Review Detail

I discovered The Logic of English when searching for a way to help my daughter overcome the result of my assumption that sight-only methods (like Dick and Jane that I learned by as a child) along with simple exhortations to "sound it out!" were enough. Like many children who are taught sight-reading-only, she learned words whole, by memorization, and had no ability at all, to figure out any words she had not already "learned" because she couldn't break words into syllables, had no real phonics knowledge, etc. and at the point that such a child is ready to leap from Early Leveled Readers into "real" reading, she was not progressing.

Using The Logic of English, I learned how to teach phonics, learned that there are actually rules, and started making sense of things that I never had trouble with, but also never knew there was any underlying logic to. I learned the importance of teaching a child to hear and clap out syllables, to know that every syllable contains a vowel whether voiced or not, and why certain sounds are spelled differently at the end of a word, from how they are spelled within a word. Thereafter, I was able to help my next child with phonics, at a much younger age, and without going through paperwork...he was able to "just learn" to read with very little effort as I drew from the knowledge of phonics and how to teach it, that I learned the first time around. I still have the textbook and can order more consumable workbooks if needed, but the really important part for me, was gaining the method. Since I was a "natural" reader, writer, and speller in school, I had to learn what to do, to teach someone for whom it didn't just seem to come naturally.

I would recommend systematic phonics to anyone hoping to help a child who struggles with spelling, reading, or writing, and the Logic of English offers great support for learning ourselves, how to make that information explicit and orderly.