How Going Gluten-Free Transformed our Home
Hi, I’m Melissa, Beth asked me to explain how going gluten-free made a difference in our household. I have a
I didn’t homeschool my son Harry, but I used a multi-sensory dyslexia programme to teach him reading and spelling in only 30 minutes a day.
Before Harry started school, we did the same things with him as with our daughter, who’d had no problems learning to read.
However, unlike his sister, Harry didn’t pick up the alphabet. When he tried to write his name, the letters were usually reversed, or, in one memorable incident on the beach, he wrote his name two metres high in the sand, entirely backwards.
After a year’s schooling, Harry had made no progress in reading and was put on Reading Recovery. I’m sure this works for some children, and I would also like to say that his teacher meant well. However, for a dyslexic child, Reading Recovery is like trying to teach a deaf child by shouting louder. The programme reinforced a feeling of failure; his self-confidence plummeted, and he began to hate school.
I spent a lot of money on programmes and tutors, and to some extent, they all helped, but the thing that made the most difference to Harry was Marie Rippel’s ‘All About Spelling’ and ‘All About Reading’ programmes. These resources made such a difference that I’ve become an affiliate for her products.
Marie Rippel, the developer of All About Reading and All About Spelling, is a woman after my own heart. When her son was nine, she was told by a paediatrician that he would never learn to read or spell. Not one to take failure as an option, she tried dozens of programmes and became desperate. As a trained teacher, she wrote a multi-sensory programme based on the Orton-Gillingham system for him. Watch the video below to hear more about her story.
When I discovered the All About Learning materials, Harry was ten, and his reading level was that of a six-year-old. I started him on ‘All About Spelling’ Level 1, and we slowly (and I mean slowly) worked our way through the first three levels. The only time to do this was before school. We set a goal of working from 8 to 8.30 AM every weekday.
It uses magnetic letter tiles to build words, with different colours for letter blends, vowels, prefixes, and suffixes.
We worked our way through the different levels of spelling at our own pace. Some lessons took 3-4 days to master, while others we flew through. We used a magnetic memo board to build the words and a small plastic box to store the spelling cards. Harry enjoyed playing on the free app, which reads the alphabet and teaches the correct pronunciation of all letter blends.
In Marie’s programme, spelling rules are explicitly taught. Tips such as the letter ‘c’ says ‘s’ before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ helped Harry enormously. An older friend told me she was taught these hard and soft vowels at school. Sadly, this no longer seems to be the case, or if they are taught, they are not repeated regularly. Repetition is essential for someone with dyslexia due to their weak short-term memory.
After working on spelling for a year, we moved on to ‘All About Reading.’ Harry worked his way through all the levels. My one reservation is that the stories are written primarily to teach a specific spelling aspect. However, I recommend this resource if you can work with your child regularly. People with dyslexia need to be systematically taught language that non-dyslexics pick up.
One more tip about reading. I try to get Harry to read for fifteen to twenty minutes each evening. It isn’t easy. He hasn’t found any genre that has gripped him. Knowing his passion for mountain biking, I bought him some books and magazines. Recently, engrossed in his latest bike magazine, he asked me if he could read for another ten minutes!
Harry is now reading at his age-grade level. I can’t thank Marie enough. Her resources were just what Harry needed.
If you want to know how I taught my son to read and spell in 30 minutes a day, here are my affilate links to All About learning. I hope you find All About Spelling and All About Reading equally helpful.
If your child also struggles to learn the multiplication tables, check out this blog post on how using stories will help them remember the facts.
This programme is based on the Orton Gillingham approach. Learn more about this here.
Some children struggle with phonics. This post about the Davis Correction method offers an alternative teaching approach.
Speechify is an online text-to-speech reading app. Use this affiliate link to find out more.
Hi, I’m Beth. Seven years ago, when I discovered my son had dyslexia, I had a ‘light-bulb’ moment and understood this explained many of my own difficulties. Ever since, I’ve been on a mission to discover the best ways to wrestle what I like to call the dyslexia octopus.
Hi, I’m Melissa, Beth asked me to explain how going gluten-free made a difference in our household. I have a
I need nighttime anxiety relief. It’s 4 AM, and I’m reviewing what happened to Harry at school yesterday and wondering
Hi, I’m Beth. Seven years ago, when I discovered my son had dyslexia, I had a ‘light-bulb’ moment and understood this explained many of my own difficulties. Ever since, I’ve been on a mission to discover the best ways to wrestle what I like to call the dyslexia octopus.