My daughter does know how to read now, and clearly this book is backed by tons of research and experts, but it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. It does the job of teaching, but it doesn’t teach the rules behind learning- for example, like when a vowel is short or long. I also didn’t like the stories. There were many times where my daughter asked me, “Why is someone always mad or sad?” I didn’t even realize that until she pointed it out. Many of the stories include a character being made fun of, and the resolution is not one that I would teach my children. The illustrations are mostly in black and white. Reading should be exciting, and stories should capture the imagination even when it’s for educational purposes. We were so happy to be done with it at the end!

So, it does what it sets out to do, but next time I’ll just use a curriculum.

I’m amazed with how well this works!
My granddaughter is reading everything she sees-
Labels, signs etc sounding out as she goes

Far less painful than the traditional curriculum I used for her mother years ago

These lessons worked incredibly well. I started this with my daughter when she was five and a half, and I was happily surprised by how quickly she was picking up on things. She was reading small words and short sentences much sooner than I anticipated, and by the end, she had become a fantastic reader. She is now often reading things that she sees in real life (signs, words on TV, etc.). I'm really proud of my daughter, and I would name teaching her to read as one of my greatest accomplishments in life. It was easily the best things that I accomplished during the COVID-19 quarantine.

I've just started this book again with my twins who are almost 4. They are very excited and moving through the lessons very quickly. (By the way, for those with twins, I've found INDIVIDUAL lessons work best)

I've used this with my three older kids with varied results. My oldest daughter soaked it up like a sponge, started kindergarten reading picture books well and ending the year reading chapter books. My second child (a son) took longer to get through the lessons, but also read well at the start of kindergarten. My third child (a son) proved to me that one-size-fits-all is NOT what this book is about. Despite lots of efforts and his willingness to play along, he didn't learn much at all from this book at age 4.5 and 5. However, a year later, and with first grade coming up, he is now excited to start the book again and we're working on it. This time, he's doing well.

So my recommendation? Try the book for the first 10 or 20 lessons on your 4 or 5 year old. If they are interested and learning, keep it up. Otherwise, set it aside until they are older and focus on learning letters and numbers instead.