"I just started using Progressive Phonics with my five year-old who had missed the cut-off for kindergarten this year by a few days. Your materials are fun, visually engaging, and pass the all-important "giggle test." My child enjoys your materials and it is not a chore to sit down with him to work on reading. I have tried numerous Level One Readers. Unfortunately, the ones that have extensive repetition are usually boring and don't keep my son's interest. On the other end, the ones that have more interesting text often do not have enough repetition and quickly lead to frustration. Your books provide an intelligent third alternative -- the child reads the repetitive cluster of phonetically-related words while the parent reads the more complex story text. Using this format, the child builds his reading skills and self-confidence while still having fun, engaging text to keep the child's interest. Perhaps most important, your materials require a synchronized interaction of parent and child. I truly feel a bond with my child when using your materials.
"I am also using phonics games to help with my child's reading. While these exercises keep his interest since he is playing a game, their glaring deficiency is that they do not include the all-important sight words and they do not put phonics in the context of actual reading. With these games, there is no opportunity for the child to start looking for contextual clues to come up with those words that can't be derived phonetically. Your materials provide a comprehensive common-sense approach to reading: they give the child a thorough grounding in phonics, they provide the child ample exposure to all of the key sight words, and they give the child practice in looking for contextual clues, both with pictures and surrounding text.
"In short, you did it right! Your books start out at a very elementary level with lots of repetition and proceed in small, incremental steps. The progression of learning is neither too fast nor too slow --- it's just right. Your books have lots of fun rhymes and silly stories. You somehow managed to combine the ease and repetition of the BOB book series with the fun and silliness of Dr. Suess. You created a very special product that is both educational and fun. In the time I've been using your materials, I have seen the progression in his reading skills and in his attitude in learning to read. My son is well on his way toward reading with giggles and smiles instead of stress and tears.
"Thanks again.
Peter Kaye"
"I found your website and must admit, I was not impressed at first. The books seemed repetitive and the graphics (thank you for saving ink) were not exciting. However, I'm 45, not 5, and my daughter loves them. She read 5 pages of the first book and would not stop until we finished. Now she wants to take them with her everywhere to show others that she can read. It has boosted her confidence tremendously. Thank you for your program." V.H.
"My daughter is almost 4.5 yrs. old and is zooming through your series. She is currently in preschool. Her teacher has an extensive knowledge in the phonics teaching technique. However, I realized that I need to supplement that teaching by working with my daughter at home since she only goes to school 3 days a week.
"I was confused as to how I was going to teach my daughter to read. I tried Dr. Seuss, but she was only memorizing the words instead of reading them. Flash cards were too boring for her. I also lack a knowledge of a teaching system.
"Luckily, I found your link in a school's web site. I downloaded your books. My daughter started with the first book on Feb 12, and in a month's time, is now reading your seventh book.
"She enjoyed the time we spent reading together before bed. She sometimes plays with the manuals and speed reads through all the red words.
"Your word repetition, rhyming, and illustrations make it fun and memorable. Because the books are progressive, it was easy for her to retain the knowledge of how vowels, etc. work. The range from easy repetition to almost whole sentences is a great way of getting her to read with greater complexity. It's kind of like holding on to the rear end of the bicycle while she pedals and then letting go.
"I'm looking forward to your next book. Thank you for creating these books. These books are a great way for parents to teach their children reading without seeming to put them through another school day. It emphasizes the importance of reading with your children." T.K.
"This mail also serves to inform you that my child has had endless problems trying to grasp the concept of reading, it is normally a very unhappy time when he is instructed to read, however now that I have introduced your books to him, he is the one that suggests that we read. Astonishingly, he even suggests that we continue to read even the next book in your series. Thank you so very much for your help, your books are truly a God-sent help. You have alleviated so much of stress from my life. I truly thought that there was something wrong with him, I even went to the extent of sending him to an occupational therapist, because I thought he had a learning disability. I have discovered that there is absolutely nothing wrong with him, he just needed to learn and grasp the basics of phonics to be able to read. Thank you once again for your help. C.D. the Happy and proud mother of Kayolin who can finally read, thanks to Progressive Phonics."
Dear Progressive, After trying numerous phonics programs with little success, my son thoroughly enjoyed your first book last night. What a relief to have him interested and willing to sound things out. I just wanted to tell you what was so important to him and couple of suggestions I had - the fact that he doesn't have to read the whole story and that the story was funny was huge for him!! I love that the words for him are larger - it makes it so easy for him to take his turn and he's willing to have me follow the words with my finger so he knows when it's his turn - I expect this will help him learn the other words in the book a bit quicker as well. We just printed the books two-pages per letter sized sheet, double-sided, and so didn't need to use a large amount of paper to get such a great, lengthy reader.
A couple suggestions (maybe you've already thought of these): Give each book a title having to do with the story so we can refer to it that way instead of the "short a book". Have stories along the way that practice all the words introduced so far (does this already happen in the
later books?)
Again, I am thrilled - I would gladly purchase this entire et, now that I have seen results and interest. Please let me know if I can offer any more input.
Sincerely,
S.M.
These books are great. They are really helping my 7 year old overcome some of his difficulty in reading. They are so much fun!! I have recently started using them with my 5 and 4 year old daughters. They love them too. They are really going to be prepared for Kindergarten and Jr. K come this fall. Thank you for this wonderful resource.
Thanks from a mother of 3 with #4 on the way !!!!
My daughter loves these books. We were going so slow with the Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching reading by Jessie Wise.
Now the stories are fun and my 6 year old is having a great time.
Thanks,
Linda
"I was looking through various sites on the internet for my son. He is 5yrs old and we were having difficulty with his reading. I found your site and downloaded all the nine free [scholarship] books. These books have helped him tremendously. He reads so well now. Your method of teaching children is excellent. Children enjoy the colorful pictures, the funny statements etc. It also helps us as parents, guiding us and showing us a good way of teaching children."
