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Empowerment The Reading & Spelling Made Simple programme and materials empower learners to solve their own learning problems by giving them positive, professional help in easy, progressive stages. It gives parents and caregivers the academic background required to teach their own children and learners. Material Costs Our programme and materials have been developed intentionally to be cost effective for families, teachers, and tutors. We have split our books and resources into helpful packages to save you money and to give you what you need now. You can always purchase additional books and resources later as your child progresses and to give you more learning tools. Once caregivers learn how to help one child in their family, they can use the same methods and materials with their other children. Similarly, the same resources can be used with multiple learners simultaneously for teachers and tutors. Many of the activities can also be used with a single learner or as a small group. The only extra materials you will need (per learner) will be three more exercise books and a new Word Family Book. Some learners will, of course, need further help, but even so, one-on-one and caregiver involvement will speed up the learning process. Supporting Other Caregivers Once experienced in working with the programme, we encourage caregivers to also help other caregivers that are getting started to make learning to use this programme easier. This is the ‘pebble in the pond’ idea, where a network of caring and knowledgeable caregivers is created. These materials and the programme are now used in schools all over New Zealand because of their effectiveness in helping children. They are also used by parents, caregivers, tutors and teachers in both New Zealand and Australia.

Both you and your child can be benefit greatly from weekly visits to your local library. Take your time in the library. It is very helpful to ask the librarian for help in choosing books. Spend time discussing what books to choose. Read the blurb on the back, skim through the book' look at the pictures and size of the text. Make sure to borrow books that appeal to your children. (Forget the difficulty level for the moment.) Children Benefit From Three Levels Of Books 1. Read-Aloud Books Read the harder but interesting books your child wants to listen to, as your child ‘follows with his eyes’ whilst sitting next to you. This is how good readers became so good – by being read to, and then finishing the book themselves. 2. Books Children Can Read Themselves a) Five-Finger Method This is a great method for silent testing. Have your learner read aloud with no help at all from you. To gauge their current reading level, put a finger down for every unknown or difficult word. Don’t count names of people or places. If you end up with five fingers down on any page, the book is too hard! Choose an easier one – lots of easy ones! b) One-Word-In-25 Unknown Use this method as a benchmark for books that have only a small amount of text on each page, e.g. there are many excellent illustrated children’s books. 3. In-Between Books In-between books are books that are a bit too hard for your child, but they want to read the book anyway. You can skim-read each chapter first and note the sentences or parts that your child could read aloud. Then stop at an interesting part. Let your child finish reading the rest of the chapter silently to himself or herself before going to sleep. Don’t worry if your child can’t read every single word, provided that he or she understands and enjoys the story. Read the rest of the chapter yourself but pretend you haven’t, and then ask your child to tell you what happened. Choose A Suitable Place For Lessons Use comfortable side-by-side seating at a table. Shared reading may be side-by-side on a sofa. Sometimes it’s just great to sit on the floor! Find a quiet area with no other children running around, and keep the television and radio turned off.