Who is this program for?

Parents, grandparents, or caregivers can use the program at home as a complete program for their young learners, or as a supplement to another program .

Teachers or tutors can use it to supplement their classroom programs.

ESL learners can use it, too!

Where to start?

At the beginning! No matter what your reading level, start at the 1st lesson. If your reader is already well versed in the sounds of letters, this will be a quick, fun review (the videos are all very short). Your student will recognize when they need to slow down and give more time to practice and review. They will likely hear some surpises along the way ... like ‘q’ is always followed by ‘u’, so we just teach it as ‘qu’ and its sound is actually two sounds ‘k’ + ‘w’   ‘kw’.

All about reading (and where we fit in)

Learning to read is a complex and ongoing process. Even as literate adults, we all continue to learn new vocabulary and become increasingly fluent the more we read. 

The  first stage of learning to read is phonological awareness (being aware of the distinct sounds in language). 

Our you can read program teaches the second stage, the letter-sound correspondences.

This builds to word recognition, which allows for the development of all aspects of text comprehension.

Because your child’s reading level (the words they are able to read) will likely be different from their interest level (the books they would like to read), we recommend that your child reads decodable texts at their level in the morning or afternoon (giving them success and confidence), and you read to them in the evening (inspiring and motivating them).

Why the order? Why not learn in the traditional ABC ... order of the alphabet?

Before learning to read, you learn the names of the letters, and these are easily learned and practiced in the traditional order; singing the ABC song and learning the names of the letters. But when we are teaching the letter-sound correspondences, we begin with the most frequently used letters and sounds.  This scope and sequennce leads to the quickest and easiest route to reading. For example, ‘s’ and ‘t’ are two of the most commonly used letters, but are near the end of the alphabet, so we feel they should be taught sooner than later to give our readers a jump on reading. 

Why do we practice writing when we are learning to read?

Reading and writing go hand in hand: Decoding and encoding. If you write and say the letter-sound outloud as you write, the faster it will be learned and the better it will stick in your memory. If you just watch the video, you might remember it, but if you also say and write the letter, you will definitely remember it.

Is this program suitable for kids with dyslexia?

Yes, this program is perfect for all learners, and for many learning differences, but it is especially valuable for learners with dyslexia.

Why are there printouts and why are they not in colour?

The printables are in black only, so that everyone can print them out, so your learners can colour them, and so they have the fewest distractions on the page to keep your reader focused. We and many teachers don’t see the value of frequent use of printouts and would rather keep lessons engaging with games and activities, but we have included some printouts for special specific skills, word lists and for tutor or parents’ use.