I recently (beginning of May) started Logan and Lila on the ever-popular Ladybird Readers.
Logan had never shown much interest in learning to read before, though I tried various methods with both of them. I eventually dropped it and waited a year or so before I bought the first 3 books.
From the beginning, Logan picked it up rapidly, remembering the words with ease and picking up new ones with no problem. I’m shocked at how fast he has learned to read these books! He has completed 1a and 1b and is working on reading 2a and I’m helping him with the writing assignments in 1c. He can’t yet write on his own but he did learn to write the alphabet with help in school last year, so I figure the extra practice can’t hurt.
Lila is going slower. She is still learning the words for 1a and doesn’t quite have them down yet. She has tried reading the book but so far has only succeeded in memorizing what is on the pages and doesn’t actually recognize more than 5 words, so when I would try a new page with the same words, she couldn’t read them. But 5 words is something and I’m sure she’ll have the rest of them down soon.
This series mainly depends on sight reading and doesn’t seem to have much on phonics (though I think Ladybird does have phonics readers), so to balance it out, I am using this phonics website which they all love. Logan is on the readers and Lila is working through the alphabet. Scarlett likes to join us and last time she was repeating all the sounds as she heard them. She may be my earliest reader if this continues.
Which reminds me, I’d better do some with them right now.
Days, Life, Dreams 