What I wish I had known when my dyslexic ds14 was in K5

Images used with permission from PictureMeReading.com

Picture Me Reading has been used to teach children to read whose parents were told that their child could not learn to read!
There are many testimonials and lots of information on the Picture Me Reading site, but the article that is of most interest to me is How it Began.
Reading it can tell you so much more than I can write here.

I have a dyslexic son who is 14, and I wish I had known of this resource years ago.  He had such trouble learning phonics, which I have always firmly believed in.  I learned phonics through A Beka in a Christian school.  Although I was in kindergarten nearly 35 years ago, when I started homeschooling my own kids I remembered whole sections of phonics charts!
But my son did not do well with phonics.  I tried other curricula, different methods, different resources, and it was a long, slow process.  I can't tell you any one particular product that actually made it click for him.  =\
But finally... a few years ago, he began trying to read hunting magazines, or websites online about hunting, knives, guns, etc, and because he wanted to know the information, he tried.  He used Natural Reader (a free download unless you want the very nice paid version!) to read words or phrases to him he couldn't read.

T looks like Tina's tiny tack 
Which she will hammer now.
"T-t-t," is what we'll hear     
As Tina shows us how.   

  He hasn't used it in over a year now except for proofreading
  things he has to write for school.  (The things he writes aren't
  long, but it helps him to hear it.)
  He has taught himself to sight read.
  I used to worry over his not knowing phonics, but he's doing
  okay now.  Not exactly on grade level, but I no longer worry.  I
  know that if he continues to read things he's interested in, he
  is practicing, and he will learn.
  Phonics certainly didn't work for him, but I know he retained
  some of it.  I know it did help him somewhat in learning to
  sight read.  But we used to work on sounds for weeks, and he
  still couldn't retain it.
  I still remember when he read "lid" as "pil."

  I have read (more than once) that to some kids all the letters
  are just squiggles that mean nothing to them because they
  don't have a picture to associate with them.

That and the testimonials to such is why I believe that Picture Me Reading will work for any child, even if they aren't having trouble learning phonics.  In some curricula, sight words are only words that cannot be sounded out phonetically, so they must be memorized.  Other curricula include "most common words" as part of their sight word list.  Even if your child is doing well phonetically, Picture Me Reading can greatly help in learning at least the sight words.
Go to Try it Now to get free samples emailed to you.  You can also learn how to begin teaching and how to make some flashcards of your own.
I receive no compensation from Picture Me Reading.  They do not know I am writing this post or that I even exist!   2/7/12 - They do now!  =)  
I just think this is a great product that I wish I had known about years ago and wanted to share.
I hope it can help someone.  =)