FaceTiming with Young Readers! This was a First!!

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FaceTiming with Young Readers! This was a First!! 

I felt so honored, so special!!  

Wendy, Zoya and Audrey’s mom, suggested that we FaceTime because the girls have been so excited about their amazing progress in reading. They wanted to share their success with the author of Silent Elephant “e”. 

I was excited and delighted.  

We set up a time and, through the fun magic of FaceTime, there were Zoya and Audrey’s bright eyes looking back at me. My heart swelled. Their eyes sparkled with a love of life and a joy of learning. 

Wendy had thoughtfully prepped her daughters for our meeting. (What an awesome mom!!) They were ready and eager with stories to read to me and questions for me to answer. 

I felt like a famous author visiting a classroom!! 😊 

The girls have both completed Parts 1-3 of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” and had each picked one of my stories from a short vowel lesson to focus on during our time together.  

Both Zoya and Audrey had a “spotlight time” to share their own handwritten copy and illustration of the story they had chosen. Their sweet faces beamed with pride as they carefully and thoroughly shared their individual work.

 I thoroughly enjoyed seeing each of their personal drawings of the story they had chosen—each completely different from the other. Their visualizations of what they had read and comprehended were beautiful and detailed. Clearly, they are seeing the stories in their minds.  

The joy they expressed in their drawings made my heart sing! Is there anything so precious as a child’s artwork? 

Each girl had developed a list of questions to ask me about her particular focus story. Here are some examples of their well thought out questions:

·       What caused the log to fall on the box?

·       What job were you imagining Tom got?

·       How did that job help Tom get the log off of the box?

·       Did you imagine Rex to be a dinosaur? (I did!)

·       Why did you choose red for the color of the jet?

·       What food would you have fed the ten men, the pet and Rex?

·       Why did the pet get ill? 

I felt honored and special as I answered each of their questions and asked them to share how they had imagined the story. 

Both Zoya and Audrey completely comprehend what they are skillfully reading. Further, they are going beyond the text with personal creativity and an eagerness to learn more. 

Although Wendy didn’t have a time in the spotlight, her joy, pride and love of her girls and their progress was beaming in the background.

She loves teaching her girls with Silent Elephant “e”. It shows in their success and her bright smile.  

I LOVED our time together. I felt so privileged, but most of all, I loved seeing first-

Please send me your success stories. If you would like to FaceTime to share your success stories, please contact me.

P. S. Both you and your children will love Silent Elephant “e”.

They will LOVE their feeling of success and EASE in learning to read.

YOU will LOVE their success and how EASY teaching with Silent Elephant “e” is for you.

If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson