Bean bag toss

I still felt like there was a lot of use in the paper that I had put on the wall, that was now covered with words and stickers.
I decided to make a beanbag and put the paper on the floor for a new game of bean bag toss. I made a bean bag out of corvette material in order to make it a bit more appealing to boys. The rules are simple, toss the bean bag and read the word.

Game- sorting words in FFP

I picked up some florest picks and stuck them into playdough. I am trying to keep the playdough pliable by keeping it in a snack bag. This way I can still squish it around the pick to make it stand up. The signs were a bit too heavy to actually stand up in the pick so I had to scotch tape them. The kids thought it was neat anyway. They took turns deciding where each word fits into the fair.

Advertising

My friend had her vehicle plastered with signs advertising her business. The price was very reasonable so I looked into it.
For $150.00 I think I will get a lot for my advertising dollar. I thought it was a good idea to put the age on the truck as most people have never thought of sending a 3 year old to phonics tutoring.

ORGANIZATION

I have 8 different groups of kids that come twice a week. Some are solo and some are in groups of 4. That means that I have a 8 different lessons to prepare. At the beginning I could just prepare a lesson for level one and another for level two. Now that some are moving ahead faster than others I am finding I need to have a lot more lessons ready. I find that I need so many activities at my fingertips that my counter top isn't big enough. If I don't see what I need right away I find the kids get out of control. Parents are paying so much for a lesson I feel very responsible to not be wasting their time. I started looking around my room to see if there is any way that I can get more surface area available. I spied these shelves that I have been using for a shoe rack. Low and behold they just fit the top of my counter. Now I have 3 shelves that I can put activities for the day so they are at my fingertips.

J's progress (down syndrome)

J is making unbelievable progress in reading. I have decided to start him on lesson one of the "ready to read" program. His hand writing is all but intelligible but he can read the first pages and he can spell the words. I will take one lesson at a time and then stop if he gets stuck, go back and review for awhile. We are still working on the "year one" stuff but he seems ready for more, so I will keep him challenged.
He hasn't gotten it down 100%, but he seems to understand the concept of sitting and standing clowns. He can also read most of the blends (bumper cars ). Since he can do all of that, I decided that he should have a binder and start on the lessons.
I feel so privileged to be teaching him.

Progress Oct 14th

We are moving ahead with our lessons at a slow pace. I know that it is because my kids this year are new to fun family phonics but they are still getting it. We are in the middle of blends right now and that seems to be a lot easier for them than the "clowns". I haven't moved away from the clowns yet but keep reviewing them in different ways each time. When we finished reading "The Fun Family Book" I expected that they would all be able to read the whole book, but that wasn't so. I don't know how others groups have found this, but most of my kids can still only read 3 letter words so words like Teddy, family and even book were too hard for them. I haven't been using the "new word" sheets very much, perhaps I need to find more ways to fit that in. I do have them in the form of a Bingo game but it seems really hard for them. There are a lot of sight words that completely stump them, such as "and, so, the etc. On the plus side, if you compare what they can read now compared to the fist of Sept. they have all improved. The other plus is that they still love coming here, and I still love having them here. I am still amazed everyday that this is my job and I actually get paid to do it. What a blessing.!

Using small puppets to create a story for "blends"

I bought a small finger puppet theatre at a garage sale for $2.00. I have been looking at it for awhile, thinking that I should make use of it. I tried making finger puppets to correspond to each of the letters of the alphabet but it seems like a daunting task and I stopped at about letter g.
I decided to try using it for one of the "stories"
I used foam material and did my best at drawing some of the characters in the story. Dave, frog etc.
It looks like it might add interest to a story,I will give it a try on the kids tomorrow.

Not the greatest activity

I tried having 2 children make words with these stick on letters while 2 others did their drawings. The plan was that they would then change places and read what the other had constructed on the window. It wasn't too successful. I found it took the kids too long to find the letters that they wanted, and they were making words like their own names etc. I decided that it was just a time waster.

Glueing

This is just another way to work on the same story. I photocopied an extra copy of one of the stories and then cut out the words. The children then have to find words and glue them on top of the words on their sheets. Before they glued the words I asked them to sound them out.

Musical Words

This activity is a big hit with everyone. (Perhaps not the teacher) It can get carried away so I use it sparingly. I put flashcards of the words that we are working on around the table. I then start some lively music and the children dance around the table. When the music stops they pick up the word nearest to them and read it out loud. It can quickly turn into a racing game with the older boys so we sometimes shut it down early.

Bringing life to stories

The children that I am working with are not moving ahead as fast as planned. The reason for the slow start is that none of them have done the first level. I wanted to fit in a bit more review before we headed into the blends so I had to come up with more ideas of things to do.
I found some stuffed animals and gave them the names from the story. The children loved it as I named animals to fit into the characters of Pam, Nan and Cat. As I read each line from Story Number 1, I moved the Cat around from sitting on Nan,then the Mat, then finally on Pam. It was a fun way to see the words in print and to help the children grasp the content of the story. This way I hope to be able to work on comprehension as well as reading.

Cube game

The cube that I made out of kraft dinner boxes worked really well. We have now moved on to a different area of the fair and I would like to use the cube throwing game again. I looked for a few weeks in various stores but I could not find a cube with blank sides that you could put in whatever you wanted. I decided that I would have to make one. It took me about 1 hour to make. I bought some heavy clear plastic for $1.00 which I cut to fit around the cube. I then cut slits where I would want the papers to slide in. Sewing machines don't sew plastic very well so I put paper over the seams as I sewed them. After all sides but 3 were sew together I slid the cube inside and glued the last 3 edges shut. It seems to work.

My finest hour

Today I was at a workshop and I was a bit early. I introduced myself to the few that were also there early. Imagine my surprise when one of the ladies said "Oh! you're Esther, I've been wanting to meet you." "You taught my son and his friend." When she told me their names I had trouble remembering who she was talking about. For some reason I was thinking way in the past. I mentioned a couple of places that I had worked. " No" she said, "this summer, at your phonics camp." Her son had just dropped in with another boy so I had never met his mom.
She then went on to exclaim about how thrilled she had been with her sons progress and the fact the he had written "this amazing shark story".
That "free phonics camp" was definitely worth the effort.

" whats missing" game

J. loves the "whats missing"game. I go around the house and gather things that start with the letter of the week. I have these all in a basket and take them out one at a time and discuss what letter they start with. I then put them in a line on the floor and cover them with a piece of material. I proceed to take one thing away (while the children close their eyes) and when they open their eyes they take turn guessing which one is missing.
J. does enjoy playing this game but he doesn't ever seem to remember which one is missing. The way I play this game with him, is that we each take turns taking one article away. He really enjoys the turn taking and just the joy of playing a game even if he doesn't guess correctly. He is almost never stumped about what letter the objects start with. At this point we are working on letter "c" so he has had a lot of repetition of the first 3 letters. I have noticed a big improvement in his pronunciation. One month ago when we started this program he pronounced a "c" as a "g" sound. With a lot of practice and holding his hand on his throat to say "c" he is saying words like "cookie" instead of "gookie"

Mailbox

I made some houses out of the same used file folders that I have been using for a lot of games.
I put a piece of velcro in the middle of the house. I then printed out the alphabet on card stock and put velcro on the back of each one.
I hand the children a picture card and then they enjoy trying to decifer the beginning sound and "mail" it to the correct house.

Detective Dave

I found a puppet at the Thrift Store that looks remarkably like Detective Dave. The dollar store provided a magnifying glass and I am set with something that makes looking at the pictures very exciting.

The Apple and the Worm

The apple and the worm activity will be a great reinforcer for learning the sitting clowns. I have made "worms" for words that end in (og), (in), (at). You simply push the worm through the apple and the children read the word as fast as they can. I constructed the apple from a used file folder that happened to be coloured red and the strips of card stock to form the worms came from a local print shop. I went in and asked if they had any scraps from printing. I get all sorts of sizes from them that prove very useful in making the games.

Fun Family phonics books

I thought perhaps I should make it clear what I am using for materials. It is "Fun Family Phonics" writen by Muriel Endersby. Phone (604) 535-7444 Fax (604) 535-7425
www.funfamilyphonics.com

Down Syndrome progress

I will refer to my Down Syndrome child by his initial "J" from now on.
J is doing great in the first year program. J. is in grade one. He loves to come to phonics.
One thing that he just loves is the guessing bucket. I have simply taken an ice cream bucket and written "guessing bucket" on the top. He (and all the children in the first year program) take this bucket home every time and bring back something that starts with the letter of the week. This activity may get boring after awhile but I am hoping to keep using it as long as possible. It has so many valuable aspect to it, not the least of which is the fact that they spend considerable time at home trying to decide what to bring. This activity fosters a lot of discussion about the letter of the week. J. is so full of excitement when he comes in with his bucket -hoping he can "stump" me, as I try to guess what he brought.
J. has a very long attention span. I tried to think of an activity to work in the "upper case letter" song, so I came up with the idea of pausing the cd after each letter and putting that puzzle letter together. J. worked through the whole song which I am sure took 10 - 15 minutes. He even had the handicap of the fact that the puzzle was in lower case and the song and the book (we turned the pages as the song went along) is in upper case. I am going to try to come up with other ideas to work in upper case letters.
Since there seems to be a lot more time when the ratio is one to one I also fit in reading "story books" to J. When I bring out a book to read his reaction is always "No" I try to play down his negative reaction and come up with a reward for listening to the book. e.g. As soon as we read this book it will be treasure box time. That always works.
He is also not very fond of colouring or writing. He always say "no" again I have some incentive to distract him. He does enjoy using a white board so I give him his own white board, pen and eraser. He can try the letters on the board first - then on paper. Progress with pen and paper is slow at this point. He is doing much better with oral work.

Treasure Box

One of my goals is to make "phonics tutoring" a place that kids love to come to. To that end I give out candy and prizes. I try not to give out too many so that by the end of the hour the children have eaten about 4 gummy bears and 2 or 3 mini marshmallows. Hopefully, that isn't too much sugar to fill them with. I have one boy with a peanut allergy so I try not to vary the candies so that I don't accidentally put in m&m's or something that would cause an allergic reaction.
One big hit that I use is a Treasure Box. Sometime during the lesson I let them look through a box of prizes and choose one to take home with them. It is verily expensive but I think the investment is worth it. Last year I gave the kids a snack of ice cream or popcorn every time. That was fine when there was only 2 and one was my grandson.(the other was a boy that reading was second nature to him). With the kids that I have this year I seem to need every second to try to teach them the hour seems to fly by so fast. Also, the expense of that big snack would have be huge for the big group I have this year. Thankfully none of them have even thought that I should give them a snack so it isn't a problem. I do have a supply of saltine crackers available (I checked the box- no peanuts) to give to the kids that say "I am hungry", I'm sure that they wouldn't be able to concentrate if their stomach is growling.

Game review

I found that I only had time for one of the games today and I had too many pairs of card for the game. I turned over all the pairs of cards on the table and mixed them up. I had about 17 pairs and that was too many for the boys to remember where they had seen one that matched the one they turned over. I have taken out about 5 pairs and will try the game with the next group of kids tomorrow.
Most of the boys haven't been practicing the song at home so it is taking us a long time to get into the lesson as we are working on the sounds and shapes of the letters for so long. It is going to take a lot of repetition for some of these boys as it is not coming easy for them.
First Year Program:
I am taking my time with the kindergarten kids as well. We have spent 3 lessons on letter a and b. This Wed. we will still review b and then add the letter c. They are still having a difficult time hearing the beginning sound of words. I have been trying many different ways for them to see a picture and then try to tell me the beginning sound. Today I put one picture on my sentence board and then hid another picture that matches it around the room. They scrambled to find the card then as they matched them to the ones on the sentence strip they would get a minimarshmallow (if they could give me the beginning sound and the phrase ie bobby with is bag. etc.)
These picture are part of the supplies that came with Fun Family Phonics. I just bought 2 sets so that I can use them for games.

Games

I made two new games and I reviewed the rules of a third this afternoon.
Game 1.
I cut up the words on the new word sheet and taped them to a cardboard backing. Two of each word. For the second game I just wrote on some cardstock squares words that have the sitting clown "a" and sitting clown "e". Two of each. With these words we can play the game in 2 ways. First just the regular memory game of turning them all upside down on the table, the children turn over 2 cards at a time. If they match they keep them. Everytime that they turn over a word- they read it out loud. The other way is to hide one of each pair of words around the room, put the matching word on your sentence strip board on the wall. The children find the words then take turn reading them to the class and putting them on the wall chart.
The 3rd game I played with my grandson this afternoon to be sure that I had the rules right. It is called "Go fish". For this game I used a purchased "Rhyme time" card game. These cards are simply a set of cards made up of a picture on the card with the name printing under the picture. For each card there is a card that rhymes with it. To play the game you deal out 5 cards to each player. ( chose the number 5 because it was all they could hold in their hands) The rest are in a pile in the middle upside down. The first player asks another player if they have a card that rhymes with a card that they have. If the player doesn't have a card that rhymes he says "go fish" and player number 1 picks up a card from the middle. If they do have a card that rhymes they give it to the one who asked for it. At the end we count who has the most pairs.
I found that my boys that are in grade 1 don't know how to rhyme but I think they will be able to play this game (I hope) I will try it this week.

For each game that I make I put them in a used envelope and file them with the worksheets etc. for this lesson. I tried using sandwich bags but I found them to be so slippery that they were hard to handle.

The end of the first week

After the shakedown of the first week, I have gotten the kids sorted into groups according to what they are working on. The two boys who are actually in grade one but it is not coming easy for, I am slowing down on the "ready to read" program. I have told the parents that they will not start that program perhaps even until next fall. They were both fine with that.
For the kids in the ready to read program.
I have settled into a routine for some things, I start each day with the phonics song. I then review the letters in the fun family phonics book. We are up to letter "J" now. I let them hold Dave and the magnifying glass and find objects that start with the letters on each page.
I then move into a game of hiding the new words around the room. When they find the words they sit in a circle by my sentence strip board. They read the words and then get a marshmallow for each word then match them onto the sentence strip.
We then move to the table and are working on the alphabet worksheets then into the ready to read take home page.
I have done 2 pages so far. We haven't had time to do the fun family stories pages so next week I am going to fit in a review day and work on them. I feel I am rushing the kids a bit too much so we are going to slow down next week and fit in more games and review. I may think about sending home a note to the parents and tell them we may not be finished by June but I will wait awhile and see how it goes. The kids that are in grade 2 and 3 are having no trouble keeping up the pace of one "ready to read" page a day. The kids that are in grade 1 but have no background in FFP are finding this very fast.

First Day

I found the first day to be very stressful. I had some boys that I hadn't taught before join in. I found them to be very active. The other problem is knowing where to begin. It sounds like it should be simple but I can't begin at the beginning with kids that are in grade 3.. All of the children had the first 3 books to learn over the past month. Some did a great job and others have hardly looked at it. I am trying to review the first 3 books at the same time as go ahead with lesson one. The games that I used for review were,1. I hid an object in a bucket that started with the letter a. the kids had to guess what it was. 2.I also had a lot of objects that started with letters a-e - I played the game of take away one and guess what it is. It was very challenging day. I guess it boils down to- the ones that have great parental support will do better. One boy is quite far behind and I am going to volunteer to work with him for a couple of hours on a Friday by himself to bring him up to speed.
Anyway, I went ahead with lesson one- sitting clowns. I made a die from two kraft dinner boxes that I cut down to have 6 equal sides. I then wrote a,e,i,o, and u on each side. The children took turns throwing the die and then saying the sitting clown song. It was very successful. I also had the kids paint a long tube (the inside from plastic laminate) so that they will have their own personalized baton for singing the clown song.
I find myself being more organized that I should be at time. I put away all the props that I had used in the quessing games and then I realized that I would need them again the next day.
I hung my white board on the wall and then put velcro on the edges to stick a marker and eraser to it. I am finding one of the tricks it to be very orgnized and have stuff at your fingertips. Anytime, you are looking for something or hesitating for a minute - that is when they get out of control

Payment schedule

Last year, when I only had 3 students, I gave the parents an invoice by the 3rd week of the month. Thankfully, when Muriel was here she gave me a different idea of how to collect the money.
There are 68 lessons in the school year. If you are charging $15.00 per lesson that is $1020 per year. She told me this should be devided into 9 equal payments for Sept. to May. The lessons go into June a bit, but there is no payment for that month. This makes 9 equal payments of $113.00 per month. I was nervous about telling the parents this as it was not what I had told them when they first phoned me. I wrote it all up on a sheet of paper to give to the parents in a very professional manner and they all thought it was a great idea.
Just to make collecting even easier I asked for post-dated cheques. All parents except one gave me post-dated cheques. One parents says that she only uses cash so I said ok, as long as she is always a month ahead.
The other idea that my daughter presented was to give a discount if they pay the whole year in advance. I had 3 people utilize this option.

Free Phonics Camp-Huge success

The phonics camp went better than I ever dreamed it could. I had kids booked every hour during the day, 08:30-5:30 (10 minutes between each and 1/2 hr. for lunch). On the second day I decided to move 1 child earlier and 1 later into different groups so I actually had an extra hour free in the afternoon. The Sunday before it all started I began to have butterflies that maybe I had booked way too many kids. As it turned out it was fine. I had classes with 1, 2 and 4 kids in them. (Depending on the need and/or ability) 18 kids each day.
The purpose of the free camp was simply to get the word out into the community, that purpose was fully realized. I have now got 17 kids booked, with down payments paid for Sept. I actually have 2 kids that have paid the whole year in advance.
Another benefit from the free camp was that I was able to see how some kids behaved in a tutoring session and also what level they are at. This will save me some time, in the fall, getting going at their level.
I struggled deciding what to do with all the time that I would have to fill every day. I didn't want to get into the FFP reading program too fully as that could put them ahead of others that are going to be in their class is Sept. I finally decided to read them a few pages from a book each day and then get the kids to make their own book during the week, one page each day. That was a great way to fill at least 20 minutes each day. I chose a book about sharks, with the main character being a girl. This made the book appeal to the boys and the girls. The rest of the hour I spent learning the FFP song and playing games with the picture cards. For the older kids I focused on the "standing and sitting clowns" as I thought that would benefit all the kids whether they were coming here in the fall or not.
Now that I am starting to get the word out I am hoping it will be easier to get a full enrolment next year. As successful as this phonics camp was, it was still a ton of work (and some money) for me. Of course I am thinking of next year and how to keep this mementum going. I hope that I won't have to do another free camp but I may just offer it for 4 year olds if I need it.

Bingo Game

I spent quite some time making a bingo game to go with Book 1 from the Fun Family Phonics Story Books. "The Fun Family Book". It was fun doing it but fairly time consuming. I wanted it to look sort of professional so I used a purchased Bingo game to work with. ( I decided that the purchased game had way more bingo cards than I would ever use anyway.) I cut out the word "Bingo" and glued it on a new card that I had put the new words on. I then make a set of calling cards and I am set.

tv ad -great results.

Our local TV station has a community announcement forum that I mentioned in an earlier posting. This is a free advertisement. I'm not sure what the requirements are but I guess they liked what I was offering to the community. I have never seen it myself but I am certainly impressed with it. I asked them about a month ago if they would advertise my free phonics camp. This ad. seems to take the form a wheel and I have had a lot of people call and say they saw my ad on the "wheel". After at least a month, they are still running my ad. Today another lady called and said " I saw your ad. on the "wheel".
I now have 11 kids signed up and their deposit paid.

Muriel is coming to visit

I am so excited that Muriel is coming to my house and is going to stay overnight. That is Muriel as in Muriel Endersby author of Fun Family Phonics.
What a wonderful lady she is and she is so helpful and interested in how things are going for new tutors like me.
I can't wait to show her my set up and get her in put on my plans.

Wishful thinking

I published on my face book the other day that I had 10 students. I was gleefully counting up my monthly income and the fact that I could now quit my job and stay home to work on phonics only.
I was lying in bed trying to get to sleep the next night, after I had given my resignation notice at work and I realized that I had fallen for a trap that I had been determined not to fall into.
I had believed people were phoning back and I had put them on the permanent list. I had said from the start that they would only get on that list if I had a $50. deposit. I was so sure that one person was calling back and I had the perfect spot the the child so I had pencilled in the name. The other boy was in a late spot and I had decided to ask the mom if I could move him to an early spot in the day, so I penciled his name in there. I left his name in the first spot so I wouldn't forget what I had given him. Not remembering all of this, I counted up the names and said that I was so close to my goal of 12 students that I could relax my efforts. Now I am back to 8 students and am thinking maybe I should put another ad in the paper but I wonder is it is right to advertise a camp that is already full. I am telling people that call that I am taking a wait list but they aren't nearly so eager to come and see me. I would hate to have to do another free camp, that would be a lot of work.

The eyeball

I was sitting on my deck the other day when I noticed something that looked like an eyeball on the ground. On closer examination I saw that it was an eyeball. I carefully nudged it with my finger to realize that it was a bouncy ball. The kind that dentists give out from their treasure box.
I remember that one the children that were checking out fun family phonics was trying to tell his mother and me that he had lost his ball in our back yard. His mom was convinced it was in their vehicle so we gave up a search very quickly. I will have to save it for when he comes back. Meanwhile I wonder if I can give anyone else a start with this eyeball appearing at odd places.

Me teach a lawyer to read!

A mother came over last night to see what this program is all about. She got so excited about it and she kept saying that her husband had problems reading. I guess she meant in the past but it sounded like the present to me. Then she said " I just wish my husband could be in on this". I said " Do you mean you want me to teach your husband to read". She just laughed and said no she was wanting him to come and see what they were going to put their boys in. Later in the conversation I found out the he is a lawyer. - Was my face red!!

Reading by Color by Helen Irlen

I have recently been introduced to a book called Reading by the Colors by Helen Irlen. She is presenting an idea that I have never heard of, that some children have difficulty reading because of the way that they preceive the written page. It is not a vision problem, it is a perceptual problem.
Some children get frustrated when they read for more that 5 minutes, they can never seem to get comfortable, they wiggle and try to get diff. positions. Reading becomes something they would rather avoid and this affects so many others things. Since they can't read, they may try music to the same end, they can't see the music score. Or, they may try sports but if it involves catching a ball they would probably miss it.
Helen Irlen has discovered that some children have double vision, dyslexia and other reading disabilites. For some the words move around on the page or look double or run like rivers. She has discovered that if the children look through an overlay of a certain colour. (different for all) the page becomes clear to them.
One of my students that will be coming to tutoring is going to be wearing a green filter pair of glasses. I will keep you posted how it turns out.

The new phonics room

I have added some pictures for you to see the transformation from a carport to a phonics room. In the bottom picture you will notice the car in the garage and the house having a purple door.
We enclosed the carport and used the siding from the now inside wall to put on the new outside wall.
My husband did most of the work himself, we bought all the windows at a garage sale (at a hardware store). The ceiling is slanted as we just put insulation , then pine boards right on the original roof of the carport. The floor is done with foam sqaures that we bought at Walmart. The floor is fantastic to work on and the kids love it. The down side to the flooring is the cats love it too, they love to sharpen their claws on it. The floor was very inexpensive ($1. per foot) and one great thing about it is that you can replace a piece very easily if it get stained or ripped. We put the floor directly on the pavement but yet it feels very warm to walk on.
I have heard of one phonics games that I think will work out very nicely with this new floor. You put a letter down on one of the squares and another letter on another square, you then say a word and the kids jump to the correct letter square of the beginning sound.
I bought the furniture at the thrift store. The long green cupboard is actually a baby change table. It works perfectly to hold my sentence strips right in the middle.
We finished the front of the house by painting the front door green and adding a flower box under the window. The door to the main part of the house is not visible in the finished picture. We didn't want to have two outside doors facing the front of the house so we put the entrance to the phonics room in an alcove so you can't actually see it from a front view.

School boards do not support home tutoring in Phonics

June 20,09

I wanted to mention that I took posters into the schools in town, I was not greeted with much enthusiasim. The principal said that I would need to get permission from the school board. I went to the school board office and the secretary was away. The girl that was filling in for her said that she would pass the request along but that it should be no problem, it looked like such a good idea.
After one week the school board phoned me and said they hadn't decided yet, this would have to go to someone with higher authority. After not hearing from them for another two weeks I finally phoned them and I was told "sorry". She mumbled something about it being part of their curriculum.
I was tempted to write into the heros and zeros in the paper to complain about the whole issue. I decided after some consultation with my family that instead of complaining about it I would be proactive in some way. I have started meeting the parents as the children leave school and handing out the flyers right to them. I think it has been quite successful and I have had a few phone calls from that.
I have put posters with rip off phone numbers on all the bulletin boards in town but I don't think I have had any calls from them.

Getting the word out.

Pretty much no one in this town has ever heard of Fun Family Phonics. How could I make at least 12 people believe in me and sign up their kids for next fall? My two students were done and I had no more leads.
I turned 60 this spring and I had already decided to take the month of August off so that I could collect CPP. I came up with the idea that maybe I should do a free phonics camp for one week, that way they would see how great the program is and then sign up their child. I think what gave me the idea is that I did a Summer camp for my first two boys last summer and at the end of one week the mom's comment was," I can't believe how much he has learned in one week."
About the same time that I made this decision, I was talking to the director of one of the biggest daycares in town and she told me that if I made up some flyers she would send one home with each of the children in her daycare.
I made up 1000 flyers and then proceeded to try to hand them out. I would like to share with you a few of the places that I passed them out. I first thought of going door to door and put them in peoples mail boxes but I realized that would take way too much time and perhaps not even get to homes that had children. Every preschool and daycare in town took my flyers and gave them to the kids. I still had a lot left so I started attending all the soccer games and tball games with my grandson and passing them out to the parents.
Because this is something free for children I have been able to advertise free in a lot of places that normally would have said "no " to me. I managed to get it on the community T.V. channel and in both our local newspapers in the free community announcements.
I only have about 200 flyers left so I have decided to go to the Canada Day parade downtown and put them in the windshields of all the cars.
At this point I have only got 2 spots left in the free camp. I have 5 kids signed up for the fall. These people have given me their $50.00 deposit so hopefully that means they will come. I have asked everyone that is coming to the free camp to come to my house and fill out a registration form. That way I am able to show them around my new room and give them a bit of a tour of the program. I then show them my fall schedule and tell them that if they want a choice time they should sign up now. There is so little time to fit kids in afterschool that I at this moment have already got 2 people wanting the same time
I will keep you posted for more ideas of how to advertise a new business on a shoestring.

Parent's Letter

This is a copy of a letter written by a parent which was published in the "heroes and zeroes" column of our community newspaper.

May 27, 2009

I wanted to thank you for making a difference in my son’s life. By teaching him to read well at an early age, you have surely opened up a whole new world for him. You have made learning to read an exciting and fun experience for him. He is very proud of himself when he can read really big words. It even surprises us, sometimes. He has never said that he did not want to go to his reading lesson. When I told him it was time to go, he’d immediately stop what he was doing and get ready. (I only hope that this would happen every time we had to go somewhere).
The Fun Family Phonics program teaches the students using multi-sensory techniques. This makes it fun for the student and they can learn without even knowing it! He enjoyed the story lines and learning the ‘stories’ behind why some letters change sounds when they are with other letters. It makes it easier for him to remember.
My son has recently told me that he wants to be able to read books without pictures. We have started reading beginner novels now and he is enjoying the longer stories he reads. Eventually, he said he wants to be able to read Harry Potter.
Learning to read has definitely been an asset in French Immersion kindergarten, too. His reading in French is also at a higher level than it would have been had he not been able to read at the level he is at. Being able to read in English has helped him read easily in French – he has already learned the ‘skill’ of reading.
He wanted to thank you for teaching him how to spell. Now, when Mommy and Daddy ‘spell’ words when speaking to each other in front of him, he will now know what they are. Mommy and Daddy can’t do that anymore – he knows what they are talking about!
We are very fortunate to have had this opportunity to enhance our son world of learning. Esther, thank you for your expertise, compassion and enthusiasm with his tutoring.

Sincerely,

This is a new blog to share my experiences in starting up a home business of tutoring in phonics.

My biggest concern right now is getting established in my community. We have recently gone through a lot of job turmoil here in Campbell River,with our major industry (a pulp mill) closing its doors. The challenge now is to get the word out to this town that I do phonics in my home,that I do a great job, that their children will love coming, and that they will learn to read, write and spell while by the time they graduate from the program. Hopefully, they will then decide that this is something very important and they should part with their hard earned money to send their child to me.

My strategies so far have been that I am undercharging the other place that does phonics in town by a considerable margin. I hope to raise my prices each year by a little bit.

Last year I had 2 students that continued through the whole year. I started with 5. One boy was a special needs boy that I tutored for 2 months. The father thought that I would be able to get paid through B.C. child day care subsidy but that never panned out. After 2 months we realized that I would never get any money from them so they stopped coming. Normally, my policy is that the children pay at the beginning of each month. I only took him without paying because he was a bit of a family friend, I didn't mind contributing a bit to his education. The second child only came for a couple weeks and her mom decided that she didn't really need it, besides she was already paying for her tuition at a private school and it was just too much money. Another boy came for a few months but when I stopped working for his mom she pulled him from my phonics. I was left with my grandson, who went free, and one boy that continued until he had completed the whole program. At the end, he could read at a grade 3 level and he was in french immersion kindergarten

What I learned from all this is that you really need to have a lot of students to actually end up with people who really take it seriously and will continue until the end. I have heard that some others will go until they feel that their child can read and then pull them, without actually going to the end of the year.