Sparking Curiosity and the Joy of Reading in My Kids
Nothing brings me more joy than sharing my love of reading with my children. I often say my kids can be anything they want but they must be readers. Whether you’re a parent, educator or book lover, we have the opportunity to spark curiosity and instill the joy of reading in the next generation. Here are a few of my favorite ways to integrate reading into the lives of my children.
The Red Breve
Sep 7, 2023
Beyond the ABCs: Teaching Phonograms in the Early Years
The more I explored the ins and outs of how and why Logic of English teaches phonograms and spelling rules, the more I understood why my son was struggling, and better yet, how I could help him start connecting the dots.
Aug 15, 2023
Back-to-School Planning: Using the Foundations and Essentials Planning Guides
My husband and I both work from home and both contribute to our children’s education. Because of this, planning is key to our homeschool success. The planning guides for Foundations and Essentials have taken the legwork out of my LOE planning process.
Jun 15, 2023
The Science of Reading and Early Childhood Literacy: Using Play and Games To Inspire Confidence and Curiosity
Early childhood is also an ideal time to introduce children to early decoding skills: phonemic awareness and systematic phonics. The goal is to spark their curiosity about written words, build a connection that all words are made up of sounds, develop an understanding that the letters on the page represent sounds and build their confidence that they will be able to decode the words to create meaning.
May 11, 2023
How To Guide a Summer Reading Camp Using the Essentials Reader
The phonograms and spelling rules will make a huge difference in students' ability to read and spell but if you approach it through fun and with doable expectations, you will also help students rebuild their self-confidence and hopefully reignite their love for reading and writing as well!
Apr 6, 2023
Three Ways To Help Develop Phonemic Awareness at Home and in the Classroom
For students to become strong readers and spellers, teachers must help them develop their phonemic awareness skills like blending and segmenting. Practicing blending words from an auditory prompt prepares students for reading success.
Mar 2, 2023
A Response to Sold a Story: A Parent’s Perspective
There is nothing like seeing the joy on my daughter’s face as she learns new sound after new sound and increasingly puts those sounds together to discover words that she recognizes.
Feb 2, 2023
Response to Sold a Story: A Designer’s Perspective
Creating change doesn’t come from the outside in or the top down. Real change is made by truly adapting from the inside out. I feel so fortunate to work for a company comprised of passionate individuals striving to support accuracy and equity in reading education.
Jan 5, 2023
Our Brains Are Very Special - The Letterbox at Play
Reading is not hardwired in the brain, but a skill that can be learned…and training our brain's letterbox is a step in the process.
Dec 22, 2022
A Response to Sold a Story: Explaining Away the Evidence
Listening to Sold a Story, I have never been more hopeful; hopeful about our mission to equip every teacher and parent with this information; hopeful that we can move from talking about the research to implementing the research.
Dec 22, 2022
A Response to Sold a Story: Baubled Bangled Christmas Tree
I believe that when every parent and teacher can answer their students’ questions about words, we will see a dramatic change in literacy rates.
Sep 29, 2022
Ingrid’s Art: Where Any Child Can Feel Represented
She desires that when a child opens one of the books she has illustrated, they see themselves there. “A book where any child feels represented,” said Ingrid,...
Sep 27, 2022
Ingrid Hess: The Illustrator Behind the Doodling Dragons Series and Foundations Curriculum
As an artist, I use design to empower elementary school teachers and their students by creating teaching tools focusing on social justice issues such as peace, economic justice, diversity, environmental issues, education, and... literacy.