Learn to Read Activity Book: 101 Fun Phonics Lessons to Teach Your Child to Read (Phonics Makes Readers)

For the past few months I have been searching for a decent (reasonably priced) activity book that will teach my four year old how to read, but I wasn't satisfied with any until I found this one! I find that most of the activity books out there do not follow any logical order, it's become increasingly common to just throw together a hodgepodge of sight words and vowels in one book, and make believe that the child will magically start reading without building on concepts and giving him the tools he needs to master the art of reading. Another thing that annoyed me was that a lot of activity books would start with four letter words before introducing to the child simpler words like "cat" and "hot". Like why on earth would you teach your child the words "door" "duck" "have" before teaching him simple word families like "at" "ug" "ot" and so forth before moving forward. Even three letter words like "see" "are" "you" that don't follow the normal rules of english grammar should not be taught to a child before they can master the words that do follow the rules like "cat" "log" and "pig". I felt that just bombarding my child with sight words would never work, since there is that many words he can memorize before he forgets everything. This book is the only book that actually builds on concepts and does not confuse the child by introducing myriads of sight words to memorize. This book is extremely methodical and systematic and follows a very logical order, it starts by introducing single letters, then goes on to introduce your child to word families like "at" "ot" "it" and so forth. Your child will only encounter three letter words until lesson 41 where simple sight words like "I" and "A" are first introduced. The activities are quite exciting, the letters and pictures are sharp and big so your child has no problem reading them and stringing vowels and words together. Sight words are only introduced occasionally but the bulk of the book focuses on regular three letter words that your child alone can put together after he's given the tools and taught all the vowel sounds. Four letter words which the author calls blend words like "clip" and "club" are first introduced in lesson 49!Note: this book does not teach the long vowel sounds, only the short vowel sounds. So if you're looking for long vowel sounds this book is not for you.I cannot promise that your child will learn to read from this book alone. By the time I found this book I already taught my four-year old how to recognize basic word families like "at" and "ot", so he was already familiar with these words and was able to apply these concepts, more or less, to unfamiliar word families like "ug" and "ip". Introducing word families to your child can be a very challenging task, and I wonder if my experience with this book would have been the same if I had to teach him all that from scratch (for example the author doesn't have a page about beginning and ending sounds, concepts which I taught my child way before I got this book). As for the ability of this book to keep my child's attention and focus, it's also hard to say, my child is academically inclined and would do even not-such exciting activities if it's challenging enough for him and stimulates his brain, and this is one thing he does not struggle with, so I can't say with certainty, but compared to other books we had in the past the activities in this book do not disappoint.Here are couple of pros that I summarized for you:<Clear instructions for the teacher or parent to follow<<Big and easy-to-spot letters and words<<Vivid pictures and nice graphics<<Exciting activities (although they can get boring as the book drags on)<<Structured in a very logical order by introducing word families first, then moving on to sight words (but not too much), and finally to blend words<<Uses pictograms to help the child string together sentences (I elaborate on this below)<I cannot recommend this book enough. My child is already reading much better, and this book has definitely helped him grasp vowels and word families and recognize them more easily. Please do not hesitate to buy this, you won't be disappointed! I only wish this book had been longer or that the author had written a sequel to this book to teach long vowel sounds, the book as it is now (only teaches short vowel sounds) shows my child only the tip of the iceberg, but there is so much more he needs to learn in order to be able to read all by himself. In any case, my child is absorbing a lot, and I'm very grateful for that!P.S. Now about the part that really impresses me with the pictograms to help my child finish a sentence on his own, here it is: in lesson 41 the author introduces the sight words "I" and "A". Instead of including more sight words like "see" and "car" and bombarding the child with too many sight words, the author manages to structure a sentence without the actual words by substituting them with pictograms, so in the place of "see" the author has a picture of an "eye", and in the place of "car", the author has a picture of a car. So it looks like this "I (#eye) a (#car)", now the child can string his first sentence together by interpreting the pictograms and reading out loud "I see a car", plus he has learnt two new sight words ("I" and "a"). That's what I call brilliant methodology!

This activity book has been a great addition to our at-home learning. The phonics lessons are broken down into small, manageable steps that keep my child from feeling overwhelmed. Each page has fun illustrations and interactive exercises that make practicing letters, sounds, and sight words feel like a game instead of schoolwork.It’s perfect for kids who are just starting to sound out words or need extra practice with early reading skills. The spiral binding makes it easy to use at a table or on the go.

First, the money, great value for the price, hands down.Second, I'm a special education teacher and my 7yo son has ADHD, dyslexia, and a speech-language disorder. And these skill tasks were right on his level and helped fill those gaps in. It won't fully teach every kid to read, but it's a fantastic support. It's the only reason skill tool that he ASKS for. 'Mom I'll do five pages!' It gives him so much confidence. Can't wait to get the version for kids with dyslexia next. Given all his struggles in school, he was so against doing any reading practice, but he loves this book. From an educator viewpoint, a lot of the curriculums in different schools neglect the basics, this presents them in an easy-to-follow way building on previous lessons as you go. It's not tedious or boring. The pictures and little games are simple (we never bothered with the paper clip spinners and he loves it anyway) but fun. Hope this author has more coming.

Super Duper Book! This is a progressive ,sequential learning to read book. The activities start with letters ..recognizing the letter, and then knowing the sounds of the letters, blending known letters for words,sight words. We just started the book, and so far ,my granddaughter is very interested and this book keeps her attention span. She is not quite five yet, but is very interested in learning to read before she even starts kindergarten. As a retired teacher, I am particular about books I buy, and this one was a perfect score!

This is great for beginners who are still learning their letter sounds, my son however was already past this so it was a little too easy for him but great for those introducing sounds and beginning to blend word concepts. If you want something more challlenging definitely would recommend another book.

I love this book. It’s very similar to The Good and the Beautiful but the lessons are even shorter. Makes it great for setting that core foundation in for the younger years.

The media could not be loaded. I would give this book 6 stars. It provides fun activities, develops hand writing skills, and phonics. Our child enjoys the lessons. I like the arrangement: do the reading and handwriting lesson then last, as a reward, the activity. The book guides parents in how to teach. Recommend for preschool and/or kindergarten.

Easy to use. My child enjoys the progress through the book. Great lead in to reading.