All is well! Elizabeth willingly and without resistance sits down to her daily practice session. That alone is a major accomplishment.
Further, she was a chronic guesser, using her wonderful word sense, her memory, and the pictures to put it all together. She just did not want to slow down and decode.

Now, more often than not, she begins with decoding! As such her accuracy, especially on the smaller words (on, of, for, it, if, and) is nearly 100% and we are only 6 weeks in!

The other major advancement I noticed is her trying to read words around the house, out and about, etc. She NEVER used to attempt words outside of a reading session. Her brain really seems to be picking it up and using the skills more naturally. It is thrilling to see this progress.

Finally, your training and emails are invaluable. One of the major strengths is the one-to-one coaching through phone calls, where I can get my exact questions answered.

The focus on the psychology and mindset are genius, as well, for both parent and child, with effects that go far beyond the reading relationship.

Before the system, we spent three years trying to get her to sit down to read. Not once did she do so willingly. Most of the time, her heels were dug in and she was sour.

Now, outside of the system, we sit down at the end of the day to do her reading and she does so without resistance!!! I think she feels as if she has the skills to do it.

More importantly, I’ll bet she feels the difference in me as a reading partner. I work to keep it positive and no longer try to get her to push through her discomfort like a drill sergeant. If she is fatiguing or getting frustrated we simply end the practice with a simple, “Let’s take a break and come back when we feel better.”

I remind myself, “That’ll do pig” (Babe reference David told me about when I asked him whether we are looking for perfection). The phrase reminds me to see the big picture, celebrate progress, keep everyone positive and, importantly, help her to keep doing the work willingly and with consistency.

It all makes the practice much lighter, and that feels better to both of us. I would not have had this perspective without the coaching provided by your training.

All in all, great work. So glad you are out there doing this work.

– K (at lesson 50)

I am the most pleased with his boosted confidence and the fact that his love of books is coming out. Before we found this program, he loved to be read to, but you could not get him to read a book on his own or to you for anything. He would come home crying about how everyone was ahead of him at school, and the reading was affecting his work in all of his subjects. It was a nightmare. He still has struggles finishing his work because it takes him a while to read it, and things are not super easy for him, but he got a 100% on his last reading test, and his teacher was nearly giddy with excitement. These successes would not have been possible before. This has given him hope.

Jennifer (at lesson 33)

We are really enjoying the program, and I honestly can’t say I would change anything. I am so excited to see M decoding words from start to finish, not only with the program but with other books as well. We have had 2 “firsts” this week; First of all Mathew drew a picture which included a sentence explaining his picture, and secondly he picked out and brought two books to me to read on his own. He has never ever voluntarily written anything up until this point, and he has also never voluntarily read a book to me.

Because of M’s successes so far and our wonderful school’s readiness to accommodate his special learning needs, we have decided to enrol him in school again. He attended kindergarten and first grade in school, but his difficulties reading had become so apparent that I didn’t think he could continue in the classroom setting appropriately. I homeschooled him for second grade and the beginning of third grade, His math, auditory memory, and reasoning skills have been progressing beautifully, but throughout second grade I could not see much improvement with his reading. That is until we discovered easy read, and it has made all the difference in the world. He started second-quarter of third grade this week.

It will definitely be a challenge to do both his homework and his easy read program now that he’s in school, but we will make it a priority. Thank you so much for developing this program.

Sincerely,
K (at lesson 43)
P.S. I do not mind if you quote anything that I said, but I would like M’s and my name to be left out. Thank you!

We already have seen some changes with Adyson and her reading for the better. We had a “reading meeting” with her reading teacher as well as her regular teacher. Adyson is almost up to grade level which is good. They are seeing her decode well, and her spelling is good too. – T (at lesson 30)

1 – In what ways has the system been different to what you expected?
ANSWER: (1) It offers much more parental training and support than I expected. (2) My child is enjoying the program and looking forward to her lessons much more than I would have anticipated, especially since we mostly do them at the end of a long school day and homework sessions.

2 – Does it feel, at this early stage, as if we are going to deliver on our promises of breakthroughs in due course and what main worries remain for you?
ANSWER: Yes, I can already see that she is shifting her strategy toward decoding, and that her enthusiasm about the program will keep her on track.

3 – What have been your biggest frustrations with the course so far? To be honest, I haven’t had any frustrations yet.
(a) –
(b) –
(c) –
(d) –

4 – What were the two most important factors for you when you looked at our website, in choosing to give the trial a go?
(a) – I did not see anything gimmicky about it–in other words, there was a high level of authenticity that was not undercut by poor marketing strategies.
(b) – You have an extremely thoughtful and differentiated approach that draws on science and the latest studies and that intuitively I felt would resonate with my child.

5 – And what two worries/questions most made you hesitate before starting the trial?
(a) – Whether my child would \”get on board\” with the program, participating every day.
(b) – Whether my child would be a good fit for your program or would be an outlier for whom it just wouldn’t work.

6 – What do you most like about the course?
ANSWER: It’s hard to choose just one thing, but having my daughter beg me to let her “do Easyread” has got to take first place. Her face lights up while she’s doing it. You’re on to something very real here. Thank you!