Elijah is 8 years old and has really struggled to read and write. We took him out of school to homeschool him when he was in Year 1 because he was so clearly unhappy. (One large reason for this was that he was labelling himself ‘stupid’ because he couldn’t read and record his thoughts like his friends could.) So we have homeschooled for nearly 3 years and the road towards learning to read has been a tough one. He has found it very hard, stressful and fustrating. Just getting him to sit down and try was like re-enacting World War II and It became evident that what would take an average child 20 mins was taking us an hour.
A couple of months ago I came to the conclusion that we needed some outside help (we haven’t had him officially tested but I am quite dyslexic and I am sure he is too) and so took a deep breath and started to do some research into what would be best. I suppose I was really thinking we would have to find him a trained teacher, and squirming in my shoes at the thought of the cost. But early on in my research I found Easyread.
What a surprise and blessing it has been. Reading lessons were the most painful part of our day but now all that has changed. As per advice that you gave me when we started, we dropped all our other attempts to teach literacy and just did the 10 min lesson online. The first few weeks he ran to the computer and even asked to do it on weekends – and he was massively incentivised by the prizes. Now the novelty has definitely worn off but he doesn’t resist doing the lessons and I think gains a certain amount of satisfaction from them (his main complaint is the repetitiveness of the lessons) and is undoubtedly gaining in confidence and belief in himself.
He has now been doing the programme I think about 8 weeks and we are beginning to see improvements in his reading – he is certainly attempting to read things in a way that he never has before and I think he is beginning to believe that one day he will actually read – that’s massive for him. He particularly enjoyed the skype lesson he had and totally loves the prizes.
For me it has been WONDERFUL to have the stress of teaching him taken off my shoulders for what is a relatively affordable price (when I started my research I never dreamed we would find a programe like this to fit our needs at your price). And I have appreciated the ready support both on line and over the phone. I also really appreciated the eye excercises and the training videos and emails. All great for creating buy-in for both Elijah and myself, and have gone a long way to creating a sense of safety and confidence in the system. So far Easyread has had an incredibly positive impact on all of us. The stress levels in our lives have gone right down!
I have to confess that I am still unsure how he is going to make the leap from reading fluently without the characters. However, we are impressed enough with progress so far, and bought-in enough and intrigued enough, to see it through to the end! And we are hopeful.
Thanks again for all your help. Here’s to having a son who can read in the near future!
– J