Is your child struggling to read and/or write?  If so, don't wait to do something about it. Act NOW!

More and more, kids are being "taught" to read and write through "sight words".  Unfortunately, drilling kids with lists of sight words and/or asking them to read "easy readers" full of them before they have an adequate understanding of how letters and sounds work together to make words does little to adequately teach them how to read and/or write effectively.  As a result, many taught in this way are forced to rely on their memories to read and/or write anything placed before them.  Those who can't keep up with the constant stream of words they are expected to "somehow know" typically end up "guess reading" -- calling out words according to their general length, shape, and possibly a familiar letter or two in a word.  Sometimes they are correct, but many times they aren't.  You might hear beginning "guess readers" call out such things as "is" for in, "why" for very, "that" for with, "saw" for was, or "thick" for think.  Often, they will even insist on calling out "A" for I!  More advanced "guess readers" might initially seem to be "readers" due to the large number of sight words they have somehow managed to acquire, but if you listen to them read text they are not already familiar with, they will often give themselves away quite quickly.  After all, whenever they get to words they don't know, they will most likely be forced to either skip them altogether or guess at what they say.  You might hear them mistakenly call out such things as "excite" for exhibit, "accepted" for accident, or "lurched" for launched.  "Deserved" could come out as discovered, "meager" as measure, "pleaded" as pleased, and "static" as state.  As the text gets more and more difficult, these "guess readers" tend to miscall more and more words.  Eventually, they struggle to comprehend much of anything they read due to their inability to accurately decode unknown words and/or their tendency to either guess what the unknown words say or to skip them altogether.  Unfortunately, once this "guess reading" habit has formed, it is difficult to break.  The longer you continue to ask your child to read and/or write words they don't understand (without explaining how the letters and sounds are working together to make words), the worse and more ingrained this habit is likely to become.

Thankfully, there are ways to break this self-defeating habit or, better yet, prevent it altogether.  To do so, you need to walk your kids through the process of how to read and/or write words.  Instead of pushing sight words, you need to: 1) make sure your child knows all of the letters and sounds, 2) make sure your child can effectively blend letters and sounds together into words, 3) make sure your child knows all of the "tricks" (the letters and/or letter combinations that create new sounds when they appear together or in a certain position in words), 4) help your child adjust common "outlaw" words (such as could, would, though, once, etc.) after sounding them out, and 5) give your child lots of guided practice sounding out words to read and write real text.

Soon we will have online lessons to help guide you through this process.  In the meantime, we are offering our carefully ordered phonetic word cards to help you navigate your way through the reading and writing process with your kids.  There are two sets -- one for new readers and/or writers (generally k-1st graders) and one for more advanced ones (2nd and up).  When you sign up, you will have access to both.  Despite which stack you use, follow the order provided, beginning with short vowel words and moving down the appropriate column as preceding tricks have been mastered.  You will find that each new trick reviews old tricks by utilizing them in the new words.  You will also find that the words become increasingly more difficult as you progress.  As long as your child has mastered the list before, this should not be a problem.  Eventually, you should find that your child tackles each new word with confidence and ease.  If for some reason you don't, consider getting your child fully tested by a professional who might be able to pinpoint any learning disorders, processing issues, or undetected eye issues that might be preventing further progress.