Explode the Code 1

Excellent. Have used them for years. I am SENCO in a primary school. The Year 1 teacher borrowed mine and thought it was great so just bought another copy.

An excellent resource that is well presented, clear, and enjoyable for the child.

Lovely

by elder daughter refused to let me teach her to read, and we had tried all sorts of things to try and make it work. various reading schemes etc, so we were recommended this, and by book 5 she suddenly said, i can read now, and so did. we are now usingthis successfully with our second daughter. there are a few things to be aware of. this book is american, so they have gas, not petrol and people are 'at bat' and another few idioms to explain. but nothing that either of mine has struggled with

not very good for uk residents

I used it with my little native speaker. We are on the second book now. Love this series so far. I think it might be difficult to use with Japanese kids who are not great at English because the vocabulary is meant for American kids, and thus would be difficult for them. (Words like "gas" and "add" and "sip" and many other words, I believe.) But for a bilingual kid, it is a nice way to reinforce vocabulary. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't introduce sight words. I use another book: Houghton-Mifflin's "Here We Go!" series for that.

Very helpful for my 5yr old boy who's been having difficulty with phonetics

recommended to kids beginning to learn how to write and read. really nice, useful and easy at the same time.

Even though most schools will tell you they teach phonics, most really do not. At best, they begin teaching phonics in first grade after teaching high frequency words with flashcards in kindergarten... which simply teaches young children that the way to read is to memorize what a "word picture" looks like. From everything I've read, getting a kid who has learned to read this way to put in the effort to learn phonics is like pulling teeth so I was determined to teach my daughter proper reading with phonics. Once my daughter knew her letter sounds (thank you Leap Frog's Letter Factory!), I began showing her how the sounds could be "squashed" together to make words and how those sounds were inside of words. Since this concept requires a developmental leap, it can not be rushed or forced. Slowly she began to understand (she was 3.5 at the time) and one day, the light bulb clicked on. She could pick out the letters in simple words that she heard and read simple C-V-C words like 'cat'. That's when I went looking for the next step. I checked out several books from the library, including "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", "Phonics Pathways", and "The Reading Lesson". Of those, I liked "Phonics Pathways" the best and bought a copy. I began spending 5 minutes a day, a few days a week, working with my daughter but quickly realized that she HATED the book and it's boring lessons. So, I bought "Explode the Code 1". What a difference! While the pictures are crude, they were just enough to catch my daughter's interest. Since each lesson has the same format, the same types of activities, she quickly learned what was expected on each type of page - a great comfort to a young child learning to do something new and difficult. We spend no more than 10 minutes 5 days a week but she has made great progress in learning to read; happily trying to add things to my shopping list and trying to sound out words she sees other places. We also use the Bob Books (Level 1) and the Now I'm Reading books (Level 1, Animal Antics) to reinforce what she is learning and to get her comfortable reading slightly longer stories on her own. Of the two, I prefer the Now I'm Reading stories. Both are very phonics based but the pictures and stories in NIR are much better than in Bob. Should you use Explode the Code with your child? It depends... (1) Can your child reliably say each letter? Not the letter name but the basic letter sound like "c" in "cat" and "x" in "box"? If not, start with the Before the Code books or try the Leap Frog DVD "The Letter Factory". Do your child a favor and keep it fun - skip the flashcards. (2) Can your child blend letters together to read simple C-V-C words like "cat"? Does she understand the concept? If not, play word games to get her hearing those letter sounds, play "spot the letter ___" in stores where each of you try to find things that start with a specific letter. Remember, this stage can not be forced and pushing your child too hard, too soon, may turn her off to reading. It's better to wait several months and try again than it is to try to force your child to be the first one in preschool to learn to read. It's not a race, it's an education. (3) Once your child knows those letter sounds and understands the concept of sounding out words, you are ready for these books. Does your child need fine motor skills? Not really. Yes, these books teach writing and many of the pages have the child circling or crossing through choices as well as printing words - but you don't actually have to do that. My daughter's fine motor skills are only now becoming good enough to learn to print but that hasn't stopped her from learning to read. We usually snuggle up together when we use this book and she points to the correct answer instead of marking it. We simply skip the "copy these words" pages or she tells me the letters she would need to write.

Order came quickly and was exactly as pictured. Thank you!