I know about a zillion homeschoolers who taught their kids with the $10 book, How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
I’ve not used Alpha-Phonics, but the author knows his stuff about teaching phonics.
What I’ve have learned is to choose a phonics program that teaches the first two letters and then adds a third, like ba, be, bi, bo, bu becomes bat, bet, bit, bot, but.
Too many of the phonics programs (such as Hooked on Phonics) use a rhyming method. (bat, cat, sat, hat …) This works for ordinary kids just fine, but if your child has any type of learning disorder, lots of ear infections or vision problems, it won’t work. I suspect ordinary kids must learn better this way too.
My mom had saved back an old phonics book that was used in my Catholic school when I was a kid. It turns out to be the only phonics book around during the the 40’s -60’s and recommended in Why Johnny Still Can’t Read. My son was reading three letter words in one day, after spending a year of frustration using Hooked on Phonics with him.
If your child does not pick up reading easily, then there’s a good chance that there’s a learning skill that he doesn’t have and might need professional help. Make sure that the teacher has been trained in Orton-Guilingham methods or you’re wasting your money and messing him up.
An example of a learning deficiency, your child might not have the ability to distinguish sounds very well. There are computer programs that play those sounds slowly and over time speed them up so the child is trained to distinguish the sounds.
I also know homeschoolers who were very patient with their non-reader, and for some reason, about 10 or 12, the child started reading and amazingly at their age level. I don’t know of any school children where this has happened. I’ve met lots of parents of school children who found out, usually about 4th grade, but sometimes as late as 9th, that their child cannot read.
You are being very smart in teaching your child to read before he goes to school and they start messing with him with their deficient:thumbsup: methods of reading.
