We've always used a combination of Leap Frog products and Bob Books to teach our kids to read. This worked great for our first two kids. But when our 5-yo girl recently started reading books on her own while our 6-yo boy was still struggling with phonics readers, we suspected we had a problem. We're looking into whether it's got a name.
In the mean time, we've found two products that have helped him catch up somewhat. The first is a book called Reading Reflex that I'd used with teenagers some years back. It starts out with manipulative letters (lots of prep time needed) to build awareness of phonemes and letter order, then teaches a few extra sounds--ch, sh, etc. Then it moves into the advanced code, especially focusing on vowels (but losing the manipulatives, I'm afraid). We don't do all the supplemental activities, but it can get as involved as you want. To add motivation, we give him a cheeseball every few words. The activities in this book haven't made him a perfect reader, but they've de-mystified a lot of the code for him.
The other thing that's helped him is our purchase of the Faith and Freedom Readers from Seton (BTW, we aren't normally Seton-type people, but more eclectic or tidal). This series is just super; pure Catholicism! (Yes, no one is carrying cell phones, but it's otherwise excellent.) The 6 yo boy is through the first reader and well into the second, and he's *enjoying* reading them. The bonus is that our 8-yo girl and 10-yo boy glommed on to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade books and drank them up in a matter of days. Pure gold.
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