Since having kids, John and I have had many discussions about education.  He has always struggled with reading and it made school very difficult for him.  I’ve always loved to read and do it every chance I get.  As a new mom, finding time to read wasn’t easy, but Maggie still saw me many times reading my book.  That love for reading has grown in her and she will ask me to play books with her many times throughout the day.  She is 2 1/2 and now “reads” her books to me as she either remembers or imagines them.  I find such great joy in her stories, and know that I will get years of listening to her read.

When I had a chance to review Children Learning Reading, I knew I had to check it out. Children Learning reading is a simple, effective program based on synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness that teaches children to read in a logical and sequential order.  Rather than teaching children words by sight, they are actually learning what the letter sounds are and how to form words with them.  This program isn’t just designed for children, but can be used by adults as well.  Even children as young as 2 years old can learn to read using Children Learning Reading.

I started off by reading through {most} of the information.  I will admit, I did skim some of it, but actually read most of it.  Then, during nap one day, I made up some flash cards for the first few letters and the words to go along with it.

Finding the right time{s} of day to work on our reading lessons is important.  We have found that right after she wakes up from nap works best for us.    We have tried working on it during other parts of the day, but it seems the time that is most effective for us is right after nap.  She still wants to snuggle, so she focuses on whatever we are doing.

10-15 minutes a day isn’t much at all.  Especially broken down into smaller blocks a few times a day.  We work at each lesson for as long as she wants, and some days, that is well over the 15 minutes a day.  Since we read about a gazillion books a day, I have been working on drawing out words with the sounds that we are working on.  Sometimes she will copy me, and other times, she tells me to just read the words already.  Ha.  Funny girl.

Children Learning Reading was started by Jim and Elena, parents to 3 good readers.  They had originally started teaching their oldest with another reading program, but quickly discovered that it was not teaching their kids to read, and so began looking for a better solution.  They valued education and having quality reading skills was very important to them.  Through extensive research, testing, and trial and error using their own children, they were able to develop a reading program that showed clear results.  Now, they want to share that program with you!

I love that not only is Maggie learning the letter sound, but she is also learning letter recognition.  She is starting to look at words written here or there around the house or in books, on signs, anywhere, and every now and then, she can recognize A or B.  It has allowed us to get some extra one on one time and it generally involves a lot of snuggles.  I love being able to encourage her when she recognizes a letter and makes the right sound. I think I get as excited when she succeeds as she does sometimes.

Making learning fun is important to us.  Maggie likes to carry her flash cards around and practice on her own, or climb up on daddy’s lap to practice some more.  Thanks to Children Learning Reading, I get to see my daughter already succeed at something I really enjoy – reading!  I can’t wait to get to the section of this system where we get to read nursery rhymes or other books that go along with it.  Maggie and I are both enjoying our time spent together as she, being the little peanut that she is, learns to read all by herself!  In no time at all, Charlie and I will be working on it as well.

Children Learning Reading is going to give one of you lucky readers a chance to win this material to help your child learn to read too.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.