Teaching my stuggling son to read. Any tips

[BlackL]

Hi,
Can anyone give me any further tips in helping my son to read? He is going into year 3 and still at the begining of level 2! Even level one oxford reading tree is difficult for him. He made very little progress last year at school.
We have been working hard over the summer holidays, however one day he will know the word and stare blankly at it the next. Doesnt seem to matter what time is put into it, we still have so little sucess. He mixes letters round alot too. (on/no, was/saw) reversals with writing too. He misreads letters even tho he knows his letters well.
We have worked hard on phonics and he knows all the sounds. We also read every day (I read one and then he would read one) Blending seems to be the biggest problem. We read signs when out and about, play sound games, etc

We are going to see a b optrometrist, to rule out vision problems.
I have tried google, but there is so much different advice out there its hard to know wheres best to start. I have subscribed with reading eggs and education city and we work through jolly phonics worksheets/cd rom.
Memory in general isnt bad, he remembers what he reads, its just so hard for him to read the words. I do have concerns for dyslexia but i know its too soon. I just want to help him read but no matter what I do, doesnt seem to help :(

Any advice or personal experiences would be great.

You might want to look at Gary Wilson's top tips for encouraging boys

Now Im torn between which to choose (grin)
BRI (piperbooks) or Dancing bears?? Ive read into both of them and looked at what other threads say. BRI look quite dull and dont appeal to me, however ALOT of positive comments on them and as they say "never judge a book by its cover" Dancing bears looks gr8 too.
no wonder my son is so indecisive! I wonder who he takes after??

You might need Bear Necessities rather than dancing bears.....

Go through the sample pages/book with your DS - what can look quite dull to adult eyes may be very appealing to them as well as the opposite. My DS has used the BRI system and he loves it, particularly being able to have a book that he's read himself (and buying one set is quite inexpensive comparative to most reading sets I've seen). We're using it alongside Phonic Pathways for extra practice/repetition (as my son is the type that once he's gone through it once to his satisfaction, he doesn't want to do it again without much whinging unless he's showing it to someone new).

Thanks Indigobell, I was thinking bear necessities myself :)