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Heading Home

This weekend I am headed back to my hometown for a weekend full of old friends and family. I am sure there will be a few summer BBQs in the backyard and lots of hugs. I even have plans to meet up with a few friends that I have not spoken to in years!

My bags are already packed and ready to go, complete with an entire bag of books. No, I don't plan to read the 13 titles this weekend, although that much free time would be a welcome change. My family and I have a long tradition of swapping our books. We will each bring a dozen or so books to the table, some of our favorites and some classics, and at the end of the weekend we will all leave with new reviews and a new bundle of books.

I find that even if it is a book I had already read years ago, the swap brings with it new reviews and opinions that make a second reading all the more enjoyable. After all, in the past few years my life has changed significantly and different backgrounds and experiences can completely change the way you read a book.

Do you or your family have any traditions similar to ours? Does your community have a book swap program already in place? Let us know!

Amazing Results!

As our website continues to evolve, more and more exciting facts about Sound Reading are being posted.

We are so excited every time more data comes back to the office because we love to help children read! All of these reports show that students that were once struggling with reading will be able to catch up to their peers. They will not only be able to finish a chapter book but now they are able to enjoy it! We are excited to share these results with everyone and can promise similar results for your family or school.

We recently added more in depth analysis and results reports under the results tab. You can read more about success in Kindergarten classrooms, with Upper Elementary School students, and with Teens and Adults.

An overview of more of the studies we have performed can be found on the website as well.

10 Resons Fonics Herts My Brane

10 Reasons Phonics Hurts My Brain

1. Weak readers also have weak auditory, speech and language skills. You should teach spoken words first.
2. Phonemic awareness must be developed before phonics makes sense.
3. English has a huge number of words that look and sound alike.
4. Phonics teaches letter sound knowledge that many students are unfamiliar with.
5. Most English words have the hardest sound buried in the middle of the word.
6. Auditory vs. Visual Memory - Reading is about 98% auditory, it is more about listening than about letters or printed words.
7. There is no standard for letter to phoneme translation - br and ch, for example, both have two letters but one has one sound while the other is two. Going from letter to phoneme instead of phoneme to letter is a struggle for many students.
8. Cognitive capacity - there is only so much space in a student’s head. Instead of learning rules and exceptions, students should learn patterns.
9. Phonics teaches students to learn accurately but slowly. Many students struggle with reading comprehension because words fall out of memory too easily.
10. Transitioning from phonics practice to authentic reading is very difficult.

Coming soon...

Thanks for checking out our blog! Keep coming back for more posts about reading, education, and Sound Reading or you can always subscribe to the blog in the right hand menu.

This summer we will have tons of great ideas of games you can play with your kids and ways to keep them excited about reading.

We'll recommend books for all ages and books for the whole family.

If you have any questions or requests please comment on any of the posts!

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July is always a great opportunity to spend time with your family and take a break from work. A weekend filled with BBQs and family is always refreshing compared to stressful days at work. What a great start to summer!

This weekend I spent hours in the sunshine with a good book in hand. I got lost in the story, imagining myself in the protagonist's shoes instead of on my own back porch. I was startled back to reality when dinner was ready and spent the entire meal eager to get back to the book. In just three days I read all 300 pages and couldn't believe that it was over!

For me, family and a good book are the best ways to relax and take a break. I look forward to every opportunity and hope that you also had the chance to get lost in a good book this weekend.

Lights, Camera, Action!

The scene was set, the actors were ready, cameras were rolling.

For eight hours yesterday the Sound Reading team filmed the new online demonstration that will appear on the website in a few weeks. The video explains how the program works and the difference between Sound Reading's program and phonics instruction. It goes through several different activities on the software program and explains what reading skill they target, how this skill is essential to reading success, and how the activities work together to teach students how to read. By the end of the day, everyone on the set had learned something new about the program.

This summer has been full of videos for Sound Reading. In June we filmed another commercial that has now be posted on YouTube and on our website. It is broadcasting local in the Ithaca, New York area. You can see the YouTube version here, or visit the homepage of our website here.