Parent Reviews of Easyread
Our most recent reviews:
Wonderful experience and teaching strategies
Thank you for the wonderful experience and teaching strategies he has mastered. We appreciate all that has been developed over the past year and half.
Case Study: Attention issues can’t hold Ian back!
Before Easyread || When I realized Ian was not progressing in reading, I knew to contact Easyread because his sister completed the program two years ago. Both he and his sister have attention issues, so Easyread’s short daily lessons are perfect for their attention spans. I witnessed a complete turnaround from the stressed boy saying, “I just can’t read this” before Easyread. At school, Ian would cry almost everyday during his reading group and he strongly disliked reading to me at home (tears and tantrums!).
The Easyread Process || The easiest part of coaching both of my children through Easyread is the program itself. The lessons and games are fun and engaging. I love the library of books that has been added since my daughter completed the program. It is so nice to have book choices for different personalities.
The hardest part of Easyread may be pushing through the lessons after the novelty wears off for your child. We began doing lessons daily, until my little negotiator Ian decided he needed a break on every zero lesson (50, 60, 70, etc.). Eventually, Ian and I began doing Easyread Sunday – Thursday, skipping on Friday and Saturday, as he completed his school year. With Ian I also had to give him high-five praise more than verbal praise because the verbal praise broke his concentration.
Results || In mid-January, Ian was on D level for classroom reading. He had ended his kindergarten year on C level, so he had only progressed one level in a full semester of first grade without Easyread. His school’s goal for the end of first grade is J level. But at Ian’s last evaluation in mid-May, he was reading on I level (and almost passed his J level!). His teacher was amazed at how he progressed after we began Easyread at home.
Easyread has made Ian believe he is a reader. He wants to decode the words himself and gets frustrated if I help him!
I view reading not only as essential for learning, but also something I want my children to enjoy for life. Easyread has helped both of my children reach goals to help them feel more confident at school and home. Ian’s sister now reads 200+ page books and I have to tell her to stop reading and go to bed. I frequently tell parents and teachers about Easyread because I have witnessed the program’s effectiveness twice!
Filled with gratitude for your support
I am writing this to let you know that Andrew will be finishing up his subscription with EasyRead at the end of the next billing cycle. However, I wanted to take some time to thank you all very much for having a program like this that helped him out tremendously. We are filled with gratitude for your continuous support throughout our membership.
So wonderful for Ian…
Easyread has been so wonderful for Ian and I am well pleased with the results I have seen. He recently told me that he wants to be like his sister and read his books at night before bed. He actually gets irritated with me if I offer too much help when he is decoding! He says, “I was still working on it.”
i can now tell the difference between how and who
A message from 9 year-old Meiyi who has now finished Easyread:
“Thank you for every thing you have done I have really enjoyed everything. My favourite games were spell drive and fighter mission.
I like all your books in the reading section and my reading has really improved ! My spelling also has improved and i can now tell the difference between how and who . I love all your updates especially on fighter mission as now i could challenge myself and now I have compared myself and think i have improved. I have had tough times but have always got through them.
thank you
Meiyi”
We love getting messages from our secret agents at the end of the course because we know what a journey it’s been to get them to the point of writing that message. Congratulations from all of us, Meiyi! We know you’re going to go on to do great things.
It’s so nice how you care about all the kids
“I know I always rave about the programme, but one thing I might not have said yet is that it’s so nice how you care about all the kids! Even though we’re on the other side of the world, I’ve always had the strong sense that you are actually interested in his progress and achievements, and it’s been wonderful. And Arlo winning the award at the start of the year was brilliant – a real confidence boost!
Also, Arlo’s spelling has improved incredibly. A year and a half ago his writing was purely phonetic, nothing was spelt correctly. You could always get the gist of what he was saying by reading it out, but it was pretty dismal… And while he still needs to work on his spelling (who doesn’t?) the difference is really amazing!”
Arlo’s mum at the end of the course. Even if you’re in New Zealand, no distance is too far for us to help!
You can read more about 12 year-old Arlo’s story here.
Easyread is perfect for my son who easily gets bored
“It is a very motivating programme and perfect for my son who easily gets bored. He loves Easyread. The prizes are fantastic! Perfect for him. I have recommended this programme to others.
Thanks.”
6 year-old Will’s mum
Reading explosion…he WANTS to read!
“Briggs is trying hard to do 5 eye tracking exercises a day and I am seeing it help in the lessons. I am thrilled because his reading has exploded in the last week. I can’t believe how well he is reading!! He sat down and read half a book to me with fluency and only needed help on a few tricky words, and best of all he wanted to read with me!!!!!!!! I truly can not express how happy we are with his progress.”
Reading explosion for 8 year-old Briggs, right around the 90 lesson mark. Go Briggs!
Easyread has changed our lives
Joshua is doing fantastic since finishing EasyRead at the end on March. We can’t say enough about your program and how it has and will have changed our lives. Thanks you so much again.
Homeschool mum and parent blogger posts about Easyread
Homeschool mum and parent blogger, Self-led Learning, posts an honest, unaffiliated review about her and her daughter R’s Easyread journey.
“It took 80 lessons for the really big breakthrough but early on her confidence had already increased and her attitude to reading. It is 15 minutes a day (commitment from the parent as well) and R has been KEEN to do it EVERY day! Anyone with a dyslexic child will understand what a big deal that is!”
Thanks so much for sharing your story, Self-led Learning! We’re so happy we’ve been able to help R enjoy reading, and we look forward to hearing how her spelling continues to improve.
You can read the full blog post here.
You have no idea the relief I feel…
“When we signed up we thought we’d do it for a couple of months, but Arlo’s loved it so much, and has made such phenomenal progress, that we ended up completing the whole programme!
Without your programme Arlo would have been another dismal reading statistic but now he can read really well, feels confident – really good about himself – and can go on to achieve his potential in life.
You have no idea the relief I feel!! It has been awful spending years trying to help him with his reading with minimal to no success and really in most cases all efforts just made things worse (by accidentally creating stress, anger and tension).
Your programme is brilliant! Thank you so much!” – Arlo’s mum
And this is Arlo’s short and sweet feedback about his thoughts on Easyread:
“I think it’s awesome. It’s really fun and I like the codewords [for prizes]. And I can read so much better now. Thanks Easyread.”
You’re so welcome Arlo!
12 year-old Arlo has gone from strength to strength on the Easyread programme – he was even our Breakthrough Reader of December! Here he is reading Gangsta Granny by his new favourite author, David Walliams.
Congratulations to Arlo and his mum on everything they’ve achieved together. We can’t wait to hear what Arlo goes on to do now.
We’re so honoured to have been able to help along the way.
Jordan is no longer dyslexic and Robert’s tracking is improving
“Thank you so much for all your care and concern. I am so pleased we found Easyread :)) You have helped both our children with their reading difficulties. Jordan is no longer dyslexic and is a confident reader at high school and Robert has new glasses which will help his eyes learn to focus and track. I know we will then see huge improvements with his reading confidence.
Even though both boys had 20/20 vision, on your advice we took them to the behavioural optometrist where glasses were prescribed.
WE WERE AMAZED TO FIND THAT BOTH BOYS HAD EXTREME VISION DIFFICULTIES!
When Jordan tried to read, the words jumped all over the page. He had never told us this. He thought it was normal. And Robert’s eyes jumped as he read along a line and he often missed or guessed words. He would complain of sore eyes, but we had taken him to eye specialists who hadn’t found anything wrong, and we thought he was just trying to avoid reading.
Jordan no longer needs to wear his glasses and Robert’s eyes should correct within the next year!
Without Easyread, we were really struggling to find out why our boys were having such difficulty with reading, despite all our efforts.
We are so pleased that Jordan’s high school is now going to trial the Easyread program, so that many other children and families can benefit, just as we did. I still think David deserves a humanitarian Nobel Prize for giving our kids the chance to read! Thank you.
PS It is wonderful to work with Easyread staff who genuinely want every child to be able to read, who are not motivated by money. The ability to read is priceless!
I recommend Easyread to everyone I can!
Many many thanks.
Robert and Jordan’s mum”
Just the best outcomes for both Jordan and Robert. We love what we do, and we love working with parents and teachers to change not only the way a child reads, but their whole life really.
If you think your child may have some eye-tracking difficulties, do get in touch, and we can send over our recommended exercises.
Maddie
6 years progression during Easyread!!
Hi David
I just wanted to share this with you. On our own assessments, that purely test de-coding skills, Cameron started Easyread in Year3 at 4 years and 3 months. He is now in Year4 at lesson 349 and we have done his final test, which has come out at 10 years and 2 months!
How wonderful to see all his hard work paying off!
Sarah at Thorndown Primary
I am hoping with time and practice we will tackle reading
“The Easyread program has been going well for Brennan. He still enjoys the lessons and doesn’t find them stressful. Over time he has become a lot quicker at decoding the characters and still enjoys the games. The lessons are short so he knows that in no time he will be done!
I haven’t seen significant changes with Brennan’s reading. He still seems to change the ending of words ex: excited instead of excites and he still adds words to a sentence. When he is reading out loud to me we are doing a lot more rereading sentences and I am praising him a lot more. I am hoping with time and practice we will tackle reading!!”
Everything is going well for 9 year-old Brennan at lesson 45. If there is a history of eye-tracking trouble, we’d recommend keeping the text size big, and continuing to work on the exercises, particularly if your child is feeling a bit tired.
I have learned to be a better parent teacher
I am very pleased with Easyread! I am amazed at how much my daughter’s confidence is already improving. The lessons are overall fun for her and keep her attention. She is even learning to be a “type ninja!” Through Easyread, I have learned to be a better parent teacher. I have learned how to both encourage her properly and how to correct her in a positive way so that she is not discouraged when reading is difficult.
You have renewed my hope
Oh my…. what an improvement. He read the words flawlessly, and sooooo much more quickly. Wow, I am dumbfounded. It IS working!!! Praise the Lord!!! He read from the book shelf “The beautiful Daughter Marian” in a flash… no pictures even!!!
Incredible. Thank you Thank you Thank you. You have renewed my hope!!!!
Ever so grateful, Mom Kathy
Breakthrough Readers of April and May
Even though we’ve had a very busy month (thank you again for all of your support during our Virgin Media Business Awards campaign!) we couldn’t forget our Breakthrough Readers of the month!
So please join us in congratulating our secret agents who have been awarded their Breakthrough Badges for April and May, and celebrate the excellent progress they’ve made.
Molly
6 year-old Molly joined the Easyread programme in January of this year. Whilst Molly was fairly confident in her reading, she would still reverse words such as “was”, and she struggled with the letters “b” and “d”. Molly would often reverse numbers in maths too. She also found spelling difficult.
After around 100 lessons on the course, Molly has now finished the programme.
Her mum says that Molly is “doing well in her reading and is much more confident. We [Molly’s parents] feel that Easyread has given her the boost she needed to help with reading, spelling, and even little things like putting finger spaces in her writing at school.
Her teacher said she feels that ‘everything has come together’ for Molly.”
Well done Molly!
Taylor
13 year-old Taylor’s parents had been told by two specialists that he has dyslexia. Taylor struggled with spelling, and his parents had tried various curriculums in their homeschool and had struggled with each one. In standardized testing, Taylor also received low scores for reading comprehension. He still flipped his “b”s and “ds” from time to time.
After around 90 lessons of Easyread, Taylor had his results in from the yearly Standford 10 testing. Taylor saw improved scores in all subjects, which was exciting as his mum said they had been “seeing scores “plateau” over the last couple of years.” Other areas of Taylor’s learning had gone up by 5 grade levels! Taylor is still currently spelling at a 3rd grade level, but we wouldn’t expect to see big changes in spelling at this stage of the course.
Congratulations Taylor and we can’t wait to hear all about the spelling improvements next year!
Greyson
Before 13 year-old Greyson started Easyread, poor spelling was the most noticeable factor that Greyson was struggling with reading and writing. Driving around town, Greyson would also read street signs or store signs incorrectly.
His mum said that when there are one or two words standing alone, it was difficult for him to read. But bizarrely, if he had those words within a context of a sentence, he would most likely read it correctly.
When reading out loud, Greyson was known to skip or get the small “unimportant” words wrong. And yet, his reading comprehension seemed fine.
Greyson had also been diagnosed with mild dyslexia.
But at lesson 90, we received this wonderful message from Greyson’s mum, after receiving the results from their yearly Standford 10 tests: “He improved in every subject and surprisingly, Greyson made a big jump in math scores. I bet Easyread has something to do with that? Greyson got a “below average” score in spelling, but we were expecting that considering where we’re at in the program. However, that score still slightly improved over last year.”
An improvement in accuracy when reading questions, improved eye-tracking and a general confidence boost, will most likely have helped Greyson in his maths scores, I’m sure. Well done Greyson! Again, we can’t wait to hear how well the spelling has progressed in next year’s scores.
Ryan
10 year-old Ryan struggled with focus when he read. Before Easyread, he wanted to go faster with his reading, so he guessed at words and would then get frustrated when his parents had to help him. They had tried conventional phonics programmes, reading easy to read stories, sight words, but nothing seemed to resonate for Ryan. His mum wanted to unlock him to be able to unlock his full potential as she said, “He is very smart, but is so frustrated with reading that it is causing a strain on all learning.”
Ryan realised early on in the course that “the black words on the white page hurt [his] head but if [he did] it with the blue [he] can see the words and read them”, and since then his confidence really rocketed (you can read more about Ryan’s contrast sensitivity here). Around lesson 120, Ryan’s mum told us that “he is really starting to take off with his reading! It is exciting to see!”
It really is exciting to see! Well done Ryan, keep up the great work!
Rose
When Rose began Easyread, her mum told us that her reading was coming on very well, but said that this reading was mostly sight reading rather than sounding out. In her home-school lessons Rose seemed to be managing well with quite complex books. They hadn’t focused on writing too much, so they were looking to improve on that too.
At around lesson 90, we received this message from Rose’s mum:
“Easyread has been really fantastic for Rose (11), increasing her confidence and finally giving her the ability to unlock the mystery of breaking down words that had eluded her for so long. Such a helpful and supportive team too. (We kept that bit in J)”
Congratulations Rose! Such great progress in such a short space of time. Can’t wait to hear how the spelling comes on now.
If you feel like your child has reached the point of reading take-off and we haven’t included them this month, then do let us know, so we can send their badge out to them for this month. And do let us know if you’re having any worries around this stage too – we’re here to help every child achieve their breakthrough.
…
As you know, every month we are picking a Breakthrough Reader of the month (or months, in this case!) whose journey has stood out for us for one reason or another.
We’ve chosen 11 year-old Kate from Australia as our Breakthrough Reader of the month. You can read all about her story below, and see the photos from her zoo experience day to celebrate!
Kate
Before Easyread, 11 year-old Kate didn’t like to read anything. Her mum had read to her every day for years, and her verbal communication was of a high standard. Similarly, her comprehension was also very high, if the text was read to her.
But when it came to reading for herself, Kate would guess the story from the context of picture books, rather than accurately decoding and reading the words.
Kate had also been tested for dyslexia and Auditory Processing Disorder, but both tests came back negative. The testing did identify Kate as having significant difficulties with hearing and spelling blends. Kate herself also reported she was unable to see the letters in her head when she was trying to spell a word.
Kate is a bright and engaged student, whose teachers reported as writing fabulous creative stories, and was able to structure persuasive text. But Kate still found writing difficult, and was unable to spell simple words. Kate could learn spellings for tests, but she would soon forget them the next day.
Her spelling in her free writing was starting to become less phonetic, so it was increasingly difficult for teachers to understand her work. They were becoming concerned with how she would do in all her subjects next year, if her spelling didn’t improve.
Kate’s confidence was beginning to suffer as the learning gap widened.
On the day she signed up for our free trial, Kate’s mum said “I am really holding a lot of hope that Easyread will be the solution…”
So we were delighted to get this message from her at lesson 89, just ahead of schedule for the 90 lesson breakthrough:
“I am writing to let you know there has been a significant breakthrough in Kate’s reading. At lesson 89 when the story section changed to paragraph reading, Kate surprised herself by reading the whole page uninterrupted!
From this point she has been literally reading everything, from the back of tissue boxes to ingredient lists on food products – everything she can get her hands on. She has started on her first ever chapter book and is engrossed in the story, loving retelling me the progress after every few pages.
It is a marvellous and wonderful thing to see. I am so very grateful for your system. Kate’s confidence is improving daily.”
We love that Kate is now reading everything and everything she can get her hands on. Well done from all the team here!
And here is Kate enjoying her experience day at the zoo:
Handling an echidna
Congratulations to all of our amazing secret agents, and to all those who have completed the course too! We’re so proud of you.
Maddie and all the team
Easyread works well alongside Eli’s homeschool programme
“Thanks for the prizes- they are really great and Eli loves getting them in the mail.
We are finding the course a really fun and easy part of our homeschool day.
Eli is good at eye-tracking now and is definitely improving on the not guessing smaller words so much.
We are yet to see spelling but haven’t been concerned about that so much since we started Easyread… just taking a rest from that and focusing on the decoding.
There is nothing bad that Eli says about it and he loves the funny stories and facts. We all end up laughing at some point during Easyread each day so that is a great thing!
We find that the lesson length of Easyread fits perfectly into our homeschool day as we are doing the Charlotte Mason Method, where lessons are only 10 -15 minutes long and not exhausting.
Something that I have learnt as a parent through Easyread is to affirm my children’s success so much more and it is having a great effect in our home. I love the extensive vocabulary of affirmations that Easyread uses and Eli often feels there is really a man sitting on the other side of the computer affirming him, which is both fun and lovely.
Anyway…. many thanks, it has been an answer to a prayer really.”
Wonderful to hear that Eli is still loving the programme at lesson 45! And it’s great that the 15 minute lesson feels familiar. It really is the perfect amount of time to take information in and remain focused.
Do let us know if you’re using the Easyread programme alongside your homeschool routine. Here’s how Tanya fits Easyread into Taylor and Greyson’s homeschool day.
7 yo Ellis achieves a spelling age of 10 years & 2 months at the end of the course
“Ellis is very excited about the helicopter he’ll be getting soon, especially as it’s so close to his 8th birthday.
We’d like to continue with the lessons for a bit longer. We know that his spelling has improved because his teacher gasped when he recorded a spelling age of 10 years & 2 months. We’ve got a full review next Monday, so I’ll keep you posted.
Needless to stay, we’re all so happy with his progress, given where he was last year. He’s now reading books in bed. We’ve had to tell him off for reading too late into the night!!!”
Over 2 years above his age in spelling and reading late into the night for Ellis – we think our work is done. Enjoy your hard-earned helicopter, Ellis!
You are all amazing…
THANK YOU! You all are amazing! You don’t know how much I appreciate this, as I have tried just about everything to help with her reading and this has helped her a lot.
Instead of guessing he is now really sounding words out…
“Harry is doing well. We are seeing him progress with his reading and instead of guessing he is now really sounding words out. Thanks for the support and help.”
Regards
W
Thank you for helping Rory to achieve a love of reading
“We have been so happy with Easyread since we made contact with you and would recommend your product to any one of our friends.
Rory has made such fantastic progress with reading and now enjoys reading novels in bed at night and is currently reading “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”. Now our problem is getting him to put his light off at bedtime.
Nobody would believe that a boy could have made such fantastic progress in less than a year. Rory used to really resist anything involving reading and we used to dread any sort of homework or reading.
Thank you so much for helping us to make school easier and more enjoyable for Rory. And thank you for helping Rory to achieve a love of reading.”
Rory’s parents.
We think reading and enjoying Harry Potter is a wonderful way for 7 year-old Rory to finish the course – even though sleep is sacrificed as a result!
Well done Rory!
Easyread has given Rose the ability to break down words
“Easyread has been really fantastic for Rose (11), increasing her confidence and finally giving her the ability to unlock the mystery of breaking down words that had eluded her for so long.
Such a helpful and supportive team too. Thanks.”
Rose is now breaking down words rather than guessing them, and we can’t wait to hear how her spelling now comes on.
Her school reading has gone up by 4 levels
“Kayla is going really well with Easyread and her school reading has gone up by 4 levels since she started these lessons.
She still has a way to go but seeing the improvement and her eagerness to read has been awesome.
Some days I have to push her into doing the lesson as it isn’t quite the novelty it was in the beginning, other days she is happy to do it.
All good so far.”
All good at lesson 47 for 8 year-old Kayla, great to hear!
Easyread is like medicine to make me better
“I’m delighted with Darcy’s progress and continued enthusiasm – I can’t thank Easyread enough. After tonight’s lesson she said that “It’s (Easyread) is like medicine to make me better!”
9 year-old Darcy is already seeing the benefits of decoding for herself at lesson 14