There has been some weeping and a little gnashing of the teeth along the way. We (the book and I) are a little worn from the experience. But, the process of teaching my kids to read while snuggled on the green couch, soft light-brown hair against my cheek with this plain but powerful book has been one of the most satisfying joys of my life.
The book ends on the fourth grade level. Neither of my kids were reading on the fourth grade level at the end of this. Not even close. However, they were both solid readers and had at least been exposed to all of the phonics rules that the English language has to offer.
I know from going through the process with my son, it'll take a lot more time for that information to distill. I've found All About Spelling to be an excellent follow-up. It goes through the same phonics rules (only much, much more slowly and thoroughly) from a spelling angle.
With both kids the question was: Where do we go from here? With my son, we launched into McGuffey's Third Eclectic Reader, which is recommended in The Well-Trained Mind. I loved that. My son didn't. It is a little heavy-handed in teaching moral lessons. I loved that. My son didn't.
Even though I want them to learn whether or not they find it pleasant, I do want reading to be a joyful experience, so I'm going to go a different route for the younger one. I'm going to have her read aloud to me the early-reader classics. I've made a page for her first grade reading list. Here it is.
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