Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons vs The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

The sharpest difference is rigor: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is relaxed, The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading is on grade. Everything else the site measures lines up.

At a glance

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Grades PreK-1

Owners report it suits

Multi-age families

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Grades PreK-5

Owners report it suits

Advanced/gifted

Both are reported to suit Struggling learners.

Skip to who fits

Where they differ

Attribute Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Rigor
?

How demanding the material is versus grade level. Where a program lands on the 1 to 5 scale:

  1. 1gentle, below grade
  2. 2relaxed
  3. 3on grade
  4. 4demanding
  5. 5advanced
Read the rigor guide
Best for Tags show where owners consistently report a good fit. They are not exclusions. Struggling learnersMulti-age families Advanced/giftedStruggling learners
Method TraditionalSynthetic phonics TraditionalClassicalSynthetic phonics
Grades PreK-1 PreK-5

Solid tags are unique to that program. Muted tags are carried by both.

Where they match

How each one plays by grade

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading runs 4 grades further than Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. If you want one program to carry the subject for the long haul, plan on leaving Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons around grade 1 and choosing again.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Grades PreK-1

Most families start between ages 4 and 6 once the child shows readiness. After the book, families move to easy readers or a fuller phonics program.

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Grades PreK-5

Covers concepts from kindergarten through roughly fourth or fifth grade. Many families pause partway once early reading is solid, then return for the advanced lessons.

Cost

Cost item Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Price $16-25 (one book) $32-40 (both books)
Consumable No No
Per child / year ~$20 once, reusable across kids ~$35 once, ~$10-15/child-year over the years it takes

Where to buy

What parents report

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Consistently praised

  • Cheap and it works
  • The script means a parent needn't know phonics
  • Kids hit a solid second-grade level in 100 lessons
  • One book taught all their kids
  • Twenty-minute lessons keep it doable

Reported as challenges

  • Plain black and white pages, no color
  • The stories feel silly or dry to parents
  • The "bet you can't" wording rubs some parents wrong
  • The last 40 lessons drag

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Consistently praised

  • Fully scripted, so any parent can teach it
  • Inexpensive for how thorough it is
  • Takes a child from letter sounds to advanced words
  • Built-in review keeps skills from slipping
  • No spelling or writing mixed in, lessons stay focused

Reported as challenges

  • The scripting gets repetitive and predictable
  • Text-heavy with no color or games
  • It can take a few years to finish
  • Some kids need phonics readers added for practice

Who Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons fits

Budget-minded families who want a scripted, no-prep way to get a young child reading and don't mind plain pages. Kinesthetic kids and children who need games or extra decoding practice often do better with something more hands-on.

Read the full Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons entry Check price Simon and Schuster

Who The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading fits

Suits parents who want a thorough, low-cost phonics spine they can open and teach, including remedial work with an older child who missed phonics. Families wanting hands-on activities or a colorful all-in-one kit should keep looking. It's frequently paired with Explode the Code for written practice.

Read the full The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading entry Check price Well-Trained Mind Press

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes how a curriculum is described or scored.

Still deciding?

The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading compared with

Descriptions aggregate what homeschool parents consistently report across public community sources together with each publisher's own materials. Prices and editions change over time. Both entries last reviewed July 2026.