Hi Lucy,
I was searching the web to gain people's opinions on Letterland and came across yours. I joined this forum so that I could reply.
I am a retired ex headteacher of 3 primary/infant/nursery schools and an ex OFSTED (UK) schools inspector. I came across Letterland as a student teacher in the early 70's and adopted it immediately. I have used it in every school I taught and introduced it into the 3 schools I headed. It was fantastically successful and soon early year teachers and special needs teachers from other schools were visiting me to find out the secret of our reading success. It conforms with the latest reports on the best method to get child to read using 'synthetic phonics' and helps children associate the sounds with the letter characters, as well as help them form letters correctly and aids their spelling. I really can't praise it enough. However the only difficulty you may face is choosing what you can afford and what is manageable for your life style in terms of quality time available with your child. The First Reading flashcards are the most essential teaching aid along with the Letterland ABC book and Early Years Handbook. Start from there if your child is ready for reading. Is your child ready for formal reading? You need to find out by searching on 'Reading Readiness' and see if your child has all,or most, of the skills to begin. Then little and often, learning the associated sounds with the characters using the flashcards until they know them all against a 30 second timer. Lots of praise and always finish on success. Success breeds success. Don't let them blend non phonetic words like saw or 'was' or 'one'. Have a go and good luck. Roger
PS I don't work for Letterland just in case you were wondering!