Question from a Reader – Reading

I received a question from Amber recently.  She wants to know what resources are available for teaching her children how to read.  I thought I’d write about what I’ve used or heard about, then open it up to you.

With our first daughter, we started out using Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL) from Common Sense Press.  We bought the program used, so it was fairly inexpensive.  You can get most of the books to go along with it through the library.  You can view sample lessons at the Common Sense Press  website.  At that time LLATL used the Bob Books for beginning reading.

Although I liked LLATL, I decided to switch to ABeka after the first year of homeschooling.  So, our second daughter learned to read using ABeka’s reading program.  They publish their own readers that coordinate with their worksheet books.  This worked well for her.

With both of our girls, after they learned how to sound out simple words, reading just seemed to click and they could suddenly read about anything.  So, it was quite an adjustment for us when these methods didn’t work as well with our son.  As we went along with the ABeka program, he could sound out the words that he had to, but it just never clicked for him like it did the girls.

So, we started looking for new approaches.  We decided to try ClickN’ READ Phonics. It appealed to his space interests and seemed more like a game to him than school work.  You can read more about our experience with it here.

I have also heard of several people who have used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons successfully. We also used Starfall’s free learn to read program as a supplement to our other resources.

What programs have you used?