Children Learning Reading Review – Still Worth It in 2024?

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and buy something I may receive a commission. This does not change the price you would pay.
Children Learning Reading Review

Is it possible to teach your toddler to read at home? Do you want to learn how to teach a child how to read? This Children Learning Reading review will share with you my personal experience of using this program to teach my toddler son to read at home since he was 2 years and 3 months old.

It’s a rather lengthy read. So you might want to look at the details of the program right below if you don’t have the time to read on. (I’ve also posted 3 video clips of my kid reading at various ages using this program, scroll down to the bottom if you want to take a peek!)

Product Name: Children Learning Reading program
Creator: Jim Yang
Format: DIGITAL, DOWNLOADABLE PRODUCTS ONLY which you can download to your computer as soon as you order. No postal /shipping fee. No physical products will be sent to you.

Overall Rating:  5 out of 5.

What Is It?

A unique and systematic reading program based on phonics and phonemic awareness instructions, that will teach young children as young as toddlers 2 or 3 years old to read.

The program creator, Jim Yang has successfully used this program to teach his 4 children to read before they turned 3.

There have been studies that show that phonemic awareness is highly effective in helping young children manipulate phonemes (individual sounds) to sound out words and in decoding printed text. Studies have also shown that teaching reading using the phonics method produces more successful and fluent readers.

Jim recommends that parents start their reading program around 2.5 years old as that’s the time the kid can speak more clearly. If your younger toddler has more advanced speech development, you can start your child earlier.

You won’t be sitting your child in front of the TV or computer screen for the lessons. Rather, you’ll be spending quality time going through the step-by-step lessons with your child.

Who Is It For?

This program is designed for parents with young children aged 2-8.

This is NOT a program where parents just pop a DVD into the player or sit the child in front of the computer screen.

Parents, you’ll be actively involved in helping your toddler or preschooler learn to read phonetically through a simple, effective, and step-by-step program. It’s worth your time. Seriously. But please take note that this is a digital package, there are no physical products to be shipped to you. Everything is downloadable to your computer upon your purchase.

Standard edition of Children Learning Reading program

Pros:

  • The program extensively teaches and helps your child to develop phonics and phonemic awareness skills.
  • Great introduction in the main e-book that discusses the importance and benefits of early reading, and the steps involved in helping your child to learn reading.
  • Easy to follow and it’s all spelled out in the step-by-step lessons.
  • A chance for you to learn phonics too. I’ve never learned phonics as a child so I benefited from the lessons too.
  • Audio clips that demonstrate the correct pronunciations of all the letter sounds. I sure needed this as I wasn’t schooled in phonics.
  • The lessons are short to match the short attention span of little kids and the busy schedules of parents.
  • Super-effective, and it will be so rewarding to see the reading progress of your child after each lesson. It’s certainly a rewarding experience for me.
  • There are printouts that you can print, cut and use in your lessons with your kid. My son loves the printouts and would ask to play with them even after the lesson is over.
  • This program is cheaper than the more branded and award-winning baby reading programs.
  • Everything in the program is downloadable so you can access it immediately. There are no physical products to be shipped to you. Save on shipping costs.

Cons:

  • You have to spend time daily to help your child learn. Consistency and daily parental involvement are crucial in helping your child learn to read successfully.
  • In the later lessons, occasionally I came across some words that didn’t come out as quite right when I sounded them out. As I said, I’m not trained in phonics instructions. Maybe these are sight words.

Does Baby Reading Program Work? Not for Us.

When my toddler son was a baby at 7 months old, I bought an expensive baby reading program (nearly $170 after discounts) that claims to teach babies to read. It was an award-winning program after all and I was sold.

I started him on the reading lessons when he was about 9 months old. After several weeks of sitting my baby daily in front of the computer screen, one day I just decided to stop the lessons. I couldn’t detect any sign of my baby learning to read.

By constant flashing of words and pictures, I wonder how effective can it be in teaching a child to read. But it was such an easy way out, just sitting my child on my lap and going through the daily lesson flashed on the computer screen. It hardly took any effort on my part.

Initially, I thought perhaps my son wasn’t ready and I would give the program another chance when he was older. Instead, time rolled by and my son turned into a toddler and he was definitely not reading anything yet.

Whole Word Method or the Phonics Method? The Latter.

When he was about 17 months old, I chanced upon another reading program, this time, the Children Learning Reading program.

I read through their website page carefully and I began to see the importance of choosing the right reading method. It’s an enlightening read for me. I mean, I didn’t even realize the importance of choosing the right reading method back then.

Perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing that my son didn’t learn to read with the baby reading program because now that I see it, it was teaching children to read by the whole word method which means my child would have to “memorize” hundreds or thousands of word shapes! Not a very sound and effective method of reading, I would say.

I would much rather he learn to read by sounding out words and decoding words through phonics and phonemic awareness instructions. Which by the way I have since learned would produce more successful readers in reading and spelling abilities. This is the method of instruction used in the Children Learning Reading program.

Knowing this upped my confidence in the program.

Not Speaking Yet? Develop Phonemic Awareness.

But my toddler son was barely speaking…

When I emailed Jim to ask him if it was alright to start my son on his reading program, he honestly replied that while my son might be too young to start on his program, it was not too early to help him build up his phonemic awareness skills.

Jim encouraged that his own son started picking up phonemic awareness when he was just about 1.5 years old and developed excellent phonemic awareness skills by the time he was 2.5 years old, and his reading lesson progress was fantastic.

I got the package, took Jim’s advice, and worked on helping my son develop his phonemic awareness skills through play. The informal learning was kept to a minimum and revolved around play. Meanwhile, my son continued to grow, play, and explore the world around him.

By the time Kaden turned 2 years and 2 months old, he spoke some words, knew his alphabet, and could pronounce most of his letter sounds. I also noticed he was a very enthusiastic learner. I wanted to find something to stimulate and keep him occupied. I remembered Jim’s reading program and started Kaden on his lessons.

Does This Program Work? You Bet!

Premium edition of Children Learning Reading program

It was a rewarding experience to see how joyfully my toddler son soaked up his lessons! He loved the early lessons and the printouts and would play with the printouts till the thick paper cutouts turned very worn and crumpled. Each lesson was short and on average less than 7 minutes.

Since he already knew his letter names and sounds when he started the program, his reading progress went great.

It was his mommy aka me who delayed his lessons every now and then, letting other activities and letting life take over certain days. The first half of the program is normally completed within 12 weeks or 3 months. We completed ours in 4.5 months.

But that didn’t stop Kaden from learning to read! It’s fascinating when you see a little tot make an incredible process in learning from sounding out single words to sounding out short sentences such as:

“THE CAT HOPS UP, UP, UP”,

“The red bus is bent, and it has a dent.”

Halfway through the program, he was even reading mini-stories! He has also made the transition from reading uppercase letters to lowercase letters.

I feel so proud as his mommy who plays a part in being his first teacher and in helping him learn to read!

Can Toddlers Become Fast and Fluent Readers? Sure.

Maybe I was not schooled or trained in phonics instruction. It was me who sometimes found it strange when I sounded out certain words to my toddler. Despite me feeling like a robot sounding out words that sound rather incomprehensible to me, my son could mostly name the words I was sounding out to him. Awesome.

After we progressed into the latter half of the reading program, I detected his wonderful progress when I would play a tiny game with him. I would name a random word such as, “Button, the word button starts with the letter…” and my toddler would continue with the answer B and its letter sound! To me, that signified the beginning of a little speller. I was pleasantly surprised and elated!

Something else convinced me that the Children Learning Reading program was a superb reading program.

Recently, when Kaden was about 2 years and 9 months old, he took out one of his several reader books passed down from his older cousins. It was a partial collection of a children’s series known as “Keywords with Peter and Jane”.

He took book 1A and asked me to read it. Instead, I asked him to read, thinking of taking the chance to help him practice his newfound reading skill. I was astonished when he could read book 1A entirely without my assistance!

Months earlier, I would never think that my toddler would be reading a short book to me anytime soon. But he did. And when I pulled out book 2A to see if the magic continued, it did.

Below is a very short video clip of 15 seconds that I’ve captured of him reading the book 2A.

Would I Recommend This Program? Highly!

I must say, going through the Children Learning Reading program with Kaden gifted me with one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. To be able to help my son learn to read, and to be able to witness his transformative journey and growth within such a short period, made me feel that I was doing something right.

It is an eye-opener to a young child’s learning potential and an empowering feeling for a parent.

My son is now 75% through the lessons.

He would be chasing me for his lessons, “Mommy, do lesson 11!” If I agreed, he would go “Do lesson 12!” And I would say, “You have to practice lesson 11 more. And when you are good at lesson 11, we will do lesson 12.” :)

He enjoys peeking through his lessons which I have printed out and stored in a folder to see what’s up next. Knowing that he enjoys his lessons and has fun learning, that’s important.

If it’s the first time you’ve come across information about teaching a toddler to read, or you’ve been contemplating whether to buy those expensive baby reading programs, stop. I would highly recommend that you check out the downloadable Children Learning Reading program by Jim Yang. His program rocks and you’ll get obvious results!

Below is a video of Kaden reading at 3 years old. He was reading two of the very short stories from the book called The Apple by Joy Cowley. The video is under 2 minutes.

UPDATE:

June 2016 – Kaden is now 5. We completed his lessons shortly after he turned 3. I know, we weren’t the fastest rabbits in completing the lessons. ;)

Two weeks ago, his kindergarten teacher told me that Kaden can read and that he’s a high performer in her class. Normally when she wanted the kids in the class to write out anything, she would have to tell the kids how to spell out the words, or she would let them copy out the short sentences. For Kaden, his teacher would just let him do his writing as she has noticed he’s able to spell out some words phonetically on his own. She would only correct him when he was done.

I’ve not been reading with him daily as I used to when he was younger. Still, when I checked on his reading skills occasionally, I was amazed that he was advancing in his reading ability. Because of his ability to read, he can recognize and memorize almost all of our current MRT train station names and he’s able to look at the world map and identify a good number of countries.

I’m glad that I took the effort and time to teach him how to read using the Children Learning Reading program three years ago. Otherwise, might be frantically sending him to attend a phonics class like I’ve seen many of his classmates’ parents doing so this year. Nowadays, he would still request me to read to him occasionally, but mostly, he would pull out one of his storybooks and read on his own. :)

Below is a video of him reading at 5 years and 7 months old. The book is called The Super Reader, level 10 under the Superhero Phonic Readers series by the book publisher, Ladybird. The video is over 8 minutes long.

Check out my 2017 review update here.

75 thoughts on “Children Learning Reading Review – Still Worth It in 2024?”

  1. I live in the Philippines, Davao to be exact. Will this program work with everyone else speaking another language? In this case, Visayan a dialect of Tagalog. One child is six, the other is two. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The education system over here is problematic. To say the least. Thank you again.

    John Reiter

    1. Hi John,

      As long as there is one adult who will make the efforts to converse to the two children in English on a daily basis, and the adult is dedicated and willing to consistently carry out the very short lessons with the children, I believe the children can learn to read with the Children Learning Reading program.

      For my case, my husband and I would speak to our son in English, but we would speak to each other in Chinese. As I’m a stay-at-home mom, so Kaden is exposed to spoken English majority of the time. Still, what I needed back then was an easy, and highly effective step-by-step program that lays out exactly what I have to follow through in teaching my own toddler to read, and that’s where this program is very strong in.

      For the six-year-old child, if he/she isn’t reading yet, now is a great time to use this program in teaching the child to read. As the kid is older, it might be easier and faster for the child to absorb and learn the lessons.

      If the two-year-old is already speaking clearly, you can also start the child on the program. If the kid isn’t speaking clearly yet, you can always start with helping the kid to build phonemic awareness, familiarizing the child with letter sounds. Then when the child is starting to speak more clearly, you can start on the lessons proper. Keep it fun for the toddler to learn, and keep each lesson under 10 minutes.

      I feel that in addition to the short lessons in the program, daily reading aloud of bedtime stories (or any time that’s convenient to you) to the children would be very helpful. Let storybooks become a common sight in the house to the kids. Let them be read to often, and build up their interest in books and reading.

      Even after my Kaden completed his program lessons at 3 years old, I continue to read to him and let him practice his newly acquired reading skills. Over the last several months, his reading skills have improved significantly, his vocabulary has expanded, and he’s also able to decode unfamiliar words and sound them out. Naturally there’ll be times where I’ll have to help him out with the bigger or trickier words, but I feel he’s doing an amazing job for his age. I certainly wasn’t reading at his age back then and his six older cousins also weren’t reading at his age back then.

      He’s 3 years and 8 months old now, while his classmates are still trying to master the alphabet, he’s already reading sentences and short story books. He does have a keen interest in books and reading, and each day, he’ll be asking for his reading time even though sometimes I would wish to skip it as I’m feeling tired, but he wouldn’t let go! ;)

      So, I would say, without encountering this program, I think Kaden won’t be reading at his age now. So if you’re thinking of teaching your toddler or young kid to read, it’s really worth trying out this program.

  2. Seems like a must if this really works. I’m wondering however what the effects would be of me speaking to our child only in Spanish while my wife speaks only in English and uses this program. Wondering if maybe our toddler would be confused if he progresses faster with English due to the program compared to Spanish which has different sounds.

    Thanks for the help!

    1. Hi Ivan,

      You’ve raised an interesting question. For me, I’ve wanted Kaden to learn to listen, understand and speak Chinese as he’s mostly speaking in English since he started speaking. I’ve been trying to get my husband to speak to our son only in Chinese while I speak to him in English but my husband tends to forget!

      Still Kaden visits his paternal grandparents every weekend, and they would speak to him in Chinese. Even two days in a week exposure helps some. And I’ve also started to read some Chinese storybooks to him. He’s beginning to understand and speak a tiny bit of Chinese now. So exposure to languages at their young age is critical to help them pick up the languages.

      My now 9-year-old niece has been exposed to both English and Chinese since young. I don’t see her being confused with the two languages. It’s like there’s an auto-switch within her, when she speak to us she’ll use English and when she converses with my mom (her grandma) she’ll automatically switch to Chinese.

      I have to admit that personally I’m weaker in Chinese, so I do not have the approach and skill to teach Kaden to read Chinese. So I wish there’s a similarly simple and effective program like Children Learning Reading program, but teaching kids to read in the Chinese! ;) On the other hand, the Chinese language is very different from English, and it doesn’t go by letter sounds, therefore the method of teaching kids to read in Chinese might be entirely different.

      I think we are trying to raise bilingual kids, and it helps to know that very young children have an amazing ability to pick up different languages as long as there’s sufficient exposure, and they are in situations where they can use the language often. I’ve read before that from birth to age 4, kids can easily pick up languages, and now that Kaden can speak and read in English, perhaps it’s time for me to speak more often to him in Chinese at home before the window of opportunity passes.

      While I haven’t figured out a way to teach Kaden to read in Chinese (maybe will just let him learn in kindergarten when they start teaching the kids), I’m glad I’ve used the Children Learning Reading program to teach him to read in English. Ultimately English is the the primary medium of instruction from where we are from. And no, so far I didn’t see him being confused by the two languages. He knows they are very different, and there’ll be times when he’ll ask me the Chinese equivalent of English words.

      Anyway, I’ll be interested to know how it works out for your child if you continue to speak to him in Spanish while your wife to him only in English and you decided to use the program with him. If possible, please send me an update! Best wishes to your family!

    1. Hi Aha,

      The standard package is $49.95. If you top up another $19.95, you can get the premium package at $69.90, and this was the package that I bought back in mid 2012.

      After going through the “extras” that’s included in the premium package, I feel that it’s more worth it. There’s five extra items under the premium package, and the one that attracted me the most back then was Pre-Set Printouts for Stage 1 and Stage 2 lessons. These were very useful and made things very simple for me.

      Especially for Stage 1 lessons, there’s many single words involved, so I would imagine that it would take busy parents a good amount of time if they were to get these word cards prepared themselves. Though these words and short sentences are included in the Stage 1 main lesson book, but they formed part of the content page. So it’s not suitable to just show the words and sentences to your kid as they might get distracted by the other content on the page.

      It would be easier for young children to learn when the words are printed out in a bigger font size and isolated from the other content of the lesson. With the premium package, all the word cards are pre-set so I just had to print them out on thicker, sturdier paper, trim them down to card sizes and use them for each lesson with my son.

      For Stage 2 lessons, there’s words and short sentences for each lesson, so it’s a breeze to have all these already pre-set on a page to be printed out on normal plain paper. It’s so much more convenient this way.

      Another of the “extras” for the premium package is the Stage 2 Rhymes book which contains colorful illustrations for all the rhymes contained in the stage 2 lessons. Once again, I just had to print these pages out on normal plain paper. These rhymes are in Stage 2 main book, but without bigger font size and nice illustration to make the lesson more interesting for the kid.

      So these three “extras” made me decided to go with the premium package for my child. Hope this helps!

        1. Hi Lanney,

          Yes, the current price as I just looked is $69 for the standard package and $89 for the premium package now. I bought the package several years ago and the prices have been revised since.

  3. How much time is required per day on using this program? Am worried that my daughter has short span of attention for reading. My daughter is 5 and refused to read but she loves bedtime story (I have to read to her).

    1. Hi Dot,

      Your daughter is 5 and I think it’s a great time to teach her how to read using the Children Learning Reading program.

      When I started with my toddler son, he was 2 years and 3 months old. During that period, I’m thankful that he was attentive as I went through the lessons with him and each lesson took less than 7 minutes for the Stage 1 lessons. However, as we proceeded to the Stage 2 lessons, there were more content to be covered in each lessons but all in all, I find that I could complete them with my son under 10 minutes. Except for those times when he wasn’t really in the mood for lesson or he wasn’t attentive that day, I would stop and continue another time.

      I remember once, there was a longer lesson, if I remember correctly it was lesson 3 in Stage 2. In my eagerness to complete that lesson, I overlooked that it was the longest lesson we’ve encountered so far, and it didn’t go on that well for this lesson. In the end, I stopped the lesson and continued at another time. I should have broken the lesson up into two parts. It would have been much easier for my young child and me during the first try. You can read about my experience with this lesson here.

      Look to your child for clues as to when to stop. If she doesn’t seem keen at all or she’s tired, come back to the lesson another time. Keep it short, make it fun, and go through the lesson step-by-step with her. You don’t have to complete each lesson in one sitting or in a day. If it goes on smoothly, great. If there’s restlessness in your child, stop and do the lesson at a later time in the day, or the next day. It’s fine. Just follow along with the lessons with your daughter. :)

  4. Hi there. I’m wondering if I could teach my 3 years 3 mos old daughter to read if she can only recognize some of the alphabet letters. I think she knew less than 10 letters only. Is that possible for her to learn how to read without mastering the 26 letters of the alphabet? Or I just really need to teach her only the letter sounds of the alphabet instead of memorizing all the letters?

    1. Hi Lori,

      This system of learning to read is by mastering letter names, letter sounds and blending the letters sounds together to form words. It’s not necessary to know all the 26 letters of the alphabet before you embark on the course together with your daughter. In fact, in the course, right from lesson one, your daughter will be introduced to a letter name along with its letter sound. So you’ll be teaching her letter names and letter sounds together. Teaching both letter names and letter sounds seem to enhance the child’s learning progress. Hope this helps! :)

  5. My 9 yr old granddaughter’s inability to read is a product of a poor school system and an inattentive parent. I learned to read using phonics and feel that is the best way to go. With her grandparents’ help, will this program be able to bring her up to speed and lock in those skills to continue to read in the public school system?

    1. Hi Larry,

      I can see how concerned you are about your granddaughter’s inability to read. Personally, I started to teach my toddler son to read using this program and it has helped him to build a good foundation in learning to read. He’s 4 now, and while his classmates are learning about their letters of the alphabet in the Nursery class, Kaden is able to read words, sentences, and very short stories. I could see he has developed the ability to decode unfamiliar words and sound them out. There will be times he’ll be uncertain though and it’s alright, I’ll help him out and remind him to sound out the letters of the unfamiliar word.

      It’s great that you’ve learned to read using phonics and feels that it’s the best way to learn reading! This reading program made use of systematic synthetic phonics and phonemic awareness which have been cited in the reading program as one of the most simple and effective methods in teaching young children to read.

      With your granddaughter’s maturity at 9 years old, better cooperating ability than younger children, and with concerned grandparents’ aid, I believe she has a good chance in progressing much faster through the lessons than the younger ones.

      The reading program website page has put up various testimonials from parents who shared the reading successes of their children. One of the testimonials shared a similar story like yours. A boy was picked up for reading support services at Grade 1. His mother completed the reading program with the child and the child’s reading teacher commented that the boy’s ability to read escalated and he was reading on grade level.

      There’s also another story of a girl on the same page who was in grade 2 when it was brought to her parent’s attention that she wasn’t reading at her grade level. But after two months of using the reading program, the girl was reading at grade level and she was expected to grow her reading ability even more. From being afraid to read because she was worried to get it wrong, she was reading on her own and started reading beginner novel two months later. I would say that’s remarkable improvement!

      On that same page, you can also view videos of other children who’s reading after using this reading program. I wish you all the best in teaching your granddaughter to read!

  6. I open the website but cannot get any idea what inside the product is. The website itself is so horrible, imho. Full of testimonials but lack of information of the products. Can you give a hint?

    1. Hi Anpanman12,

      There’s indeed a lot of information on the Children Learning Reading webpage to read through. I’ve just checked out their page again and realized that it features 30 testimonials now. I guess many more have submitted their success stories than when I bought the program sometime ago. Please understand that this is a digital package, so there’s no physical hard copies of books to be shipped at all. When you click on the “ADD TO CART” link, it’ll show you the product contents for the Standard package and the Premium package, so you can browse through and look at the product details without having to buy.

      For the standard package which I’ve just checked, the price is currently $49.95, and it contains 6 e-books and 3 mp3 audio clips.

      Below are the listed contents of the standard package:
      Children Learning Reading – Stage 1
      Children Learning Reading – Stage 2
      Bonus #1: Lesson Stories for Stage 1
      Bonus #2: Lesson Stories for Stage 2
      Bonus #3: Letter Sounds MP3 Audio Clips
      Bonus #4: The Most Common Sight Words
      Bonus #5: Children’s Favorite Nursery Rhymes
      Bonus #6: Lifetime Program Upgrades
      Bonus #7: 12 Week One-on-One Consultations

      You would have to print out the materials on your own, and that’s what I did and other parents have done. Hope this helps!

    1. Hi Leila,

      I’m glad you find my experience useful. Hope you’ll have a rewarding and fun time teaching your own kids to read!

    1. Hi Racquel,

      The above is a review written by me, a customer of Jim Yang’s reading program. I believe when you made the purchase, you’d have received an email called ClickBank Order Confirmation stating your purchase details. In that email, if you scroll down further, you’ll see a section called Vendor Technical Support, that’s where you can find the contact details for Jim Yang, the creator of the Children Learning Reading system. Hope this helps!

    1. Hi Shelisa,

      When I purchased the program, I used my laptop to access the contents of the program. I’ve not used the iPad to upload the content so I’m not sure if it will work, but I believe it would. You may want to contact the creator of the program, Jim, using this contact form and check with him directly.

  7. I’m hoping this program really works for my son, and I fully understand that I have to put in the work too.

    Thank You.

    1. Yes, we as parents, would have to put in the work and effort in order for this reading program to work for our children. All the very best in teaching your son to read! :)

  8. Hi Fion,

    Thank you for the reviews, it has helped me to decide and go ahead with the program. I must say it’s very kind of you to take the time to respond to everyone who’s commented.
    Many thanks again.

    1. Hello Fatima,

      Thanks for visiting my website and leaving a positive comment! I hope you’ll have fun coaching your kid to read using this program. All the very best! :)

  9. Hi Fion,

    I am wondering will I able to teach my daughter with the program if I can’t read with phonics? And how the book guides the parents since reading co-related with pronunciation?

    Thanks,
    Kimberley

    1. Hi Kimberley,

      When I started the program with my toddler son, I didn’t know about phonics too. The program will include Letter Sounds MP3 Audio Clips that sound out the letter sounds for each letter, so that helped me tremendously. And the instructions are very clearly laid out in the ebooks, so I was able to follow along just fine. Be sure to go over and listen to each lesson in advance so you’ll know how to teach it to your daughter. As I learned it myself, I taught it to my son. Not only he learned, I learned as well. :)

  10. My son is behind, about to finish kindergarten, might be held back. He has a speech therapist. He doesn’t know the alphabet. Short attention span. Would this program help or do you know what program would help him?

    1. Hi Chelsie,

      I personally used this program to teach my son to read. After reading through your comment, I went to the Children Learning Reading program homepage and read through a few of the many testimonials on that page. I’ve come across several success stories where the children used to struggle with reading, and some were far behind their reading levels, but after completing the program, they managed to be reading at their level or beyond. The best part is that their progress and growth continued even after the program completion.

      Success Story #2 – A boy was picked for reading support services at grade 1. Upon completing the program, he was reading at grade level.

      Success Story #3- Take a look at the note left by Jim Yang, the creator of the program. He shares that he has taught many 3-7 years old kids who were behind in their reading abilities. But after working with them, these children were reading at or above their levels.

      Success Story #8 – Also read the note Jim has attached to this story. He has worked with older kids too and the program works similarly well and in this instance, the progress would be faster as the kids are older.

      Success Story #9 – A six-year-old boy with a speech impediment has made good progress using the program.

      Success Story #10 – A boy couldn’t read after he finished kindergarten and his teacher wanted to hold him back. But his parents used the program to teach him to read and well, he learned to read and surprised his teacher.

      I think this program might be able to offer your son some help in learning to read. You’ll have to spend the time to teach him to read, but the efforts and time spent would be well worth it.

      This year my son is 5 and he’s in K1 (Kindergarten 1), I’m seeing the parents of my son’s classmates eagerly sending off their children to English Phonics classes to learn to read. These parents have to spend time sending their kids to these classes, wait for their kids to finish the lesson, spend money on the classes, and I’m not even sure how well they are progressing in their reading.

      By investing in this program, and taking the time and efforts to teach my son to read when he was younger, I now save time and money as I don’t have to send him to attend expensive English Phonics classes.

      So do take the time to read through some of the success stories and see how other parents are doing with the program. I wish you all the very best in teaching your son to read!

  11. Hi Fion,

    I live in Taiwan. I have 7 years old son and 5 years old daughter. We speak Chinese. They study phonics in school, but I feel that they didn’t get much progress. Can this program help my son and daughter to read English? Is my son too old to use this program?

    Thanks and best regards,

    1. Hi Louis,

      Although I started my son when he was a toddler, I’ve read testimonials on the sales page about children 5-7 years old using the program with much success. In fact, there are several cases I’ve read when the child was behind in their reading skills and couldn’t catch up and might have to stay back. However, after learning to read using the program, even their school teachers were astounded by their progress. I would think this program would help both your children. If you or your spouse can put in daily consistent efforts in teaching them using this program, I believe both your children will be able to pick up at an even faster pace than toddlers or younger children, as they are at a age where they can concencentrate and understand better. Wishing you all the best in teaching your children to read English!

    1. Hi Yvonne,

      I’m not from Children Learning Reading. I bought their program a few years back and taught my toddler son to read using this program back then. Now I’m recommending this program on my website. Whenever someone clicks on the above links and make a purchase through my links, I’ll earn a commission which will go towards maintaining this website. :)

  12. Hi Fion,

    Thanks for the clarification, as I like to read reviews and comments from real parents that have really used the program.

    When you bought the program, do you know the phonics stuff and those blending skills in phonics? The program, does it really clearly teach the parents to acquire these skills to teach the kids?

    I am interested to get it for my 4yo.

    1. Hi Yvonne,

      No problem. Sometimes before I buy something, I too like to read reviews and comments from other customers.

      When I bought the Children Learning Reading program, I didn’t know much about phonics and blending of letter sounds. What I did know back then were the letter sounds I’ve picked up from constantly playing the Phonics Song from YouTube to my toddler son. ;) So I mainly learned the letter sounds and blending letter sounds through the step-by-step lessons in the program. I would run through each short lesson on my own first before I taught it to my son. This program benefitted both of us. I’ve acquired the necessary knowledge and skill to teach my son to read using the program.

      4 years old is a great age to start learning to read using this program. Children at this age have a better attention span than toddlers, and they are likely to absorb the lessons faster too.

      Just today, my 5-year-old came home with three library books that his kindergarten has helped him to borrow. I’ve noticed recently he would choose books with slightly longer text. Just now at bedtime, he was reading one of the books and he told me, “Mommy, I’ve chosen these books with more words. But it’s okay as I would read them quietly.” So I asked him if he could comprehend what he was reading, he replied yes. The next moment he began to tell me that long, long time ago, lions used to be afraid of everything. Curious, I took a look at the page he was reading and indeed, that’s what the book was saying. So what I want to say is that, till now, I’m still appreciative of this program that let me teach my child to read, and now he’s able to enjoy stories that he can read on his own.

      Wishing you all the best in teaching your child to read! :)

  13. Hi, my daughter who just turned 2 years old goes to a babysitter who also watches her 2 year old grandson. They are at different levels when it comes to speaking and recognizing letters and sounds. The babysitter is very excited about teaching them, so my question is will this program work on multiple children at the same time who learn at different speeds?

    1. Hi Noella,

      I only have the personal experience of teaching my son to read using this program. But I’ve emailed Jim, the creator of the program and he said, “It can be used to teach children at similar ages; however, at 2 years old, it doe take a lot more time and patience with just one child, so with 2 two year olds, it will be quite a handful. But if the babysitter is patient and has a lot of free time, it can be done.”

      Hope that answers your question! :)

  14. Hi Fion,

    Thanks for sharing your experience about the program. I’m a language teacher in Taiwan and I find out that most students here struggle with pronouncing words, spelling is also hard for them. We do teach students phonics but it takes time for them to understand, adopt and apply as they only speak English 4 hours a week. Would the program still be helpful and beneficial to y students or adult learners? Thanks.

    1. Hi Judy,

      I’ve forwarded your question over to Jim, the program creator and here’s his reply:

      “Our program is not an ESL program and it does require the student to be able to speak and understand English fluently, so if the students are not fluent in English, it’s best they develop a strong command of it first.”

      I hope the above answers your question! :)

  15. Hi. I am considering purchasing this product for my 3 year old son. Please explain what materials you get with purchase. I do not have an MP3 player and only internet service I have is on an iPhone. Please explain how the products are obtained.
    Be blessed,
    Krista

    1. Hi Krista,

      If you want to know what’s included in the program, simply click on any of the“Add to Cart” big blue buttons found on this page. It will bring you to the order page where you can read all the materials available under the Standard and Premium packages.

      Here’s Jim’s (the program creator) reply to your question: “Everything is downloaded. The iTunes app will play the mp3 audio files. But I don’t recommend using a phone, as the screen is a bit small to do a lot of reading. At least a tablet is recommended.”

  16. You mentioned teaching younger toddlers phonemic awareness. Does the package have tips for that? My child is 2 years and 1 month old and I don’t think he’s quite ready for lessons, but I am interested in doing what I can for his age.

    1. Hi Jen,

      Helping a toddler to develop phonemic awareness is about helping the child to gain awareness that words are made up of letter sounds. Inside the Children Learning Reading program, there are audio files that help parents to learn the letter sounds. So it’s helpful in getting parents to learn the letter sounds so we can teach it to the child when they’re ready.

      You can read through my two articles on more tips about teaching younger child phonemic awareness. You can read about the things I did to teach my son phonemic awareness. I’ve also shared about the phonics songs I’ve used with him when he was a toddler. I hope this helps!

  17. Kathryn Macatangay

    Hi there,

    Would you know if it’s at all possible to get a hard copy of the materials instead of downloading? Thanks.

    1. Hi Kathryn,

      As far as I know this program comes in digital download format only. There are no physical products to be shipped. What I did back then was to download and print out the lessons using my home computer. Hope this helps!

    1. Hi Myris,

      The Children Learning Reading program is only available online as a digital product. There’s no shipping of any physical product. That also means you can purchase and download the digital product wherever you are in the world. You can get it here.

  18. Hi Fion,

    Thanks for the detailed write-up. I am sourcing for materials to reinforce my 10 y.o. boy English lessons as his reading skill is behind his actual grade. Is there any prep work that the parent needs to be done before going through the under 10 min lesson per day with the child besides printing out the lessons? How much prep time is required?

    1. Hi Ping,

      I tried to recall as it was a few years back when I used this program with my child. :) Do go through the main ebook first as the front portion contains plentiful information about using phonemic awareness and phonics-based programs and also highlight important points while using this program to teach your child.

      As for each lesson prep work, it doesn’t involve much time especially if you’ve already printed out all the necessary materials beforehand. The prep work is mainly listening to the audio files to learn the correct letter sounds ourselves so we can teach it to our child, and to run through the daily lesson so we know what we’re teaching for that day. It probably takes just a few minutes.

      It’s more about the parent setting aside time each day to teach their child and building a consistent pattern in going through the lessons. As your child is older, I won’t be surprised if he can absorb at a faster pace and might be able to proceed with the program faster than the younger children.

      Wishing you all the best in using the program on your son!

  19. Hi Fion,

    Is this program’s phonics similar to Jolly Phonics? My boys is learning Jolly Phonics method and I really like your review of this Children Learning Reading program. Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Ai Ling

    1. Hi Ai Ling,

      I’ve not used Jolly Phonics before so I can’t comment much on it. But I’ve briefly looked through their website and it looks like they’re using synthetic phonics (explicit phonics) to teach children about the letter sounds and blending of words. Children Learning Reading program teaches a child to read using explicit phonics.

      If your boy is learning well with Jolly Phonics method, maybe you can continue using the program. How’s your experience in using Jolly Phonics so far?

      For the Children Learning Reading program, they use a simple, fuss-free and step-by-step approach in teaching the child to read. Their standard/premium packages include most of the materials (all digital) needed to teach the child to read at home and I would say that their prices are reasonable.

      Children Learning Reading program does not come with any CDs or DVDs that require kids to listen or watch. It’s all hands on where the parent will be the one teaching the child the daily lesson using simple printouts from the program. Hope this helps! :)

  20. Hi Fion, when I clicked on to add the order, I saw that they also offered “children learning numbers and math workbook” and “children learning reading phonics and phonemic awareness worksheet sets” for an additional cost, have you had experience with either one of those? I read somewhere in Jim’s website that Children Learning Reading Phonics & Phonemic Awareness Worksheet Sets is included in the Premium Package but wasn’t sure if that’s true. Thank you.

    1. Hi Nhi,

      You know what, when I made my purchase years ago, Jim has not released the phonemic awareness worksheets and the numbers and math workbook back then, so I can’t comment on these. But I think it’s great that he has added on more products to help out parents in teaching their kids to read and to learn about numeracy. I went to Jim’s website to check on the contents of his current premium package, and I don’t see the phonics and phonemic awareness worksheets being included. So I would say these are extra add-ons. Hope this helps! :)

  21. Is it too late for my daughter to learn she’s 4.5 now? Feel bad she’s still clueless on how to read. She gets bored easily.

    1. Hi Lani,

      It’s definitely not too late to start your daughter. She’s only 4.5 years old now. It’s a good time to start though. The lessons are short to keep the short attention of children in mind. And if she does lose interest during the midst of a lesson, just come back to it again later. Keep it fun and it’ll be easier for her to learn.

  22. Hi Fion,
    Thanks for sharing your story. I was very convinced to purchase the package after reading your review. However the website doesn’t seem to have the same standard/premium packafe option but instead having the option below:
    -How To Teach Any Child To Read With This Proven Method + Phonics & PA Worksheet Sets
    -Children learning numbers and math workbook
    They only have pdf files and worksheets and no mp3 files. And nothing mentioned about the stage 1/stage 2. Is it the same from your package?
    Thanks

    1. Hi Anne,

      I’ve just checked and it seems like the Standard and Premium packages are still available. If you click on this link, it’ll bring you to the sales page of the Children Learning Reading Program, and if you scroll down, you’ll see the big green button “Teach My Child to Read”. Click on this green button and it’ll bring you to the product page where it’ll list out the items included in the Standard and Premium packages, and from there you can choose the package to purchase. Hope this helps! :)

  23. Neetha Prakash

    Hi Fion,

    Thank you for the detailed explanation about this program. So my twins are 3 years and 3 months and can identify few alphabets and their letter sounds now. I am worried as their attention span is too short … May be 5 to 10 mins. I am very much aware of how important Phonics is for the child to be able to read and communicate fluently later on. After reading through your write up, I am convinced to go ahead and buy this program for them. But we live in India and I am sceptical about how this program is going to benefit my kids considering the accent used in it. Please help!

    Thanks much,
    Neetha

    1. Hi Neetha,

      It’s natural for toddlers to have a short attention span. As I remember, there are two stages of lessons in this program. Stage 1 lessons are usually short, and previously I normally did it within 7 minutes with my toddler son, Kaden. Stage 2 lessons might be slightly longer and could take up to 10 minutes. But you have two kids, so it might take longer than what I had experienced.

      Some days, it might be easier for you to go through the lesson with them if they are more focused. Other days, they might be restless and if that’s the case, cut short the lesson and come back to it later that day or the next day. As they are still young and there are two of them, you have to be more patient, and if it does take you longer to complete that day’s lesson, it’s fine, don’t rush through it, but proceed with the step-by-step lessons at your own pace.

      As for the accent used in the program, well, I had no problem with it. All the letter sounds on the audio files are pronounced clearly. Since I was the one who listened to the Letter Sounds MP3 Audio Clips from this program, I had to learn how to properly pronounce each letter sound before teaching it to my son. So you’ll have to spend a bit of time going through that day’s lesson in advance before you can teach it to your twins. Remember to keep it short and fun for them.

      More importantly, the Children Learning Reading program is to equip the parent with the right program to teach their own children how to pronounce letter sounds and how to blend letter sounds to read words, and later on to master the reading skill which is crucial to learning subjects that are taught in English at school. Hope this helps and have a fun journey in teaching your toddler twins to read!

  24. Hi Fion,

    May I have your opinion about the program ?
    We’re from non-english speaking country, we study english language as a foreign language.
    My son is 5 years now, he knows the alphabet, he learns phonic sound from youtube, he can understand some sentences, he can response me for some simple question.

    Will this program work for him ?

    1. Hi JJ,

      I used the Children Learning Reading program more than 7 years ago to teach my son to read. He’s 10 this year. I have to say, teaching him to read with this program when he was a toddler seems to give him a headstart in school. During his kindergarten days, he was the earliest English reader among his classmates back then. Because of his early English reading and writing skills, he also did well academically in his lower primary school years while some of his classmates struggled to learn to read and write in English and also having to learn other subjects such as Mathematics and Chinese at the same time. Due to his grasp of the English language, so far he is able to cope well with his his Mathematics and Science lessons that are taught in English as well.

      In your case, if one of the parents can speak and write in English, and by following the step-by-step lessons from the program, I believe you can make this program work for your son. More importantly, there must be a committed parent who is willing to invest time to go through each lesson in advance, before teaching it to your son. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know phonics, I also picked it up when I went through the lessons on my own before I taught it to my son. Not to worry, each lesson is short, but consistency is the key.

      Try to create an environment for him where he is exposed to English regularly. You’re already doing it by letting him learn the phonic sounds from YouTube videos. Maybe you can also search for some easy and rhyming English children songs from YouTube to let your son listen to. Some examples of songs are “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, “Incy Wincy Spider”, “The Wheels on the Bus”, “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and there are many others. The thing with learning through music is that it’s more fun and with repetition, your child might be picking up new words without being aware that he is learning English.

      And it’ll be great if one of the parents can read to him children’s storybooks in English on a daily basis until he is able to read on his own. This not only creates quality bonding time with your child, but it’s a wonderful way to teach your child to read. By taking the time to read to your child each day, you will be exposing him to the wonderful world of stories and books in the English language.

      By creating the environment and putting in efforts to use the Children Learning Reading program, I believe you can teach your child to read. All the best!

  25. I agree. This is a good-quality reading program… Besides, very affordable, when you think about it. You don’t have to buy lots of levels. I also like the simplicity of it (I call it a no-frills approach), but I love the fact that it is so easy to implement!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.