Over the weekend a new website was launched for www.readinghorizons.com, (sister site to readinghorizonsathome.com). The exciting news precedes by a month the coming release of version 5 of our reading program for commercial use for ages 10-adults. Eventually within the next year this will lead to a new home-use product as well. Advances in technology and new ideas for experiencing the most effectual learning in the systematic Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself methodology have led to this extensive project called version 5. I plan on taking a tour of the new site today and through the next week in order to recommend to at-home users the newest learning resources/features available there. Teaching reading in classrooms and institutions isn't all that different from teaching at home, or being a learner at home, considering the need is to find the best resources at our fingertips for developing a solid foundation in reading skills, which ultimately affects so much of all the other learning we will do in our lives.

I've learned of a customer from Georgia who just purchased five of our software programs to give as gifts to families she knew in her church congregation who very much wanted and needed help with reading skills. Those will be far-reaching gifts. Some people are such an inspiration!

It continually amazes me the differences in financial situations of people who call in for help each day. Sometimes there is mention of the many thousands of dollars they've invested in private schools that still don't know how to solve the problem of dyslexia. Other times it's the many hundreds spent so far on random-type programs or on the dyslexia assessment that confirmed what they already knew, but still didn't know what to do about. My heart just goes out to them. And it goes out even more to those who call because they are out of work and have no hope to solve that without solving their learning-how-to-read problem first, but of course they have no money with which to do that. Thankfully I can offer two answers for that kind of call. One concerns our free online training for parents and tutors, encouraging them to find help from a relative or friend who could possibly learn the methodology in order to teach it to them. Secondly, we have a donation program they can apply for called Lemons for Literacy. Today we are awarding a young boy named Adam his software program. All the "lemonade ounces" required for his donated program have been earned by people who visit the Lemons for Literacy site and play a vocabulary game. Yay for Adam! And for the calls from people who are tired of spending money, thankfullly I can reassure them that this should be the end of their search for help with reading skills.

Last week I enjoyed speaking with a homeschooling mom in Quebec, Canada. Her English was great, though she did easily slip into French without intending to. It has been a long time since my jr. high school French classes, but coincidently, the week before I had been listening to "Les Miserables" (Victor Hugo) on tape, and along with an increase in foreign vocabulary, the French accent of the reader was very strong; I relished the beauty of the language. Without having traveled much beyond the borders of the United States, because of literature I can still enjoy the flavor of other countries. I imagine parts of Canada simply because Anne of Green Gables' descriptions of Prince Edward island were so indelibly clear. Reading activities take us all over the world without costing us anything for the travel. It's marvelous to feel rich returning from the library with a loaded bag of books and tapes!

I feel I've had my eyes opened to something this week--- to see more clearly why controversy exists in the minds of some people about whether phonics or whether whole-word reading programs are chosen. Because of all the research done now, especially about INTENSIVE phonics, I've found it difficult to understand why certain voices seem to be so against phonics. Well, a friend emailed me her second-grader's note that came home from his "teaching team" Tuesday. It was such confusion-planned teaching that I couldn't believe it. Explicit, systematic and sequential phonics instruction is completely different from random alphabet soup where any kind of spelling goes! No wonder there might be opposition to a reading program labeled as phonics. The note I referred to indicated that their class' spelling program would now be aligned with "phonics". As a result, for testing: "In scoring the correct use of the letter combination that produces the target sound, the actual work may be spelled incorrectly, but your child will still receive credit for the word." Also, "If there are two spellings for the same sound being studied at the same time, either of the letter combinations will be accepted to represent the sound." How would a child with dyslexia ever grasp what the rules for building words are with this type of approach? Their mite es will bee know speling proagrem. If you are faced with this type of confusion, take the free phonics training for parents/tutors available at our website: www.readinghorizonsathome.com/downloads/workshop.aspx It will take about four hours to complete, and you'll be able to print off a syllabus at the end. It usually opens eyes wonderfully, and I'd enjoy hearing what your feelings are after completing it!