"Shell" wrote in message
. net...
I just purchased the Learn to Read program. Does anyone have it? What do
you think? Has anyone heard anything about it?

....

Your best bet is to walk into any used book store and buy books. Then take
these books and read them ALOUD to your kids. Have them next to you as you
read... talk about the book. Say the sounds.

Some of the best (at least in our house) were the ones like "Mr. Brown Can
Say Moo, Can You?"... or the Berenstein Bear books... and of course ANYTHING
by Dr. Seuss (like "On Beyond Zebra"). We read "The Diggingest Dog" so much
that both parents had it memorized.

Also, some used bookstores sell used software. We bought Bailey's Book
House (by Edmark, a company that was into reading programs BEFORE
computers... but had some very bad management and was bought out) at
HalfPrice Books for less than $10. We also bought used versions of Reader
Rabbit. These were all popular in our house... but NOT as popular as
reading aloud.

ALSO... visit your local library. You can check out all sorts of wonderful
children's books for FREE!!! You can also often check out software. We
have a speech/language disordered child who is not altogether happy that he
is satisifying his foreign language requirement in high school with ASL (his
first expressive language). He wanted to take Japanese (due to the fact
that the teacher in middle school was very popular). So his mom checked out
a Japanese Language Instruction CD from the library and made him go through
some of the lessons. He is not so keen on learning multiple alphabets nor
another spoken language anymore.

Also (and I am not affiliated) my local independent children's books store
has been promoting an author by the name of Esme Raji Codell and her book on
kids and reading: "How to Get Your Child to Love Reading"