brilliant - Rated 
i bought this to teach my 3 and a half yr old daughter to read and i am amazed by her progress with it. we have to make it fun and turn it into a game and by doing that it keeps her keen and engaged. sitting down and doing a lesson too formally with her just didn't work, so by breaking up the lesson and swinging her round or throwing her on the sofa when she did a good word, she finds it fun and wants to do it. we also used sticker charts and she got a prize for every ten lessons. There is a writing section in each lesson but we just skipped them completely as she just doesn't have the motor skills yet.
my daughter starts school in 2 months and i'm confident she'll be a competent reader by then.
Buy it!!!
Not engaging enough for some maybe especially younger boys - Rated 
I bought this book as I have bright twin boys who were showing an interest in words and reading. I began the book when they were 3.5 as instructed by the author. We went through about the first 20 lessons. It was hard going and although I have no doubts that the method is carefully planned and would work if the child is engaged with the format. My boys found it too boring and we gave up. I have had much better success with the online teaching of clicknkids.
Excellent book - Rated
After reading all the reviews I thought I'd give this book a go. It didn't disappoint. My son finished his reception year still not being able to read a word so I felt it was time I had a go at teaching him myself. 5 months on and we're coming to the end of the book and my son, soon to be 6 can read so well it's amazing. It's also helped with his speech because he's had to learn the sounds the letters make and he was determined to get it right. You have to be quite dedicated and we try to do it every day doesn't always happen but we try. It's not always been easy, lack of enthusiasm, time and energy but we've stuck at it. The book is brilliant in it's approach and really, really does work, I can't stress that enough. I am a rubbish teacher but because the book tells you exactly what to say it's made the whole process so much easier. My son loves the fact he can read a story to me from the book. I'm so glad I bought this book.
Good book but some gaps - Rated 
I bought this book based on the Amazon recommendations to teach my 3year 10 month old daughter to read. She was keen to learn to read but I was unsure how to teach her and I liked the sound of the very structured approach used in this book.
We are now up to lesson 58 and she is very enthusiastic about the daily lessons, and I enjoy spending the time with her. She can read Green Eggs and Ham on her own and is able to read a surprising number of words from my oldest daughters Oxford Learning Tree school books (she is in Year 1). It really is amazing how quickly she is progressing.
The only problems I have with the book are that a few sounds are not explained properly. eg "ar" is given a lot of attention but "ow" and "or" are introduced with absolutely no explanation. Having said that although these ommisions are perplexing we have managed to work thing out.
Apart from these slight problems this is an excellent book.
Excellent. - Rated
In Lesson 1 my son learnt to read the letters m and s. In lesson 100 he read a story of about 200 words, here are a few sentences from that story to give you an idea of the progress made: "The tiger came over and licked the old man on the nose. The old man said, "You can not do that. Tigers do not lick. They bite.""
This book is excellent however it is demanding. On the cover it says that the lessons take 20 minutes a day and at first that's true but later on they can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour. Progress is rapid but quite often you will have to repeat a day so the child feels comfortable, including these days and unavoidable missed days it has taken me and my son about 5 months.
The book is very good at teaching a committed and enthusiastic adult how to teach a committed and enthusiastic child to read, if your child isn't eager or if your child isn't happy to sit and concentrate then it might be too soon to try this book. It has been frustrating and challenging for both of us but also rewarding and very successful.
I chose this book because each lesson provides the adult with a script, you are told what to say, when to say it, where to point, when to point, everything. I am a poor teacher and found this method worked very well.
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