At some point before beginning Kindergarten, I have gone through at least the first 20 lessons of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons with each of my kids. Well, with my second, I didn't get that far. I got maybe 10 lessons in with him and then we moved to K. Halfway through K he was having a terrible time getting the hang of blending! I tried all sorts of things and what ultimately worked was when I decided to take a month off everything else and go back to TYCTRin100EZL. Bingo! After that he was blending like a champ and I made sure with subsequent kiddos to get to at least lesson 20 before moving on.
When you first get ahold of the book, you're going to see it has a HUGE intro section. I skimmed it and got the gist of it, did a week-ish with kiddo, then went back and went over it again. I really think this was the way to go because the first time it didn't have a lot of meaning, having not tried and seen the lessons in action. After trying it for a week, I knew exactly what they were talking about and it was easier to process.
The age range on when I've used this book has been from 3 years old at earliest to almost 8 years old at latest. It's good to use with a child before they've been taught any of the letter sounds, though teaching them the letter names before beginning this book has not, in my experience, hindered the lessons any. What you want to look for when deciding if your child is ready is simple: are they noticing letters. Do they care that letters make sounds which make up words. Do they ask you when they will be taught to read, or beg for reading lessons, or pretend to read their picture books to you? That's when they are ready.
Ready to READ at least. Writing comes later. Why? Because the bones in the hand of a child under the age of 7 are just not fully developed. They need to spend this time playing with sand and mud and play-doh and coloring in their scribbley baby way. They need activities which develop hand strength without demanding a level of perfection of them. So when I use TYCTRin100EZL with a child under the age of 7, I don't make them do the writing activities in the book. We skip that part. UNLESS the young child is asking to do it, in which case I encourage them to do 1 line and not be too hard on themselves if it doesn't look like my example.
When beginning TYCTRin100EZL, I predictably do lesson 1 on the first day. It should take about 3-5 minutes. If they don't ask to do it the next day, I skip a day, aiming for a M-W-F schedule. If they remember and remind me then I go for it. We repeat the first lesson the second day. If the child understands the lesson and answers correctly with confidence, then that's the last time we will do that lesson. However if the child is still not confident or has trouble with any part of the lesson, we will repeat lesson 1 again. And again. And again, no more than 1 time each day. Once the child has mastered lesson 1, we will move to lesson 2, and will repeat it daily until the child has mastered it. And so on, with each lesson, the child will do it 3 times a week (unless they request more), with no writing (unless they request it) for under-7, and repeat the same lesson until it is mastered before moving on.
Goals:
-Mastery.
-Attention-span-appropriate: do not push for lessons that go on for more than 1 minute per year of age, unless your child is handling it with enthusiasm. (And even then keep it short: less is more!)
-Keeping the light of learning-love in the child's eyes! Do not burn them out or push them into it before they're ready, even if they're not ready until they're 8* years old!
Continue until the child has passed lesson 20 and is ready to begin Kindergarten. In my home, completing the first 20+ lessons of TYCTRin100EZL is a prerequisite to beginning Kindergarten. With some, I have begun it years before beginning K, and with some I have begun it a month before beginning K. The important thing is that the child wants it and enjoys it. This shows they are ready for it. Do not attempt to make your under-7* year old child into a forced-genius by making them do schoolwork when they do not want to do it, are not interested, feel burdened by it, struggle, or it takes hours. More than 30 minutes of structured learning is not developmentally appropriate for a child under 5. One of the perks of homeschooling is that education can be tailored to your child rather than trying to cram your child into a generic educational outline.
*I do realize that required/compulsory school age in some states is under the age of 7 or 8. I'm not advising you to break the law. I do believe the laws in some places are not developmentally appropriate. IOW, don't take something being law to mean it's automatically developmentally appropriate just because the law says so. Like I wouldn't let my kids watch a lot of PG13 movies: just because the law deems them appropriate for 13 year olds doesn't mean that all of them actually are appropriate nor are any one of them appropriate for every 13 year old. Just because your child is "supposed to" begin school at a certain age doesn't mean your child won't do better starting earlier or later. You will have to carefully peruse the local laws and see what you can adjust in the interest of both following the law and making your curriculum choices as suited to your child's readiness as possible.
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