Great Program but have some suggested adds

[Pat]

I came across your program while surfacing for reading programs several months ago. I had been using Bob Books but felt there were major shortcomings in that method. Mostly, once you got past the first series, the jump/progression wasn't smooth. Anyway, we love The Reading Lesson program. My son is 4 1/2 and is on his last chapter. Watching him grasp advanced phonics concepts such as 'ea' 'ai' and 'ay' has been an amazing source of pride. The material is introduced in such a brief, user friendly fashion for both parent and child. I have already recommended it to people. Along with Dr. Suess, we've added the An I CAn Read Series of books, Scholastic Science Readers and other early reader series to his library so that he can read more. I am extremely pleased with teh program. The price is a bargain for the material - considering you can spend hundreds on programs that will not be as effective or take forever to get through. In studying a few other programs, I would suggest the following changes/additions: 1) 'oo' sound - should be presented as 2 sounds - moon & book - on intro page; 2) 'au/aw' sound - should be presented with 'a' as in ball on intro page, not as text to parent; 3) need to add 'oi/oy' , 'ie' as in pie, 'ie' as in piece. These are key letter combinations that a child will encounter and should learn as a unit. Thanks again for a wonderfiul program

[Charan Langton]

Dear Pat,

Thanks for your nice comments. All work ends up being some sort of compromise and Reading Lesson has fair share if it as well.

For example, the sound for the double Os. It has two slightly varying sounds, as in moon and book. The first one is a bit longer than the second one. We found that most young children could not tell them apart. So in our desire to keep rules to an absolute minimum, we felt that one version would be enough. Most children already know how to pronounce words such as book, moon, cook and soon with appropriate pronounciation of this double letter sound, we felt that a single rule would suffice.

I agree with your au/aw and the ie/oy sound suggestions and we might indeed included this in future editions.

I may even make sheets for these and post them on the web. Please look for these in January 2005.

Best Holiday wishes,
Charan Langton

[Dana]

I'm curious have these sheets been posted yet? And if so where can i access them? Thanks-Dana