Reading is FUN and EASY

EVERY CHILD Deserves to have FUN learning to READ, WRITE AND SPELL!

Every child deserves to learn to read and to have fun doing it!

When asked for a one word description for Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®, the word that popped out was, “FUN!!”

The word after all these years is still FUN!

Learning to read with Silent Elephant “e”® is FUN and is meant to be FUN!

It was written with FUN as its guiding premise.

I wrote Silent Elephant “e”® on the foundation of the research of how our brains learn to read, write and spell and therefore on the best strategies to teach ALL LEARNERS reading, writing and spelling, especially dyslexic learners, or learners with other learning differences.

But, the guiding light behind all of our strategies based on the research is FUN.

When your kids are learning phonemic awareness and all the phonics concepts through active, imaginative activities that activate all parts of their brains, THEY HAVE FUN!

In Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® every phonics concept is introduced through a FUN imaginative activity that connects that phonics concept to all prior learning and will remain with them for the rest of their life.

When they learn through fun, learning is easy and natural. They become eager for the next concept.
They feel confident and sure of themselves.

They are ready to take on any book that comes their way, which is what we all want.

We want them to experience the freedom and joy of reading and writing, and never look back. 😊

Every child deserves to learn to read and to have fun doing it!

You can get ahold of us at silentelephante@gmail. We love supporting you and your children’s success.

Becoming a Fluent Reader, Writer and Speller Doesn't Take 6 Years

I promise it won't take 6 years for your kids to become fluent readers, writers AND spellers, even if they're struggling right now.

I know you are probably thinking, “Why not? Isn’t that the way it works? Kindergarten through 5th grade is 6 years.”

Here’s the thing, when you teach your children to read, write and spell the way their brain learns best (active engaging activities), they learn quickly, they transfer that knowledge to prior and future learning easily and they RETAIN their learning.

With Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e® you will be teaching your children the way their brain learns best from the foundation of reading, writing and spelling (phonemic awareness) right through their high school phonics skills. You will be teaching every skill with active engaging activities that activate their whole brain. They WILL learn easily and quickly. They WILL have fun.

Here are some Silent Elephant “e® success stories 😊:
 
       A 3rd grader said to me after just 7 times of tutoring, “I know what you’re trying to teach me. There are single, separate sounds in words! I never knew that. I think I’m going to be able to learn to read now!”

It took that newly confident profoundly dyslexic 3rd grader 3 months to go from not reading at all to a 3rd grade reading level and a total of 8 months to be at a 6th grade level in comprehension and a 7th grade level in word recognition. She went from being way behind her peers to being far ahead!
 
       Just after 5 times of tutoring a struggling 9th grader said, “I never knew what rhyme was! I've never heard individual sounds in words before!”

She is profoundly dyslexic, yet it only took her 4 months to go from a 5th grade reading level to a 9th grade reading level and another 9 months to reach a college reading level while in 10th grade. She is now a college graduate.
 
        A 1st grader’s parent said to me, “I know my daughter doesn’t belong in special education. She’s truly very intelligent. Can you help her learn to read?”

The answer was, “YES, I CAN!

Within 6 months this profoundly dyslexic first grader was at a 1.8 reading level – almost caught up with her peers. Within 11 months, she was decoding words at a 6th grade reading level and within 18 months, she was comprehending at a 4th grade reading level – a grade level above her peers. To put icing on that cake, she was staffed out of special education at that time. She continued with me and within 3½ years was reading at an 11th grade level when she completed 4th grade!

         AND NO, Silent Elephant “e”® isn’t just for kids with dyslexia or other learning differences, it's for ALL YOUR KIDS!

The parents of a bubbly, bright little pre-school girl wanted her to have a solid foundation in reading, writing and spelling so they contacted me. She began tutoring twice a week for only 30 minutes at a time.

Within 7 months, she was at a 1st grade reading level although she was still in kindergarten. She entered first grade reading on a 4th grade level and in 2 years was reading on a 6th grade level

.She is confident and happy and free to read anything that catches her fancy and she is very successful in all her other subjects.

As you see, when you teach your children the way they learn best with
Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® it won’t take 6 years for them to become a confident, happy, fluent reader, writer and speller, even if they have learning differences.

When you are teaching with Silent Elephant “e”®, you’ll have fun teaching reading, writing and spelling and they will have fun learning to read, write AND spell. 😊

They will feel confident and proud, and you will feel happy.
 
If you have questions and/or want more information about how 
Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® ensures the success of your children, feel free to contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com or 208-859-4406.

Keep a song in your heart!

Let See What You Get - Fun for You and Your Kids

Today I want to share Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® in depth so that you really KNOW what you are getting when you choose Silent Elephant “e”® as your reading, writing and spelling curriculum . 😊

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  is your COMPLETE reading, writing AND spelling curriculum pre-school through high school skills.

It’s your WHOLE curriculum, 14 years of reading, writing AND spelling skills – preschool through high school.

(If you prefer, click here to explore Silent Elephant “e”® or zip over and explore each part of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” here  Afterpay is available. You can also purchase on Amazon here, or search Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.

With Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  as your reading, writing and spelling curriculum you’ll have everything all your kids need preschool through high school skills, especially if they have learning differences like dyslexia. That’s all 14 years of curriculum.

With Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  you can relax and breathe deep knowing you won’t have to think about which reading, writing or spelling curriculum to use ever again.

Let’s explore it.
 

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® Part 1 is Phonemic Awareness which is the foundation of ALL reading, writing and spelling success.

Without a solid base of phonemic awareness, your child will struggle with all three, reading, writing and spelling, for the rest of their life. Silent Elephant “e”®’s phonemic awareness ensures that your child will have a solid understanding of how language works and they will be ready for phonics and to read, write and spell

Phonics concepts begin in Part 3 Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®. Every phonics concept begins with an imaginative creative activity that is the foundation of that concept for the rest of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®, and their life. These activities include puppetry, song, art, acting, drawing, color, symbols, writing, using their 5 senses in their learning and many other activities.

Each of these creative activities activates all parts of their brain which is important for every one of your children as they’re learning to read, write and spell, but especially important for your dyslexics or other learning difference children.
 

Silent Elephant “e”® also has 44 colored educational posters that are an integral part of each phonics concept. The poster activities are one of the ways that Silent Elephant “e”® ensures each phonics concept is processed in all parts of their brain. This is especially important for your dyslexic child, and is a powerful tool for every one of your children. When they have drawn the poster that explains the phonics concept, their brain will pull up that image for them when they come up to an unknown word that has that phonics concept.
 

There are 4 other components that we have created to support you as your children learn to read, write and spell with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®

  1. Extra added fun is our picture book My Awesome Grandma. It is a book that leaves their imagination wondering. :) It introduces consonant digraphs and goes with Parts 4-14.

  2. Just for you, we recorded over 100 Instructional Videos that take you lesson by lesson through all of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®. If you’re not sure how to teach a lesson, you have the video at your fingertips.

  3. Knowing you might want added support, we offer a 9 hour on-line Personal Training - our Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® class for homeschool parents, tutors and teachers is very helpful.  You’ll notice the price goes down depending on how many people attend the class.

  4. Our blog silentelephante.com/blog has way over 100 posts to support you as you teach your children.  

Please keep this in mind - one of the most important things for us is for you to know that with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  you will ALWAYS have OUR support to answer all your questions about Silent Elephant “e”®, about teaching reading, about teaching in general and about teaching dyslexics and other learning differences.

Your children’s success is very importance to us.
You, and your children, having fun as they learn to read, write and spell is also very important to us. 

Email us at silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com with your questions.

Let's Do That Again!!! It's SO Easy!

Let's do that again!!

In this YouTube Short, this happy little one easily spells new words because she is learning about digraphs with the magic hat (which she loves, BTW) and she learned her short vowels through song.
She's proud and eager for more.

Enjoy! :)

Learn more at silentelephante.com, and there is a ton of info on reading, writing and spelling and dyslexia on the blog, silentelephante.com/blog.

Contact me at silentelephante@gmail.com. I would love to visit with you. 

Becoming a Silent Elephant "e" Tutor is Easy and Very Rewarding


Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® Parts 1-14 and the Educational Posters are on sale for 25% off through May. This is everything you will need for all your children to be successful readers, writers and spellers, AND it is all you need to start you Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® tutoring business. You can buy Part 1-14 individually or your can buy the packages to save money.

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® is an EASY, at home, very rewarding way to make money.

In this video I share that I have more requests for tutoring than I have available time slots.

When Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® is your preschool through high school reading, writing, spelling program, you have everything you need to start your own tutoring business.

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® is all 14 years of reading, writing and spelling curriculum which means, you have everything you need to start your business and teach ALL your children. (Of course, it won't take 14 years for them to learn all the skills. It usually just takes 2-4 years.🙂)

Plus, you have us to help you get your business rolling and to support you as it grows.

Right now is the perfect time to start your Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” ® journey as 
everything you need, Parts 1-14 and the Educational Posters are on sale through May 31st. 
Check them out here.

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com to explore being  a Silent Elephant “e” ® tutor. 

It Doesn't Have To Take 6 Years for Them to be Reading on a 6th Grade Level

Today I’d like to share more of my experiences with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”® and continue my thoughts on why I am realizing it shouldn’t take 6 years for a child to be able to decode 6th grade reading words.

Over the last 12 years that I have taught reading, writing and spelling with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  it’s been my experience that children master phonemic awareness and learn all the phonics rules and are able to apply the phonics rules to fluently decode 6th grade words by the end of their 2nd grade year - about 8 years old. In other words, it takes about 2 years to achieve reading 6th grade words.

Further, Silent Elephant “e”®  was written so this goal can be achieved with only 2 hours of instruction per week. Again, that’s what my data is showing because I only meet with my students for 2 hours a week. Of course, if they spend an hour per day learning with Silent Elephant “e”® , they will be decoding words at a 6th grade level even sooner.

Why would this be true? Why is this my experience over and over?

Well, they learn so easily and quickly because they are learning the way they learn best, through whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities and processes that stimulate all parts of their brain for both learning and retaining what they have learned. These whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities and processes are embedded into every moment of their instruction in Silent Elephant “e”®.  My experience and data share the results.

I can hear some of you thinking, “But my child struggles with reading. It’s so difficult for him/her!”

If your child has a learning difference, multiple learning differences or any learning struggles, it may take longer for him/her to reach that 6th grade word recognition level.

But, you can rest assured that he/she will attain that level with Silent Elephant “e”®  faster, more steadily and with more fun than with any other reading program. This is because they will be learning using all their senses (multi-sensory) therefore connecting their learning in all parts of their brain. In the case of dyslexic learners, it activates under stimulated parts of their brain and makes learning and retention of learning much easier.

This has been my experience with Silent Elephant “e”® : it may take children longer if they have learning differences, but they get there and they have fun getting there.

Let me share an example. I have been tutoring an ELL boy for 3 years who has multiple learning differences and speech and language processing disorders (one can barely understand his English or his native tongue). He is also considered to have an extremely low IQ.

When he came to me halfway through his 4th grade year, he wasn’t reading at all. He didn’t know letter sounds or letter names. He was illiterate and basically non-verbal.

Today as I write this, he has mastered phonemic awareness and knows all letter sounds and letter names. He has mastered the 700 High Frequency Fry Word List. He fluently reads simple to complex words, such as: so, ran, sphinx, squint, certain, cage, hurry. He reads words with single consonants, consonant digraphs and consonant blends, words with hard and soft “c” and “g”, words with long vowels, and words ending with “y”. He knows how to read and write (spell) words with the suffixes -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, and -ly . He knows when to change or not change “y” to “i” and how to change “f” or “fe” to “v” when adding a suffix. Further, he is formulating answers to high level thinking questions.

When this beautiful boy, who has a goal of becoming a police officer, first came to me, his teachers were sure that he’d never learn to read.

That thought crossed my mind from time to time also when we first began, but I knew I couldn’t give up on this sweet, hard-working boy. He certainly isn’t giving up! Like I said, I knew he WOULD take longer than 2 years because of his learning differences and his language processing difficulties, but I had faith he would get there because of my experience with Silent Elephant “e”®.  We started out very slowly and have slowly picked up speed.

He’s now reading early readers’ books. You should see the smile on his face as he shows me a book he’s read: one about veterinarians, one about astronauts, one about Ninjas, one about dinosaurs. He beams with pride! He is feeling the freedom and joy of reading.

His dad, who had been told his son would never read, says over and over to me, “You, Mrs. Jones, you are really teaching him to read!”

I humbly thank his dad and I think to myself that I’m so glad I wrote Silent Elephant “e”®.  It has been the steady, consistent, multi-sensory instruction his son needs to understand language and learn to read.

From my experience with other students, I know that now that he’s almost finished with Part 10 of Silent Elephant “e”®, his reading growth will speed up! I can’t wait, I can already see his face beaming with both pride and relief. He realizes he is succeeding. He is feeling the joy of reading.

This fall he headed off into seventh grade with more of a feeling of confidence and that he has a future than he has ever felt. He’s still not reading on grade level yet, but he knows he is moving there, however long it takes.

 

This young success story has not been my only student whose parents were told their child would never read. Last year, I had a fun experience with one of my then 9th grade boys admitting to me with both embarrassment and pride that he got caught red-handed reading his mom’s text messages. A year before that, he was a nonreader.

He hadn’t meant to snoop into his Mom’ phone, he just started reading, got caught up in what he was reading, didn’t even realize that he was reading so effortlessly, and didn’t even think about the fact that he really shouldn’t be reading his mom’s private messages. 😊

His mom told me later that she didn’t know whether to be excited and happy, because he was actually reading and engaged in reading or to be upset because he was reading things she hadn’t planned on him reading. In the end, she was thrilled!

He shared, “I wasn’t trying to snoop. I just started reading and I got so excited that I couldn’t quit. My mom was stunned!” He asked me immediately to give him a reading assessment to see what reading level he was on which, of course, I did. We celebrated the growth he’s made in ONLY 9 months.
In January, this now 16-year-old, 10th grade student passed his driver’s license test with 100%! He and his family went out to dinner to celebrate. He was beaming with pride when he told me!

Let me go back to where I started today, it’s been my experience with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”®  over and over these past twelve years that when you teach children, especially struggling children, the way they learn best with whole child/whole brain, multi-sensory activities embedded into every moment of learning, it doesn’t take 6 years to be reading at a 6th grade level. The average is 2 years, and that’s the average!

Those who don’t have learning differences learn more quickly but EVERY SINGLE ONE will succeed. That’s been my experience. And I LOVE it!

Check out this blog post to enjoy a young one who flew - She Was Reading at a Fourth Grade Level at the End of Kindergarten.  There are also many more success stories here on my blog.

Follow us on TikTok @silent.elephant.e 😊.

Contact us at silentelephante@gmail.com

Teaching Multiple Ages is EASY and FUN

Meet Xander who was beside himself when he got to join in the Silent Elephant “e”® lessons with his sisters. 

It was a very happy day for Xander when he was able to begin HIS Silent Elephant “e”® reading lessons like his two older sisters. He had watched his sisters have so much fun learning to read. He had even been able to join in some of the multi-sensory introduction activities like writing his letters in pudding as they practiced their sight words, but finally the day had come when HE got to have HIS lessons to learn to read, write and spell.

He eagerly listened to his mom explaining phonemic awareness with the Caterpillar/Train Game and the colored squares. He listened intently as his mom said the sounds in “cat”, he repeated them listening intently to HIS voice and then carefully moved the colors squares to indicate the number of sounds he was hearing. He beamed with pride!

Suddenly he had a great idea! His brain was transferring his knowledge! He shot off to his room, returned with his toy cars, began lining up his tiny cars to match the colors of his squares, and moved his CARS to indicate how many sounds he was hearing in a word.

He was having FUN while learning and transferring his knowledge.

Learning to read, write and spell should be fun and Silent Elephant “e”® is all about the fun of learning!

Silent Elephant “e”® teaches entirely using multi-sensory and whole-body instruction, so children are actively learning at all times.
 


Xander is Wendy’s third child to begin learning to read, write and spell with Silent Elephant “e”®.

Wendy has honed her method of teaching 3 different ages at the same time and making sure they are always successful. Silent Elephant “e”® makes this easy for her.

Here is the Silent Elephant “e”® method for teaching multiple ages:

Since every Silent Elephant “e”® lesson has leveled materials, begin every new concept with the multi-sensory introductory lesson with all your kids. This gives them a sense of learning community as they are actively learning the same concept. 

  1. After the active multi-sensory introduction, move your kiddos to their personal practice pages which are leveled:  

  • Level 1 introduces the phonics rule – these practice pages are for your child that is just beginning to learn to read and who are beginning Silent Elephant “e”®.

  • Level 2 provides developing vocabulary and independence in using all the phonics rules – these practice pages are for your child that has completed Level 1 and is reviewing each phonics rule.

  • Level 3 contains multi-syllabic words for advanced independent reading using the phonics rules – these practice pages are for your child that has completed Level 1 and/or Level 2.  (Some children can move right into Level 3 upon completing Level 1. Other children may need more review after completing Level 1, so it’s best to have them excel in Level 2 before moving to Level 3.)

You and your children will enjoy success and the fun of learning together!

Wendy KNOWS when each of her children have mastered a concept, and she knows if she needs to reteach a concept before moving on because continual assessment is a built-in integral part of Silent Elephant “e”®.  It’s easy for Wendy to meet each of her child’s individual needs to be sure they are succeeding.

And they ARE succeeding!

Her 7-year-old won an award for reading the most books at her library this past summer and
her 9-year-old is blazing a trail through Nancy Drew mysteries. 😊
And Xander is eager to join them to blaze his own trail.

Contact us with thoughts and questions.

silentelephante@gmail.com or nina.silentelephante@gmail.com