Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) now available

Hey Moms! All the activities from the series, It's Not Rocket Surgery! for early reading the right way, are now published together in one place! Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) is here: http://www.amazon.com/Home-Early-Learning-Play-School/dp/150789404X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423921195&sr=1-1&keywords=Shannah+B+Godfrey

So, you've used A Funny Boy Was Prince River with your child, who now knows all the beginning phonics sounds, but you wonder what to do next? All of the Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) activities, each previously found at the end of each volume of It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey, are now together in one book.

This amazing book has each of the spelling rules presented in fun activities that help your child understand phonics, how to decode words, and become an excellent, confident reader!

You'll also find the answers to all of The Godfrey Method mottos:

Early reading the right way.

Keep It Simple for Success (KISS your child) with The Godfrey Method.

Learn how to overcome the Top Ten Myths of reading.

Dress your child's mind for success.

Reading is hearing with your eyes - phonics, phonics, phonics!

The two most crucial things kids need, quality parent-time and excellent reading skills, together.

Nurture your child's nature and notions.

Dyslexia is induced - it's the disease you get from sight-reading.

"No Child Left Behind" has become All Children Left Behind.

Just say NO to Common Core!

How to put your children on the launch pad of life and watch them soar!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/content/HomeEarlyLearningPlaySchoolHELPSarenowallinoneplace 

3 ways to prevent reading problems before they start

Prevent reading problems before they start! 

• Never teach the letter names first. Teach only the letter sounds.
• Never teach sight-reading. Teach only true phonics.
• Never teach the capital letters first. Teach only the lower-case.

               Byron Harrison and Jean Clyde, who co-authored the insightful book, Reading Through Tears, show without a doubt that neither parents, preschool teachers, nor elementary school teachers should ever teach the letter names first. They should only be taught long after the children have a good grasp of phonics and of blending sounds into syllables and words.

               “We find confusions between [letter] names and sounds to be one of the most common causes of reading errors. It is important simply because it usually undermines a child’s capacity to blend letter sounds together and that then means that the higher order phonic skills also remain unreliable, and if children's phonic skills are unreliable don't be surprised if they revert to inaccurate guessing instead," as the Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory researchers say.

                "We also find that remediation of name/sound confusions is a surprisingly difficult task even in the hands of a specialist tutor. We therefore must PREVENT these problems before they start.”

                The VAS research website has overwhelming scientific data proving that synthetic [explicit, systematic] phonics is the best and only way to teach reading properly. 

                To quote some of the research by Harrison and Clyde, “Research has clearly demonstrated that at the learning-to-read stage many children are unable to work out for themselves the full range of letter sounds; they need to be specifically taught. Word-guessing not only fails to develop this knowledge, it also wastes time during the critical 6-9 year-old learning period and allows time for confusions between names and sounds to become habituated.

                Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory reading expert Jean Clyde writes, “Today I saw Adam. He is almost 11, has a shy smile, is a little small for his age and thinks that he is average in reading and a little below average in spelling. However his mother is concerned about the fast approaching problems of Adam's entering high school, a very common concern among parents of 11 year olds! She has been reassured that Adam is progressing satisfactorily but his mother has long ago learned to distrust such [school] assurances.

                He can read one, two and many three syllable words, which is more that many of my other 11 year-olds can do. And yet when I ask Adam to tell me the sounds of letters he shows hesitations and some of the 3-syllable words show evidence of confusions between names and sounds.

                “Adam had originally learned letter names and guessing. He had then struggled to read. He preferred guessing words partly because guessing [seemed] faster, partly because his [elementary] teacher encouraged him to guess, but mainly because his insecure grasp of sounds undermined his confidence.

                “Guessing however is inherently inaccurate. [The next teacher tried but] failed to over-teach [phonics] to the stage where his newly acquired phonic skills became automatic. The phonic skills that he was taught are therefore still insecurely based and guessing still dominates.

                “Knowledge of sounds needs to reach the stage where, when you see a letter, you automatically associate it with its most common sound. Later on you can learn the secondary sounds but if you fail to initially consolidate the basic letter sounds, you may condemn the Adams of this world to being average in reading and below average in spelling when they might have been superior in both!” http://www.vasresearch.com

VAS Theory supports what The Godfrey Method has always said in the "Top Ten Myths of Reading." Doing it right the first time is so much easier!

 

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/open-world-prevent-reading-problems-they-start

 

0 (zero) reasons to teach sight-reading

Just say NO to sight-reading. There are 0 (zero) reasons to teach sight-words and sight-reading to hearing children.

                Danielle, a proactive, purposeful parent, told me about teaching her son at home by the accepted, traditional, reading methods – alphabet names, capital letters, sight-reading, etc. Then her child "hit a wall" and she didn’t know how to fix it.

The sight-reading (popular in many preschools) messed up everything she had been trying to teach him. Luckily, she found The Godfrey Method and has been rebuilding his foundation properly for phonics. In her own words:

                "My son, Jaksen, started showing signs of giftedness when he was very young, so my husband and I decided that it was best to nurture this and do what we could to keep him challenged. By the age of 2 he knew all of his letter names, uppercase and lowercase, and his numbers 1-10. He was potty-trained, too.

                “He was doing so well that naturally we thought the next step should be sight-words. Initially it began well, but after about a month or so we noticed that my son was now confusing some of his letters for numbers, such as 9 for P. And he would guess at the words he was seeing and get frustrated very easily. For example, he would see ‘Clairebella’ and say ‘sister’ instead. From this he began to regress. So we stopped doing sight words, but we were unsure where to go next. We hit a wall."

                With The Godfrey Method, Danielle reports that Jaksen now knows all his letter sounds and is reading words already.

                The educational system has been going backwards for several decades, now. Many schools teach sight-reading in kindergarten. Many national-chain preschools teach sight-words. Several commercial, early-reading programs are also based on sight-reading.

As I keep warning, if your baby can read by sight-reading now, he’ll probably struggle with reading as an adult. My co-worker, Dave, was taught to read by the sight-reading method back in the 1940s-50s. He can read functionally but always wrestles with new words. His “Archie Bunker-isms” are hilarious.

                My illustrator, Leah, says, “I have never met a phonics-learner who couldn’t sight-read, but I have met plenty of sight-readers who don’t know how to decode an unfamiliar word. As adults they must often guess and feel embarrassed.” This sad scenario can be prevented by teaching children to read early the right way.

                So when and where do sight-words have a place in learning to read? Sight-reading comes as a natural consequence of sounding-out words. It is never the place to start. When a child has read the word “dog” a few times, s/he will begin to recognize it by sight. But s/he knows what sounds create the word “dog” and understand its left-to-right orientation. Even when sight-reading, children say the sounds in their heads, albeit much faster than before. They will be able to sound-out new or unfamiliar words reasonably well, too.

                I don’t even use the sight-word method with those pesky “platypus” words that don’t seem to follow the rules. Actually, they used to follow the rules, but we changed our pronunciation. Or they follow the rules of a parent-language other than English, and we adopted them. Again, we usually changed the pronunciation to suit us.

                Platypus words will be discussed more at the end of the Appendix of Vol. 3 of my book, It's Not Rocket Surgery!, but suffice it to say that if we pronounce them the way they look, most children will still understand them. We just sound like we’re speaking with a foreign accent. It doesn’t hurt to say, “thē” instead of “thuh.” Nor to say, “sāys” instead of “sez.” Nor “frī-end” instead of “frend.” Saying it the phonetic way before the popular way actually helps children remember the spellings better.

                So when and where does reading by context have a place in learning to read? Never let a child guess at a word by context of the rest of the sentence. Never! The child needs to sound out the word. The only place for using context is with words that have homonyms or alternate spellings, and the reader needs to understand which meaning is used. “The wind was too strong to wind the sail.” For more examples by Sonal Panse, see Spy Code Rule 44 in the Appendix of Vol. 3 of my book, It's Not Rocket Surgery!

 

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/open-world-just-say-no-sight-reading

How to help your child have a great future

Do You Hear What I Hear? – Why Phonics
How to open up the world of possibilities for your child.

Do you hear what I hear? A star, a star, shining in the night!

                If you think about it, I’m helping future 22-year-olds to have a great life ~ by teaching kids to read early the right way. I have always known that teaching starts in the home and that we should stimulate our children’s minds for learning long before school starts. The best thing my Dad ever did was teach me to read when I was only 3 years old.

So I followed suit and always spent time showing my children phonics letters, numbers, colors, etc., from the time they were about 18 months on. My older children learned phonics just fine by repetition and memorization.

                And then came along my son who- at age four- could not, no matter how hard he tried, conceive of how squiggly lines could mean anything or memorize which squiggly lines made which sounds, no matter how many times we repeated them. He just couldn’t grasp it. It was too abstract for him.

As mothers do, I worried that he would never learn to read, never graduate high school, never go to college, never get a good job, etc., etc., projecting the worst possible scenario.

                I knew I had to find a way to make such an abstract concept of squiggly lines become more logical, more realistic- something he could wrap his mind around and link with the sounds. I felt inspired to make each letter look like something that started with its sound.

First, I drew on index cards: a plain lower-case letter and its twin that was dressed up to look like a recognizable object. I made them colorful. Then I began teaching my son with the new method by saying the sound and then the picture-letter name, such as, “ă – apple.” The second ‘a’ on the phonics card looked like an apple with a stem and leaf.

                Suddenly my son had phenomenal success with learning his phonics, and quickly progressed to reading before kindergarten. Family, friends, and preschools saw his success and became interested in trying my method with their children.

                I also wrote down the rules and rationales for teaching of my method properly, to guarantee success for other users. In a short time my sisters, cousins, friends, preschools, and church associates wanted a set of my special phonics cards. I drew several more sets by hand and gave them away. All who used them were very successful.

                Back to that future 22-year-old. Early reading develops a child’s imagination. When your child’s imagination is engaged, s/he is better able to face tough things with a creative problem-solving ability.

Along with the values you taught, s/he will be able to think much better when the day comes that s/he has to make decisions without you. The tool for that is to open up his/her world to reading.

When your child has to make his own choices in Jr. High, the magical bullet to get him through may be his ability to think and imagine possibilities- the fruits of reading.

                There are going to be problems and fights along the parenting way; believe me, I’ve had my share. So I want to tilt the scales in your favor, with your young adult looking back and saying, “I had a great life!” because of the opportunities you opened up for her with early reading the right way.

When your child is in college, you’ll think back, knowing that you gave her what she needed to follow her dreams. You’ll think, “I may not have been perfect, but I gave my child what she needed to be happy in life.”

At his college graduation, your 22-year-old son or daughter will be able to hug you and say, “Mom, thank you.”

                So why phonics? Using functional MRI scanners, a research team of scientists from the prominent Yale School of Medicine recently showed that the brain function of poor readers actually changes to resemble the brain function of good readers when taught phonics by direct instruction.

For the children in the study, the phonics instruction formed new, lasting neurological pathways and connections in parts of their brain that regulate reading ability. The children read more efficiently now, too.

No other reading model or method can do this. None.

This has been an excerpt from Volume 3 of It's Not Rocket Surgery! by Shannah B Godfrey. More from this next week...

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/open-world-how-help-your-child-have-great-future

8 reasons you are your child's best hope

Who is a child’s best teacher?

 

        British author, Hilary Wilce, is proud to report that an American program, Parents as Teachers, helps parents get their children ready for school- by becoming their first teacher. This ground-breaking program, which originated in Missouri* around 1984, is showing spectacular results.

 

        Did you know that parents are their children's best teacher? Parents need to start at home whether their children will attend public, private, or home school. Here’s why:

1. Parents give their children an educational leap by being their first teacher.
2. When parents are involved, children do better than their peers in math and reading.
3. Usually their social and language abilities are also more advanced.
4. Parents give emotional support along with cognitive stimulation, the two key factors in maximizing intelligence.
5. A child's brain takes in more learning when s/he feels secure at home.
6. The best educational investment is prevention with parental preschool.
7. The years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ.
8. Public education is in a quandary. Parents are the solution.

        This system seems deceivingly simple. It helps parents give their children an educational leap by assisting them in their role as ‘first teacher’. Parents choose to get a monthly personal visit from a trained PAT worker, as well as the opportunity to join in group meetings with other parents.

 

       The results are ‘brilliant’. In the US, where PAT is now available in every state, research has shown that children who have been in the program do better at math and reading than their peers. Teachers also feel that the social and language abilities of PAT children are more advanced.

 

        At each monthly visit, the trained PAT project worker chats with the mother about her preschool child, checks off his developmental milestones, and gives her suggestions about how she can enhance this stage of her child's growth.

 

        The PAT worker also provides a listening ear for the aggravations and dilemmas of parenthood. Thus the program helps parents give their children cognitive stimulation and emotional support, two of the key factors in maximizing intelligence.

 

        The latest neuroscience is now inserted into these plans, too. So workers can tell parents what's happening with their children's brains, and why it's important to do the things suggested. The brain also takes in more learning when a child is secure and has food, sleep, and warmth.

 

        Training programs for educators are held in St Louis, MO. It has been so successful that from there it spread across the United States. About 1991, PAT even spread to England (and at least 16 other countries), which recognized the fact that the best educational investment it can make is in the preschool years, spending money on preventing educational problems, rather than on expensive remedial cures (that rarely work).

 

        All of this just shows that good parents are usually proactive in stimulating their children’s minds and providing safe havens at home. They practice purposeful parenting.

 

(Note: I applaud PAT for helping at-risk children, but my message is that proactive parents don't need this extra help. They do it on their own with The Godfrey Method. The main point is that parents are their child's best teacher, and that preschool is not the best option for most children. Your children are not severely at-risk. How do I know? You are reading this. Your kids need you, not a teacher.

 

        Knowing that the years from ages 2 to 5 are critical to a child's learning capacity, imagination, and IQ - and public education may be in a quandary - now more than ever, parents need to find ways to teach their children to read at home before kindergarten. They need to give their children the best foundation possible without relying on, nor waiting for, public education to do it.

 

        Brain growth can be speeded by increasing the frequency, intensity and duration of that stimulation, according to Dr. Glenn Doman and The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. The process of brain growth can be speeded through the increase of visual, auditory and tactile stimulation, in recognition of the orderly way in which the brain grows.

 

        It can further be enhanced by creating the ideal environment for mobility exploration, language development, and manual competence, and by providing the maximum opportunity to use that ideal environment. Dr. Doman’s methods include using flashcards with young children to teach Bits of Intelligence®, which will be discussed in Volumes 3, 4, & 9 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!

 

[We strongly suggests, however, that parents NOT use whole-word flashcards until after phonics (Godfrey Method picture-letter phonics cards) is mastered, and the words have been sounded out many times first!]

 

See http://www.iahp.org/Phil.198+M54a708de802.0.html

and/or http://www.gentlerevolution.com/

       

The Teaching Philosophy of The Institutes for AHP:

• Learning is a joyous process.
• Children love to learn.
• They can learn absolutely anything that can be taught to them in an honest, factual, and joyous way.
• In order for teaching to be effective, it must always be a joyous process.
• Parents know and love their children more than anyone else does.
• They are the best teachers for their own children.
• Parents are the answer, not the problem.

You, mom and dad, are the key!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/head-start-8-reasons-you-are-your-childs-best-hope

Top Ten Myths of Reading 1

Top Ten Myths of Reading:

Reason over Rhetoric, Data over Dogma           

            Does this sound familiar, remember thinking, “I’ve tried everything. I taught my child the Alphabet song, showed her all the letters and capitals, even sent her to preschool. My child just can’t seem to learn how to read. I don’t know what to do next. I’m at a loss.”? 

Top Ten Myths of Reading: (Are you guilty of some of these?)

Myth 1. Teach the letter names, like in the alphabet song.

Truth: Instead, teach only the letter sounds. Do not teach the letter names. It is confusing to young children that the letter name u (you) doesn't say the sound "y" (yuh), the letter name y (why) doesn't say the sound "w" (wuh), and the letter name w (double-you) doesn't say the sound "d" (duh). Children easily pick up the letter names later.
Also, only teach one sound per letter, to start. Keep it simple for success (KISS your child).

            Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory reading expert Jean Clyde says, “Today I saw Adam. He is almost 11, has a shy smile, is a little small for his age and thinks that he is average in reading and a little below average in spelling. However his mother is concerned about the fast approaching problems of Adam's entering high school, a very common concern among parents of 11 year olds! She has been reassured that Adam is progressing satisfactorily but his mother has long ago learned to distrust such [school] assurances.

            He can read one, two and many three syllable words, which is more that many of my other 11 year-olds can do. And yet when I ask Adam to tell me the sounds of letters he shows hesitations and some of the 3-syllable words show evidence of confusions between names and sounds.

            Adam had originally learned letter names and guessing. He had then struggled to read. He preferred guessing words partly because guessing [seemed] faster, partly because his elementary teacher encouraged him to guess, but mainly because his insecure grasp of sounds undermined his confidence.

            Guessing however is inherently inaccurate. [The next teacher tried but] failed to over-teach [phonics] to the stage where his newly acquired phonic skills became automatic. The phonic skills that he was taught are therefore still insecurely based and guessing still dominates.

            Knowledge of sounds needs to reach the stage where, when you see a letter, you automatically associate it with its most common sound. Later on you can learn the secondary sounds but if you fail to initially consolidate the basic letter sounds, you may condemn the Adams of this world to being average in reading and below average in spelling when they might have been superior in both!” http://www.vasresearch.com

PS: Stay away from electronic or computer methods of learning to read, which incorporate the myths and may trigger ADD or dyslexia. 

Myth 2 - NEXT WEEK!

http://www.thegodfreymethod.com/blog/top-ten-myths-reading-myth-1

How to cure dyslexia and speech problems

Hi Shannah, 

    First, I want to say that I love you!  I sit here watching your youtube video and learning about The Godfrey Method and I can not hold back the tears.  I had trouble with reading as a kid and I pray that my children do not have the same issues.  

I have twin boys that just started Kindergarten this week and a 2 year old son as well.  Both of the twins have Apraxia of Speech which I have been told that shouldn't interfere with their ability to read.  I still have my concerns.  You couldn't have emailed me at a better time.  

I am thrilled to hear from you and to receive one of your books.  I can't wait to get started with my boys.  

I also care for a couple children out of my home. (my sister does too)  We were just talking today about trying to teach our children that we care for to read and how to go about it since we have a limited time with them.  You have just started to solve one of my ultimate concerns in life.  

You are amazing!  Did I mention that I can't wait to get started?  I know that my boys are going to take to this method, I know it!

Tonya Fullenkamp

Thank you for this opportunity.

http://thegodfreymethod.com

The best reading program out there

I recently received this email from a proactive mom. Enjoy!

Hi,

“We just started the alphabet cards and they are soooooo good! It makes the sounds and I am following the instructions. It has helped my 7 year old say words in the books he could not sound out before in just a few days!”

“I love it so much better than the school program which is sight words, and cvc's for my little guy. Your instructions are so right that they cannot decode as it is like reading Chinese to them. They must learn the sounds first!”

“I am such an advocate of your program. I was going to email you tonight after they go asleep. This is the best reading program out there and I have already showed a few moms. It is so simple and that is why it works so well.”

“I can’t wait to move on with them to the next level. For the first time they are enjoying our study time!”

“It has been so hot and we don’t have air conditioning so we have had to go to the local pool just too cool down. Hence they are not in the study mode, but I do have them do a bit in the mornings after breakfast, as they need to know reading is EVERYDAY!!!”

“Thank you so much for the gifts. It has been so much more than I thought. I will keep you posted as to our weekly improvements. I know it will be a delight to see them increase their ability to READ!”

Sincerely, 

Miss Donny T. Neuman - Jul 17, 2012

http://thegodfreymethod.com

Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS) 1

Introducing TGM's new video series, Home Early Learning Play School (HELPS)! See the first HELPS-1 here: http://youtu.be/phy45H-7lw4

Hello! Welcome to Grandma Godfrey’s Home Early Learning Play School, or HELPS for short. This is Spy Mission 1.

Can you help me? The international spy, Cody Breaker, has asked for our help to break the code of these squiggly lines he found.

They’re all over the place! Who knows what they mean? Look at this strange one -

SHOW k

And this -

SHOW w

And this -

SHOW q and u.

Your Spy Mission, my little spy, is to discover what the squiggly lines mean. Are they pictures? Sounds? Which squiggly lines mean which sounds?

Oh, look! I found some Spy Tools we can use to start deciphering the secret code!

The first secret is that these squiggles are called – what? – letters.

Here is a – what? – kite. Yes, kite! Kite starts with the sound “k”, so this letter must say “k”.

Oh, look! Here’s another one! This is – what? – water, wavy water. Water starts with the sound “w”, so this letter must say “w”.

Here’s the trick: the famous spy, Cody Breaker, does NOT want the names of these letters; he wants to know their sounds.

Can you remember the sounds, my little spy? Sure you can! You are so smart, and Grandma Godfrey is very proud of you!

Look! Here is a – what? – bat & baseball. Bat & baseball both start with the sound “b”, so this letter must say “b”. See how the bat always comes first, then the baseball; always for “b”.

Oh, look, a – what? – ant. Ant starts with the sound “a”, so this letter says “a”.

Look who came to visit us! Who? – the queen. Queen starts with the sound “qu”, so this letter must say “qu”.

Wait! He’s whispering in my ear. What’s that, Cody Breaker?

Oh, he wants me to give you the first Spy Code Rule 1: The qu rule: q usually has u, and qu says ‘kw’ together.

Would you like me to read you a story? I will in a minute.

Cody says that the rest of the Spy Code can be found in the book, A Funny Boy Was Prince River, or in A Sunny Kid Was Prince River, if you prefer.

Your Spy Chief, Mom or Dad, can find the rest of the Spy Code Book and HELPS in Volume 1 of It’s Not Rocket Surgery!, on Amazon.com.

Oh, good, it’s story time! Pretend you are sitting next to me, and my arm is around you in a grandma hug.

Let’s start: READ "A SUNNY KID WAS PRINCE RIVER"

What’s this at the end of the story? Looks like some special Spy Code Rules for you and your Spy Chief. 

And look! The rest of the Spy Tools! Can you figure out what these letter sounds are?

Wow, this one is tricky! It’s the sound at the end of tux.

Good luck with your mission, my little spy. Keep an eye out for these sounds in the world around you. I know you can do it!

And a note to your Spy Chief – NEVER teach sight-words. NEVER! Proper phonics prevents and cures dyslexia and speech problems. More info on that in Volume 1 of It’s Not Rocket Surgery!

Now, my little spy, report your discoveries by writing the letter sounds you learn on lined paper.

Cody Breaker, that excellent spy, will see them wherever you are. Show your Spy Chief, too.

Don’t worry! There are no mistakes. Mistakes are just learning moments. So give it a try. And try again!

It’s time for me to go, my little spy. Give Grandma Godfrey a great big hug.

I’ll see you in the next Home Early Learning Play School spy message 2.

Happy hunting for secret letter-sound codes!

http://thegodfreymethod.com

Do not use Your Baby Can Read

Do not use Your Baby Can Read. It is sight reading in the worst way. It wires the brain in the wrong place for proper reading later.

http://godfreymethod.com/default.aspx

Phonics improves brain function

Phonics improves the structure of the brain

A research team headed by scientists from the esteemed Yale School of Medicine announced in 2004 a particularly significant finding for children who have trouble learning to read. It was reported by Gilbert Zarate in the Brownsville Herald: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/opinions_more.php?id=61072_0_11_0_C

The focus of this study, as much of the writing on this topic, is on how to assist struggling readers. While struggling readers show us what the critical issues are, children who are not struggling will be able to learn much more, much quicker, if they are also given exposure to the best teaching practices. Unfortunately, as is commonly the case, teachers leave good students to fend for themselves on the mistaken assumption that they don’t need help. Mom and Dad can and should do things at home to enhance their child’s learning and intelligence.

In the words of the reporter:

“The study reported that the brain function of poor readers actually changes to resemble the brain function of “good” readers when they have been taught to read through instruction that is direct, systematic, and focuses on the sounds and letters that make up words, the meanings of words, and helping children read accurately and quickly.

Using functional MRI scanners, researchers were able to document that effective reading instruction not only improves reading ability but actually changes the brain’s functioning so children can read more efficiently. These struggling readers were taught to read using a comprehensive reading program that focused on systematically teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and spelling and, as a result, formed new and lasting neurological connections and pathways in parts of their brain that regulate reading ability.

We know that almost every child in America — whatever race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic level — can become a strong and confident reader when taught through a comprehensive approach grounded in systematic, research-based instruction. And we know that scientifically based reading instruction can be successfully implemented in all schools — whether urban, suburban, or rural.

Unfortunately, the reality today is that nearly 40 percent of fourth-grade students are unable to read at grade level. While many policymakers, educators and parents are enthusiastic about teaching children to read, not all schools and school districts are implementing instruction grounded in scientific approaches that have been proven to increase reading skills. Despite what we know works, not all schools have put in place carefully developed, comprehensive reading programs that include research-proven instructional practices. This is a travesty.

We know that reading instruction for struggling readers must be explicit, systematic, and allow sufficient time for student learning. We also know that the reading curriculum should include the five critical components that are fundamental to learning to read — phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.”

So if the scientific evidence strongly proves that phonics instruction re-maps the brain for the better, why does the educational establishment, for the most part, continue to ignore the data and teach ineffective reading (and math) methods? Part of the answer may be found in the lobbying and monetary influence of textbook publishers, who follow fads for personal gain rather than true research results. Part of the answer may be found in the egos of some educational people pushing their own theories and agendas. Part of the answer can be found in the inertia and ennui of large government entities, schools, to resist change.

Whatever the factors, it is clear that parents must not let their gifted children be left to fend for themselves in school. Parents can follow the best practices of phonics reading instruction (and math instruction) with their children at home to ensure a great foundation for success.

http://godfreymethod.com/default.aspx

Parents paying to fix school's reading failures

I was listening to the radio the other day when I heard a commercial from two sports heroes who are starting a fund raiser to help children learn to read better. They wouldn't have to jump into the fray to save our children if the universities would teach the teachers to teach right!

This reminded me of a story from my friend, Donna. She went to the junior high with her daughter for a meeting and heard several other mothers talking and complaining that they were having to take their kids to Sylvan Learning Center to bring their reading up to grade level.

One mother was furious because while she was signing her son up at Sylvan, the registrar said, "We see this all the time. We're getting a lot of students in for this problem. Everyone who went to this school district was taught the wrong way, and we're having to fix it." (Ad-libbed)

The mother was so angry to find out that the schools were using a "discovery" type of learning model that didn't believe in teaching spelling or correcting children's spelling. They let the children write whatever they wanted however they wanted. The result was years of illiterate children.

At the time this mother took her son for tutoring, the school district had been using this "innovative" method for a decade and was still using it. (It was probably another failed program from Project Follow Through and the Whole Language fiasco.)

So I'm thinking, if we know what the research-proven best reading method is, phonics, why are schools sticking to failed methods, requiring parents to pay for expensive remedies? Something is definitely wrong here. Must be political. Doesn't purposely-failing our children, year after year, border on evil?

Ciao

http://godfreymethod.com/default.aspx

No child left behind means all children left behind

Are you kidding me?! At the end of each school quarter, the teachers in many school districts get a whole or half-day off for "professional development" days. I thought they were learning better teaching skills or something. Not so! Guess what they do on those days?

They all get together and re-evaluate the performance of their class from the last quarter, and readjust the curriculum down to fit the lowest achiever in class.

Are you kidding me?! They are in effect dumbing down the whole class so that one or a few aren't "left behind." Isn't this the same as leaving them all behind? I don't think this was the intention of the No Child Left Behind Law. Why can't the schools just get a tutor or aide or resource person to help the slow kids, and stop holding everyone back?

It makes me just about ready to home-school my kids. First, Project Follow Through ruins over 3 generations of US kids, then NCLB is mis-interpreted to mean that the whole class has to learn on the level of the most-challenged student.

What is the real political goal, here? To have citizens too stupid to vote with any intelligence? To make sure that all our technology jobs keep going to India and China? Do we enjoy talking to a help desk half-way around the world whom we can't understand? Why promote this?

Any parent who cares anything about his/her child's future would not depend on the schools to do the teaching. Even if you can't afford public school or to home-school, you can supplement at home. You can teach your child to read by phonics before kindergarten. You can find math systems to do at home. And you should!

How do you get parents to care?

You know, I am absolutely amazed at how hard it is for people to catch the vision of teaching their child to read before kindergarten.
Don't they care about giving their kids the ability to take the opportunities that will come their way?
Don't they care about helping their children become their best selves?
Don't they realize that IQ is only 50% genetic? The other half is the home environment and mental stimulation, especially between the ages of 2-5 years old.
I am doing everything I can to try to help as many kids as possible out there, with the least amount of time and money required by mom and dad.
I wish people could understand how important early reading is! I wish they understood how simple the Godfrey Method is!
I wish I could get them to see the importance of my picture-letters to young minds.
The foster mom in me wants to scoop up all children and help them myself, but they learn best from their own mom and dad.
Where are the proactive, purposeful parents?
Please tell me the homeschoolers aren't the only ones who get it!

Why teach your child to read early?

1. Why should parents teach their children to read before kindergarten?

There are many good reasons, such as:

To increase their child’s IQ, by catching the child’s optimum developmental window for reading, as proven by Dr. Glenn Doman and Dr. Michael Merzenich.
This will increase their capacity for learning for the rest of their lives.

To prevent dyslexia and other learning problems, because prevention is much better than remediation.
Yes, gifted children can have hidden learning disabilities.

To reverse the downward educational trend, because parents are their child’s best teacher, as proven by Dr. Glenn Doman and Ms. Glynne Sutcliffe, M.A. Dip. Ed. Only parents doing something at home can reverse the whole language fiasco of public education.

To feel confident and have a good self-esteem at school, by staying ahead of the class.

To create a joyful bedtime routine, giving children the 2 most crucial things they need – parent time and reading skills.

To help children excel in the technology workforce of the future, because reading is the foundation of everything else.

2. Why should parents teach phonics instead of sight-reading?

Phonics wires a child’s brain properly for reading. Phonics is the only proven cure for dyslexia.

Sight-reading limits a child’s vocabulary and can cause reading problems later in life. Sight-reading requires memorizing the shape of about 4,000 words, while phonics only requires memorizing 42 sounds.

Phonics allows a child to decode an unfamiliar word, avoiding embarrassment as an adult.

3. How is the Godfrey Method different?

The Godfrey Method, as found in A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette, helps all children learn easier and faster.

And it helps those who are struggling to come up to speed.

TGM connects the letters to their sounds in a child’s mind in a way that makes sense to her.

TGM has two important components: picture-letter phonics cards and the way to teach them properly.

TGM allows children to learn phonics at younger ages.

TGM easily fits into any busy family schedule, and makes a great bedtime routine.

TGM is affordable, and costs less than you’ll spend at the convenience store next week.

TGM purposely does not use electronics or video to teach- since television, video, and radio noise can be precursors to autism and dyslexia in young children. Its book and cards help parents give their children the one-on-one attention they need.

TGM, as found in APGWAB, provides both the phonics tools and the method to teach them properly.

TGM guidelines are easy to understand and fit on only one page.

Anyone can do this. You don’t need a teaching certificate to teach your child to read.