was learning how to read a couple of years ago, our reading lessons MAGICALLY went from tears and frustration to fun and MORE FUN!

The lessons are only about 20 minutes long and you even get a SCRIPT to read, moms! Yeah! It doesn’t get much easier than that! Ruthie immediately responded positively to the lessons and began making measurable progress right away. We switched to this curriculum somewhere around November-December of her 1st grade year and we stuck with it in place of the regular Reading/Language Arts lessons that are part of our 1st grade curriculum. We continued with her other first grade subjects as usual.

Anyway, Ruthie was then newly six (September birthday) so I would consider a little on the young side for first grade…but we kept at it and she was able to go on to 2nd grade the next fall and she fell right into step with our regular 2nd grade curriculum at that point.

The bottom line…Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is just what any parent who struggles with some of this fundamental teaching needs. It’s created for children ages 4-6 and we’ve tested this as well because four-year-old Abby is using it now with similar success.

Check this out…I’d love to hear other suggestions for what you loved for this age, too, if you have them!

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