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Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

siegfried engelmann phyllis haddox elaine bruner

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With more than one million copies sold, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a remarkable step-by-step, phonics-based program that teaches your child to read in just twenty minutes a day—with love, care, and joy a parent and child can share. Now fully revised and updated with a Practice Guide for parents and an extra section with supplementary material!

“[A] magical book...I’ve seen this method work in my own home, having used it with both of my children and watched that light go on.”—John McWhorter, The New York Times

“Countless parents have told me they used this book to teach their child how to read when their child wasn’t being taught in school.” —Emily Hanford, host and lead producer of the APM podcast, Sold a How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

Is your four-year-old or even three-year-old child expressing interest in reading, constantly pretending to read, and asking questions while you are reading&★ Do you want to develop a young reader but are unsure of how to do it&★ Is your child halfway through kindergarten and unable to read simple words without memorizing or guessing&★ Do you want to teach your child to read using the most research-supported method with a long record of success&★

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is an adaptation of the most successful beginning reading program written for schools. More than 100 formal studies using the highest-quality research methods have documented the superiority of the Direct Instruction approach to phonics and other essential beginning reading skills.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a complete, sensible, easy-to-follow, step-by-step program that shows simply and clearly how to teach children to read. In 100 lessons, color-coded for clarity and ease of delivery, you can give your child the basic and more advanced skills needed to be a good reader—at about a second-grade level.

Twenty minutes a day is all your child needs to become an independent reader in 100 lessons. It’s an enjoyable way to help your child gain the vital skills of reading. Everything you need is here for you and your child to learn together. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons will bring you and your child a sense of accomplishment and confidence while giving your child the reading skills needed now for a better chance at tomorrow.

420 pages, Paperback

First published April 1,1983

This edition

Format
420 pages, Paperback
Published
June 15, 1986 by Avid Reader Press / Simon \u0026 Schuster
ISBN
9780671631987
ASIN
0671631985
Language
English

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About the author

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siegfried engelmann

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He was born November 26, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois. After graduating with class honors in philosophy from the University of Illinois in 1955, he spent time in a variety of occupations, from working in exploratory oil to being a science editor. While working as a marketing director in the early 1960s, Engelmann became interested with how children learn. This interest began with examining how much exposure was required for a young child to learn a motto or an advertising theme and what effects reinforcing presentations would have on learning rates. He began working with preschoolers, including his own children, focusing first on topics related to advertising and then on more academic content. In 1964, he left his job in advertising and became a research associate at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, working with Carl Bereiter. In 1970, he moved from the University of Illinois to the University of Oregon in Eugene, becoming a Professor in the University's College of Education.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Asheron
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I cannot imagine an easier, less frustrating, more rewarding way to teach a little one to read. It felt like our special ten minutes a day that over a few months added up to having a little reader. The way it adds one sound at a time builds confidence first, sneaking in weird exceptions towards the end when they're already convinced reading is a manageable task.
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mattx017
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book comes highly recommended, and I have no doubt a lot of people have had success with it. But I hated it. On the plus side, my son did learn to read, it is comprehensive and very easy to use. On the other...
First, as to the methodology: It teaches a special orthography to introduce different phonetics. I didn't have a problem with this, but I think it was frustrating for my son. It isn't until lesson 73 that the standardized alphabet is introduced--which means that for literally months, he thought he couldn't read because he couldn't pick up a normal book and read it. It also meant he couldn't practice during the day with normal books. We started doing two lessons a day just to get through it quicker so he could see that he had learned something. I also question the wisdom of not introducing certain phonetic rules, like the long vowel if an 'e' is at the end of the word, earlier. The child is expected to read such words in standard type several lessons before the rule is formally introduced. And so, not having learned the rule, when my son got to the standardized type, he had no idea how to figure those words out. I went off script and introduced the rule myself. I don't know how he ever would've figured it out--was he supposed to infer the rule on his own? It was terribly frustrating that he was expected to read words without knowing how to sound them out. I am also confused as to why the book didn't introduce some letter combinations at all--like 'oa' or 'ci' and 'ce'. I had to tack on a lesson at the end to introduce those.
Second, the manual itself: The editing in this book has to be the absolute worst I've ever seen. In one lesson, I found FOUR different typos (the script would refer to circled letters and none would be circled, for example). If you're going to teach a child a specialized orthography--if you're going to teach him that 's' and 'h' make a different sound when they're connected than when they're just right next to each other--well, at the very least you ought to make quite sure you are consistent. The book was rife with such mistakes--even my son pointed a couple out. I finally took to using a black pen to fix the text as we went along. There is no excuse for such sloppy editing in a reading manual of all things!
And I haven't even mentioned my minor complaints--the illustrations are poorly drawn, a few of the stories involve a hunter with a gun (thanks including unnecessary violence, book!), too many of the reading comprehension questions are yes/no questions, etc.
I will definitely not use this book with my other children.
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ITFujoshi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I am a homeschooling mama, and I have used this book for 5 years when teaching my kids to read. It’s awesome, easy, and doesn’t take all day to do! My almost 9yo is a proficient reader, and is reading far above his grade level.

Note: I used to be an elementary teacher, too! And I worked in reading recovery. Fantastic book!!! Highly recommend
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h0riz0nLine
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I have had some requests for more information about how I teach my children to read. I use this book, and I read aloud ALOT.

We start off each lesson with a picture book (child's choice) then a chapter from a chapter book (my choice). Then we read the lesson. Sometimes we stop in the middle of the lesson (depending on attention span and how well the lesson is going, etc.) We always peek ahead to see if there is a "new sound" coming up. (A very exciting development, if you can imagine.) After the lesson we read from a phonics reader. For small breaks during the lesson we often read nursery rhyme and poetry books. At the end of the lesson we read another picture book--my choice. It often has something to reinforce the lesson. Sallie gets a treat every tenth lesson. Funny how the ante rises with each child. Aerie got a book every 10th lesson, Coco got something from the dollar store. Sallie gets Polly Pockets. We pick the next prize the day the first prize is finished. Sallie usually does two lessons on the days she is close to earning a prize. I never push, and if she is reluctant, we stop the lesson read aloud and call it good. I do not use the writing portion of the book. We keep writing completely separate. (I like Handwriting Without Tears and Draw Write Now, but I use them only loosely, mostly I just let them draw and write on their own.

Sallie and I have started to incorporate some writing time into her reading lesson. She dictates a story to me, I write it, fold it, staple it and she illustrates it. We've done that a couple of times now and it has been great fun. She usually uses a couple of the words for her lesson, so I am careful to point those out. She loves to read her book to me when she is finished.

So there you have it! Luckily, my children haven't had any reading troubles (eye problems, dyslexia, ADD, etc.) So learning to read has been fairly easy and painless as well as fun for all of us!

Note:
Sallie is on lesson 57. This is a great "teach your child" to read book. But, I think it only works after hundreds of hours of reading aloud. If I was starting from scratch with a new reader, I would still recommend hundreds of hours of read aloud, but I would also look into Jessie Wise's "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading." I haven't used it, but it looks fantastic, and I have really loved her other "homeschool" aids. Just a thought.

N0te:
I have used this book to teach Aerie and Coco to read. I cheated a little and customized it (turned it into games) for Coco, but by the end of the book (along with lots of read aloud at home) the child is considered on a second grade reading level. I'm starting to use the same "games" with Sallie, like "say it fast" and "say it slow", but we won't start on the real lessons until she is 4 or so.
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Jinjun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This worked so well! Quirky stories keep the budding reader’s attention and it’s a very comprehensive phonics based approach. It’s blown my mind to see my son go from barely discerning the sound a letter would make, to reading long stories! So great! Favorite story: the eagle that looked like a fat rock and saved the little eagle from the tiger!
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-Lunicorn-
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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With the nugget “every child is unique” in mind, if you are looking for a resource to help your child learn to read, this is it! We used this as part of a homeschool curriculum for my 5 year old.
Initially I was skeptical - the Distal method was not something I was familiar with, but the book does a good job equipping teachers with what they need to know and do to be effective. Around lesson 20 (and after a lot moaning, groaning, and negotiating with said 5 year old
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Deanna_Woolfolk
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This is going to be perfect, I can already tell. I'll come back and edit my review when we get through it.

I read the intro and checked out a couple of the lessons. I love how well it's written and how helpful it is for someone to teach a little one!
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min1211
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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My mom wrapped this up as a birthday present for my third birthday as she had for my two older siblings, and later did for my two younger siblings. I learned to read with this book and was definitely ahead of the other kids in my kindergarten class by the time I started school. My mom gave it to her friends and they taught their children to read with it as well. It's a great program that makes reading simple for any child, and will teach children to become avid readers. Also, I probably wouldn't have a goodreads account without it. ;]
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