All About Savvy Reading
Curious about Savvy? Use the code JANSSEN25 for $25 off every month of your subscription! (And you can use that discount on multiple kids or subjects!)
As I’ve mentioned before, Ani has struggled with learning to read.
She’s going into second grade this fall and it has really only been in the last few months that her reading has finally started to really improve.
One of the things that’s helped immensely?
A reading coach.
When school shut down in March, her classroom aide started doing online tutoring with her for 20-25 minutes a day Monday through Thursday, and when school ended, we asked her to continue it because I wasn’t about to let Ani lose the progress she’d made.
It has been the BEST thing for Ani and every time I mentioned it, I was flooded with DMs asking how we found someone to work with her, what curriculum she was using, what it cost, and if she might have capacity for more students.
Obviously, a lot of families needed something like this.
When I asked who had or had previously had a struggling reader on Instagram, more than 70% of the thousands of people who responded said they’d had a child struggle with reading.
It’s SO common.
And it’s so hard.
Reading is absolutely foundational to education and life, and once you slip behind, it’s hard to catch up.
Bart and I have talked endlessly about Ani’s reading and how to help her, and I know we’re not the only parents who feel this way.
Which is why I am SO excited about Savvy Reading.
All summer, Bart and I have been quietly working on Savvy Reading along with an amazing team of teachers, curriculum designers, artists, technology wizards, and reading specialists so that other families – no matter where they live – can get the consistent reading practice that helps build reading skills and confidence.
And if it could be fun and interactive? Even better.
Savvy Reading provides individual or small group (2-4 kids total) live online reading classes led by a coach to help your child become a confident and skilled reader.
I am OVER THE MOON about it finally being live and I am so thrilled that we’ll be able to help so many families and students make learning to read a positive experience.
Classes are for all children at a kindergarten through second grade level and you can easily register here!!
Maybe your child is ready to learn to read but you don’t have the time or ability to teach them yourself.
Maybe you’re homeschooling and you want your child to have interaction with other children.
Maybe your child is struggling with reading and needs help getting to grade level.
Maybe your child responds better to an adult that isn’t their parent (this is 100% Ani – she will work her way through anything her teacher gives her, where she’d push back big time if I asked her to do the same thing).
Maybe you struggle with consistency working with your child on your own and need a built in program that makes it easy to get your child the consistent practice they need.
If any of those sound like you, Savvy might be the perfect fit for your family.
You can see all the details about Savvy here or leave any questions you have in the comments!
I’ve worked on a lot of projects in my nearly 14 years of running Everyday Reading, but I’ve never felt so strongly that something would help families like I feel like Savvy will.
We’ve been running practice classes with coaches and readers this month in preparation for launch and it has been SO thrilling to see the enthusiasm of the coaches and the excitement of the readers. After a class last week, we asked each student individually if they wanted to do it again and they all gave a resounding yes.
That’s always been my goal with Everyday Reading – to make reading a positive, encouraging, and successful part of family life – and Savvy is one of the best ways to make that happen for more children and more families.
Because knowing how to read and feeling confident about your reading abilities changes your life.
And I want that for every child and for every family.
If you liked this post about Savvy Reading, you might like these posts too
- The tools I’ve used to teach my children to read
- Raising readers – a free course for parents
- 5 tips for teaching a child to read
Photos by Christie Knight Photography
What a great idea! I’ll keep this in mind to recommend. I would just encourage parents to also look into possible reasons behind the struggle. My oldest struggled to learn to read and we did all the practices and she’s a great reader….but something has always seemed off. She did well in school but it took so much effort. She got headaches, seemed overwhelmed easily. Though her reading scores at school were very high, there were little things. She had a strong preference for audio books – more than just a preference. When she read out loud sometimes she’d skip lines. In 3rd grade we evaluated for dyslexia and other learning disabilities because she still had lots of reversals. Nothing official came back but the neuropsychologist agreed there was a pattern of something going on visually, but not anything they were able to diagnose. Finally this summer, at the end of 6th grade, we found an optometrist that tests for visual processing disorders. I won’t go into the specifics of her diagnosis but we have been working with an occupational therapist who specializes in vision therapy. It is hard work, but with daily exercises she has made dramatic improvement. We are seeing huge jumps in her ability to play piano because her eyes can now track the notes, as her eyes track better we’ve seen a lot less motion sickness. I am so excited for her to be able to have these fixes before she starts middle school.
My youngest is going into 1st grade. He has auditory processing disorder and needs hearing aids. It was a battle getting him evaluated because he could pass a hearing test…but if you add the slightest bit of background noise his hearing drops to the 2nd percentile. Hearing aids made an immediate, dramatic difference.
In both cases, we did everything- reading to them, working one on one with a reading specialist and lots of practice. A program like this would have been awesome and still needed- but even once they could read the problems didn’t go away until we found the underlying causes.
Another caution – processing disorders have very similar symptoms to ADD/ADHD.
May I ask what test your son had other than the hearing test? At one point my son was thought to possibly have an auditory processing disorder. Thanks!
Are you hiring reading coaches? I may know someone to refer.
Yes! We’ll have an application form up on the site later today!
What times will the classes be offered? Will there be classes offered later in the day, or just during school hours?
Congratulations!
This is so cool. As a technician who works with kids who need reading help, anything helps. My own kids hate me, but they have to read out loud to me until 3rd grade. But I do know, at least for my kids at home, everything really clicked in 3rd grade. They made great leaps in 3rd grade and were able to stay on grade level, and even get ahead once they found their favorite books to read.
I love this! I don’t have kids myself but if you are thinking of providing scholarships for those families who may need it, I would be happy to donate 🙂
I have a little guy going into first grade. Right now he’s reading at grade level, but is struggling with reading comprehension. He has a mild sensory processing disorder and that definitely influences his ability to make sense of the stories. Will comprehension be covered at all in the savvy reading?
Yes! It’s definitely a part of the curriculum.
Do you know of any reading programs for 8th grade. I’ve always felt like things were a little off. I requested a hearing test in 1st grade but it came back fine. Since observing more with distance learning I think she might have dyslexia. I have been reading aloud with her over the summer. She hates it and doesn’t seem to think there is a problem. I have the luxury of having her home this school year and I would like to boost her confidence with reading. She does well in school but she works so hard at it.