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I never gave learning to read much thought, but it turns out that there are many books and approaches to learning to read. Some are evidence-based and quite successful while others stir up quite the controversy for making matters worse. After my wife bought it on the recommendation of a cousin, I prepared myself by reading through the preliminary texts and learned about how the methodology of the book worked. It focuses on breaking down the complex task of reading into small lessons that start out very basic and slowly progress with new techniques that actually have the child starting to read quite early on in the process.

This book covers everything. There’s a word-by-word script of what to say for each part of each lesson. It smoothly transitions the child from simple sounds to simple words to sentences to paragraphs. It introduces sounds in very deliberate and intentional sequence.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by by Siegfried Engelmann (Author), Phyllis Haddox (Author), Elaine Bruner (Author)

In full transparency, I did not complete this book for either of my kids. I began this with my son and got through nearly half of the book before stopping and trying another one. It was a mixed bag. At first it was incredible. I loved getting to sit down with him, just father-son time, and work on it together. We’d created a sticker tracker of lessons, celebrate wins, work through frustrations, and highlight how things that were challenging just two days before were now easy. In all honesty, it was this feeling that really opened my eyes to just how doable homeschooling might be, given the resources.

It did, however, fall apart. Whether I pushed to start him at too young an age (3-4), or pushed too hard, we ended up reaching pockets of resistance with him. I did learn to come to sense when his frustrations would rise and begin to ease off, but ultimately we put it down and didn’t come back to it.

So why recommend it here? Because less than half the book was actually all that was needed. From there we found other books and ways to further practice reading together. To me, the book served two purposes:

• Explain the mechanics of sounds and reading
• Show me the joy of teaching and give me the confidence to do it

Similarly, with my daughter, she began on the book also when she was three, and also did not finish it. But yet again, she took the mechanics that she needed and got off to a great start to begin reading smaller books and learn by practice.