With more than one million copies sold, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a remarkable step-by-step, phonics-based program that teaches your child to read in just twenty minutes a day—with love, care, and joy a parent and child can share. Now fully revised and updated with a Practice Guide for parents and an extra section with supplementary material!

“[A] magical book...I’ve seen this method work in my own home, having used it with both of my children and watched that light go on.” —John McWhorter, The New York Times

“Countless parents have told me they used this book to teach their child how to read when their child wasn’t being taught in school.” —Emily Hanford, host and lead producer of the APM podcast, Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

Is your four-year-old or even three-year-old child expressing interest in reading, constantly pretending to read, and asking questions while you are reading? Do you want to develop a young reader but are unsure of how to do it? Is your child halfway through kindergarten and unable to read simple words without memorizing or guessing? Do you want to teach your child to read using the most research-supported method with a long record of success?

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is an adaptation of the most successful beginning reading program written for schools. More than 100 formal studies using the highest-quality research methods have documented the superiority of the Direct Instruction approach to phonics and other essential beginning reading skills.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a complete, sensible, easy-to-follow, step-by-step program that shows simply and clearly how to teach children to read. In 100 lessons, color-coded for clarity and ease of delivery, you can give your child the basic and more advanced skills needed to be a good reader—at about a second-grade level.

Twenty minutes a day is all your child needs to become an independent reader in 100 lessons. It’s an enjoyable way to help your child gain the vital skills of reading. Everything you need is here for you and your child to learn together. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons will bring you and your child a sense of accomplishment and confidence while giving your child the reading skills needed now for a better chance at tomorrow.

Training videos and additional supplementary material are available for free at StartReading.com.

Excerpt

Chapter 1

LESSON 1

TASK 1 SOUNDS INTRODUCTION

1. (Point to m)I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold two seconds.) mmmmmm. (Release point.)

2. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.)Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is mmmmmm. (Repeat step 2.)

3. (Touch first ball.)Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm." (Repeat three more times.)

4. (Point to s.)I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) ssssss. (Release point.)

5. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.)Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is ssssss. (Repeat step 5.)

6. (Touch first ball.)Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss." (Repeat three more times.)

TASK 2 SAY IT FAST

1. Let's play say-it-fast. My turn: motor (pause) boat. (Pause.) Say it fast. motorboat.

2. Your turn. Wait until I tell you to say it fast. motor (pause) boat. (Pause.) Say it fast. "motorboat." (Repeat step 2 until firm.)

(To correct child saying word slowly -- for example, "motor [pause] boat":) You didn't say it fast. Here's saying it fast: motorboat. Say that. "motorboat." Now let's do that part again. (Repeat step 2.)

3. New word. Listen: ice (pause) cream. (Pause.) Say it fast. "icecream."

4. New word. Listen: sis (pause) ter. (Pause.) Say it fast. "sister."

5. New word. Listen: ham (pause) burger. (Pause.) Say it fast. "hamburger."

6. New word. Listen: mmmeee. (Pause.)Say it fast. "me."

7. New word. Listen: iiifff. (Pause.)Say it fast. "if."

8. (Repeat any words child had trouble with.)

TASK 3 SAY THE SOUNDS

1. I'm going to say some words slowly, without stopping. Then you'll say them with me.

2. First I'll say am slowly. Listen: aaammm. Now I'll say me slowly. Listen: mmmeee. Now I'll say in slowly. Listen: iiinnn. Now I'll say she slowly. Listen: shshsheee.

3. Now it's your turn to say the words slowly with me. Take a deep breath and we'Il say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm."

(To correct if child stops between sounds -- for example, "aaa [pause] mmm":) Don't stop. Listen. (Don't pause between sounds a and m as you say aaammm.) Take a deep breath and we'll say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm." (Repeat until child responds with you.)

4. Now we'll say iiinnn. Get ready. "iiinnn." Now we'll say ooonnn. Get ready. "ooonnn."

5. Your turn to say words slowly by yourself. Say aaammm. Get ready. "aaammm." Say iiifff. Get ready. "iiifff." Say mmmeee. Get ready. "mmmeee." Good saying the words slowly.

TASK 4 SOUNDS REVIEW

1. Let's do the sounds again. See if you remember them. (Touch first ball for m,) Get ready. (Quickly move to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

2. (Touch first ball for s.) Get ready. (Quickly move to second ball. Hold.) "ssssss."

TASK 5 SAY IT FAST

1. Let's play say-it-fast again. Listen: motor (pause) cycle. Say it fast. "motorcycle."

2. mmmeee. (Pause.) Say it fast. "me." iiifff. (Pause.) Say it fast. "if." shshsheee. (Pause.) Say it fast. "she."

TASK 6 SOUNDS WRITING

(Note: Refer to each symbol by its sound, not by its letter name. Make horizontal rules on paper or a chalkboard about two inches apart. Separate writing spaces by spaces about one inch apart. Optionally, divide writing spaces in half with a dotted line:-----.)

1. See chart on page 24 for steps in writing m and s.) You're going to write the sounds that I write. You're going to write a sound on each line. I'll show you how to make each sound. Then you'll write each sound. Here's the first sound you're going to write.

2. Here's how you make mmm. Watch. (Make m at the beginning of first line. Start with a vertical line:

Then add the humps:

(Point to m.) What sound? "mmm." First you're going to trace the mmm that I made. Then you're going to make more of them on the line.

3. (Help child trace sound two or three times. Child is then to make three to five m's on top line. Help child if necessary. For each acceptable letter child makes, say:) Good writing mmm.

4. Here's how to make sss. Watch. (Make s at beginning of second line. Point to s.) What sound? "sss."

5. First you're going to trace the sss that I made. Then you're going to make more of them on the line. (Help child trace sound two or three times. Child is then to make three to five s's on second line. Help child if necessary. For each acceptable letter child makes, say:) Good writing sss.

LESSON 2

TASK 1 SOUNDS REVIEW

1. (Point to m.) I'm going to touch under this sound and say the sound. (Touch first ball of arrow. Move quickly to second ball. Hold two seconds.) mmmmmm. (Release point.)

2. Your turn to say the sound when I touch under it. (Touch first ball.) Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm."

(To correct child saying a wrong sound or not responding:) The sound is mmmmmm. (Repeat step 2.)

3. (Touch first ball.) Again. Get ready. (Move quickly to second ball. Hold.) "mmmmmm." (Repeat three more times.)

Copyright © 1983 by Siegfried Engelmann

About The Authors

Phyllis Haddox

Phyllis Haddox coauthored Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and other Direct Instruction programs with Siegfried Engelmann. She has been a classroom teacher, reading specialist, University of Oregon supervisor and independent trainer/mentor, video producer, and instructional design consultant for the Mayo Clinic and author Barbara Sher. Visit StartReading.com for her free videos and supplementary material for Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Elaine Bruner

Elaine C. Bruner coauthored the original Direct Instruction beginning reading programs with Siegfried Engelmann, pioneered training teachers in Direct Instruction methods, and has worked at the University of Illinois on computer applications of Direct Instruction.

Siegfried Engelmann

Siegfried Engelmann was a professor of education at the University of Oregon, and wrote numerous bestselling books on teaching, including Give Your Child a Superior Mind and Your Child Can Succeed. He was the originator of the Direct Instruction approach, proven as the most effective method for teaching, and he developed more than 100 Direct Instruction programs. Visit his website at ZigSite.com.

Product Details

Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (June 15, 1986)
Length: 420 pages
ISBN13: 9780671631987

Raves and Reviews

“School boards should be pressured as much as possible to teach reading via the Direct Instruction method of phonics. And if they won’t, there’s what I call the magical book: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, by Englemann with Phyllis Haddox and Elaine Bruner. I’ve seen this method work in my own home, having used it with both of my children and watched that light go on.” —John McWhorter, The New York Times

"With its short lessons, intuitive alphabet, clear lessons and hands-on learning component, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons can be an easy, compact and affordable way for parents to get children reading quickly." —Anne Miller, The Smarter Learning Guide

"Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is incredible. I owe this book, author and method a huge thank you—my daughter can read now, and more importantly, reads for fun. Plus, it's an interesting way to teach phonics I hadn't seen before." —David Weller, The Barefoot TEFL Teacher

“While working within a university-school partnership, I trained, supervised, and guided my teacher candidates as they implemented Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with the lowest performing first grade readers at a large urban elementary school. Semester after semester, I witnessed children who were considered 'nonreaders' or poor readers advance to reading with joy and confidence and candidates who became skilled and proud of their newfound craft.” —Dr. Susan Syverud, Ph.D

"I have spent years of my life being passionate about literacy and reading... In college I took a path that led me to keep teaching younger and younger children, trying to figure out why they were not prepared until I began directing childcare centers in 2015. I keep hearing/finding the same things. Children are not being taught to read! And parent/teachers have no idea this is happening until about 2nd or 3rd grade. The main reading curriculum is not scientifically researched or backed! Being an educator in this work, I recognize all the care, thought and research it takes to create a resource like this that is so easy for children and facilitators to understand and teach!” —Brittany Lemons, Family and Community Engagement Specialist–Birth to Five Illinois

"Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons has been endorsed by the National Right to Read Foundation as an exemplary instructional program for teaching children to read...The program is academically sound--the results speak for themselves. The continued problem of illiteracy is an enormous one, but [this book has] made a very significant contribution to solving one of American’s greatest needs.” —Robert W. Sweet, Co-founder and Former President, National Right to Read Foundation