Renie, What a lovely success you have had! So glad your DD has caught fire.
I think the take home message isn't about computers being better teachers, it's about 'Each child deserves to be well thought about by at least one person!'
And you persisted and tried things and took chances until you found something that worked! Yippee! You were her 'one person!' ((little tear))
My guess is that you've been struggling because her 'range of readiness level' strunk into negative space. That what I call it when 'level 1' looks too babyish to the child, and 'level 2' is way too hard! This can be due to many things, but a steady diet of unchallenging academic work is a prime suspect.
So the good news is that with this success-after-struggle in her portfolio, her range of readiness level become wider, and it will be easier for her take on the next challenge, and easier for you to figure out what the next challenge might be.
My son also struggled with learning to read, in part I think because his eye movement maturity was 'only' age appropriate, but quite a bit because his pride wouldn't let him be seen failing at reading 'baby books.' 'NO BOOKS ABOUT TALKING ANIMALS' was his direction about what to bring home from the library. Trying to be light about the whole thing, I asked the librarian if she had any easy readers about weapons or poisons. Everyone thought I was nuts to be worried about his reading progress at age 5, and so I backed off, and just waited until he learned at school in 1st grade at age 6. (he knew all the letter sounds at age 2, and wanted to read from age 3) I wish I had had all of you with me back then.
DS13 now thinks that if I had tried to teach him phonics verbally instead of pointing to letters in a book, and quized him: If p-a-t is 'pat' what is 'b-a-t?' sort of thing. Who knows? The reader rabit phonic program didn't help him, and I didn't help him, but as he grew, it fell into place. I did better later in Math, but it took at least 3 years to get to where you are now with my understanding of my son.
Love and More Love,
Grinity
