Do you have a 4-year-old who wants to learn to read? Or maybe an 8-year-old that needs help buttoning up some of those early reading skills? That would be me and my family. Below are my honest thoughts and experience with this program. If you decide you want to try it for your kid or classroom, I have a personal discount code I will post at the end.
This is a sponsored post with affiliate links meaning: this company was generous enough to pay me for my time to write a review after trying their product and loving it. And they were kind enough to give me a discount code to pass along to you that also gives me a small kickback for sharing.
I am a homeschooling mother of 6, ages 3-12. As a general guide, I don’t usually teach my kids to read until they show a real interest. Some have been 5 and 6 years old, and others not until 8 and 9. When my 4-year-old starting asking for reading lessons I was a little surprised. He is the youngest of my bunch to show an interest in learning to read. Ironically, he will also be my first kid to attend school in Kindergarten next year! I didn’t it plan it this way.
Over the years we have bought so many different types of reading programs for each kid. I won’t name them but you should have seen my stack! Each program we tried had its own strengths and quirks. But I have to say, I didn’t love any of them and neither did my kids. We would start them, then just lose interest and just do our best to fully immerse the kids in their interests as a way of encouraging reading. It is a beautiful way to learn, but not the quickest. So when I looked at my pile of reading programs to start using with my 4-year-old I kind of cringed.
But like a miracle from all the goodness in the world, I was invited to try the Learning Dynamic’s Reading Program. Not only did they give me the program to try, but I got to meet with the owner and hear him speak about his passion for helping kids learn to read. They don’t just want to educate in their preschools but in homes and schools across the country. You can see a little of their passion and story in this video.
The books are so lovely and vivid in full color that my kids love them. We also love the fact that the books only use the phonics and sight words introduced in the quick, super easy to follow, 10-minute lessons so that there are never any surprise words that would make a kid lose their confidence. As a mom, I appreciate any effort to keep kids engaged, in a time frame that works for them and me, and that never takes the fun out of reading at such a young age.
But what does my 4-year old like about the program? Well, to him it is just fun. He loves all the songs for each letter. He loves the coloring book that he gets to color in for each page. He loves to find the pictures that start with the letter of the day. And the suggested activities at the end of the lesson are always so great for helping them apply what they have learned. For example: give an M&M for each M word found around the room.
But I have to say that he loves his rewards the best! He holds them up for the alphabet song each time we sing it and keeps them in a treasured spot until the next lesson. He knows the names of each character, and of course all the sounds of each letter.
He loves this learning program so much that he used to wake me up super early in the morning to do his reading lesson and would cry his little heart out if I couldn’t do it one day. But the program is designed to be done only 3 days a week, skipping every other day, and he had to learn the art of waiting patiently. Not a bad lesson to learn.
Not only does he love the program, but he is reading. I have never pushed a kid to start reading so young because there are so many other things that they might be interested at such a young age which are just as valuable to their development, but when a kid is ready, he is ready. And my little guy was so ready.
Learning Dynamics isn’t just for pre-school aged kids. I have a 9-year old that never really was interested in reading. He would rather cook, do art and spend all day outside, but now he is seeing the need to read. We don’t use the music or the rewards for him, but he loves the books. He has taught himself to read using them, like overnight! And he is getting so much more confident in himself each day. Even my daughter, who is a proficient 1st-grade reader loves to read these.
***Save 15% off right now using my personal code wendy at checkout. To learn more or buy it visit the Learning Dynamics website 4weekstoread.com.
Although Learning Dynamics has been used in schools around the country for 17 years, this is the first time they are making their reading program available to the public.
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. I seriously love this program and wouldn’t share it if it didn’t work for us. Of course, all kids are different, but with the 98% success rate, in they have seen in their classrooms, I can only hope that your kids will have success with it too!
For more information on research done on their reading program, click here.