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Do you wonder how to teach your child to read if you’re not a teacher? Do you need specific training for that? Which curriculum should you use? How complicated is it really to gift your child with a love of reading?
My guest this week is Hillary Rupert, a long-time member of our Planning Playtime community. She’s a mom of one who started homeschooling when her daughter was three and a half years old. Hillary felt inadequate and uncertain about her ability to teach her daughter how to read, and then she found Play to Read, and she’s here to tell us about her journey.
Join us on this episode to hear Hillary’s experience of using the Play to Read program with her daughter as a homeschooling mom. She’s openly sharing some of the objections she initially had to using Play to Read, what changed her mind, and how the incorporation of play was a game-changer in her daughter’s love of reading.
To thank you for being a listener here, we made you a special freebie. It’s an amazing alphabet activity you can begin using with your kiddos that is so fun, so get started by clicking here to grab it!
Welcome to the Raising Healthy Kid Brains podcast where moms and teachers come to learn all about kids’ brains, how they work, how they learn, how they grow and simple tips and tricks for raising the most resilient, kind, smart, compassionate kids we can. All while having lots of grace and compassion for ourselves because you know what? We all really need and deserve that too. I am your host, Amy Nielson. Let’s get ready to start the show.
Amy: Hillary, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to get to talk to you today.
Hillary: Thank you. I’m glad to be here.
Amy: This is so fun. Okay, so Hillary has been a member of our community at Planning Playtime for years. We used to be able to chat on Facebook Lives every week. But I’ve actually never got to talk to you in person and face-to-face so this is so fun.
Hillary: Yes, agreed. I’m always like, “Hi, Amy.” But in words instead of actually using my voice.
Amy: Yeah, this is so great. And I’m so excited to get to hear a little bit more about your story. So tell us a bit about what you’re doing. So do you have kids at home and what does this look like and schooling and kind of give us a little bit of intro to you?
Hillary: So I am a mom of one, which is unique in the homeschool community. We started homeschooling, COVID homeschooling when my daughter was three and a half. I call it mothering, I guess, it’s school too. But we were in COVID and you’re kind of looking for something to do together that was still educational, but not a lot of go out to the store and get a lot of materials. And that’s what introduced me to the Planning Playtime community. And then immediately, just like anyone who would join the community would fall in love with it and I did.
And then we were looking for something for my daughter to help her learn how to read. We tried a bunch of different programs and I wasn’t in love with any of them. Then we just kept trying all different types of things. But we would always fall back on the Planning Playtime things and just say that was our reading for the day. And part of that I think was me as a homeschool mom being like, “Can I teach my kid how to read? Am I capable of doing this?”
Reading was kind of this big, scary thing and I was a good reader as a kid, but I didn’t love it. I was good at it, but I just kind of did it. And to be honest, I don’t remember learning how to read. And that was one of my biggest fears was, do I know how to read well enough to teach my kid how to read? And how complicated is it? And turns out, it’s really not that complicated.
Amy: Oh my goodness. Okay, this is so good. So do I know how to teach my kid to read? I think that’s a question that probably so many parents have. So then what happened? How did you find our Play to Read program, was it just through emails or, you found Play to Read? Tell me a little bit about that.
Hillary: So I found it through emails and to be honest, no offense to Amy, but I was kind of like, “Well, this stuff she does is good but she’s not a certified curriculum”, whatever that even means. And so I was kind of like, “Well, we have to stick with these big named things. These people know what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it for a long time.” And yeah, this is fun but is it really following all the standards that I needed to follow just in case we decide not to homeschool or my daughter has to live in the real world and she does need to know how to read.
And it was kind of scary to depend on something that wasn’t a proven certified curriculum to teach my kid how to read. And so we kept trying to use these certified curriculums and they just weren’t working. They were boring. I had to drag her to the table and I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is just not working for us.” And she loves learning, just the way it was taught wasn’t working.
Amy: Yeah. So then did you decide to try Play to Read?
Hillary: So I decided to try it. I figured, worst case scenario, Amy says that if I don’t like it, I can return it, which again is really nice because a lot of digital curriculum is that’s not the case. It’s very much like, “Well you bought it and now you own it. And there’s no way for us to take it back.” But it’s so telling of how much you believe in it that you’re like, “If you don’t like it, I’ll give you your money back, even though you still physically own it because you’re probably going to love it and you’re going to use it.”
So that’s exactly what happened, I tried it. And what was so great is I could print it out right away. I could try it immediately when I was ready to try it. Because sometimes what happens is, you fake yourself out and you go, “Okay, I’m going to order this curriculum and I’m going to get it.” And then it takes a while to come. And then when it comes I’m not ready to use it yet. And so that whole time of waiting for it to come in the mail and then for me to be ready was beautiful because I could just print it when I was ready.
I purchased it and there it was and I could use it right away. And that was probably the hardest part, was just starting. And then once we started, I thought, we’ll do it two or three days a week. No, my daughter wanted to do it every day. Every single day she wanted to do it. And she couldn’t wait for what’s the next thing. What are we going to use? Are we going to use goldfish? Are we going to use, “Oh, I get to use Play-Doh.” She wanted to look and see what the next thing was every time.
And I kind of had to stop her and be like, “Okay, we have to master what we’re working on first and then move on to the next thing.” Which was a great problem to have because I thought my problem wasn’t going to be continuing, let’s continue to work on this and stopping her. It was to motivate her to actually want to do it.
Amy: So it looked different than the previous curriculums that you tried where you’re dragging her to the table, “We have to read it.” As opposed to like, “Okay, let’s not do too much in one day. Slow down just a little bit, no rushing.”
Hillary: I want to make sure she understands it. And again that was the best problem because it wasn’t a problem. It was, “Okay, well, we can continue to work on this one thing, and that’s great. But we can use the same thing, maybe not even the way that Amy wanted us to use it. We can use goldfish in this. We don’t have to use fruit loops.” We can use whatever and then we can use the same thing over and over again, the same template but use different materials.
And it becomes a whole new thing when we’re not rushing to the next thing just to be able to follow the directions of what it told us we were supposed to use.
Amy: Yeah. And it’s built for that kind of flexibility. And that’s one of the things I love about it is that it’s just play. And you just stay on each one until you’ve mastered that one and then you move on to the next one which is totally great. And I love that you figured out you can just add different stuff and it’s just play and you just bring it in whatever it is.
I was talking to another cute mom and she was talking about how she can switch it out, if her kids aren’t really into cars, then she can have unicorns going down the street or whatever. And you just make it work for your kids. And I love the flexibility of that, that it just is whatever works for them and their play, because that’s what’s going to motivate them to keep going and want to do it over and over again and get that repetition they need.
Hillary: And it’s funny that you say that because with some of the other curriculums they have set things that go with it that you’re supposed to use. And it was hard to be like, “No, we’re using this item for this thing and I don’t want it to get lost, so we can’t use it in play.” And it turned it into something that wasn’t play where this is, you want to bring your dinosaur during our time, that’s fine because we can use our dinosaur. And now instead of it being a distraction, it’s part of learning.
And then when she uses that dinosaur later it’s like, “This is the dinosaur that helped me learn how to read and it’s my play thing.” And playing and reading are the same, one and the same thing as opposed to having a separate pile of items that are just for learning and a separate pile of items that are just for reading because that’s not really how life works. We don’t have a separate pile for different things. We can reuse things for many different purposes. That’s one of the many things that I love about it is that I didn’t have to go out and buy anything.
I just needed printer paper, printed out and then you give great suggestions, but we don’t have to follow them. There’s no one there saying, “Are you using the dinosaurs on the dinosaur page? What is that? Is that a unicorn on the dinosaur page?” No, it’s whatever you want it to be and it kind of frees the kids to do what they want while still giving parents guidance and making us feel like we are following a set standard of things.
And our kid is not going to be behind because we’re using this new fun way and not this proven curriculum way that people say, “Yes, I use this for my kids. And I learned how to read using this way.” And sometimes it can be scary to pick something new and think is this actually going to work? Is my kid going to know how to read? And my daughter turns seven tomorrow and she knows how to read.
Amy: That’s so exciting.
Hillary: So it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be and it’s a lot more fun than she thought originally because when it was first introduced to her, reading was scary because I was scared about it. And we were using something that I knew wasn’t working, but I did it anyway. So don’t do that.
Amy: So let me ask you this then.
Hillary: Follow the kids.
Amy: Okay. But yeah, and then phonics, it is really important and we know the science on reading. The science of reading that’s coming out is saying how important it is to have that structured plan, where they’re working sequentially through the different phonic skills. And then what we did was kind of bring that in, some of the same stuff that you find in those programs that you learned to read from when you were a kid. And now they’re saying, “Well, I learned to read from this thing and my kid learned to read from this.”
And we have a whole lot of the same good stuff in there, it’s just that we changed it and added play, because the problem with phonics, it’s always been the best way to teach a kid to read. And when everyone was trying to find better options it was because it was so boring and so repetitive and just really kind of a little bit painful. And so we would lose some kids that just couldn’t stay focused long enough to keep going through that.
And so they’ve tried so hard to come up with better options to help kids read faster, but then they’re not getting the basic skills they need. And so we’ve had to come back to phonics, which is lovely, I’m so glad. We’ve spent 100 years getting sidetracked from phonics and we’re coming back now. The science is in, we’re back to phonics. But we’re going back to some of the same things where it’s just so repetitive and boring.
And so instead of spending the next 100 years trying to come up with a better alternative to phonics, what if we did that sequential learning, all that stuff that science tells us is so important. But we just add some play in, we just give it a play makeover. And you’re still getting everything that those other programs have but you’ve made it an experience that’s something kids actually want to participate in. And like you said, associating it with play, which is so important because our brains are making all these connections. And we want to bring in, we want to connect it with things that are good and happy.
And if we can do that, of course it makes those connections stronger. And as we know, as we’re building parts of our brain. And the reading part of our brain, we actually have to build. So we have a speech part of our brain and we have a visual part of our brain. We kind of have to hotwire a new connection, a new part of our brain to be able to read. And so it’s stronger if we can do it connecting it to other things.
So I love that you talk about bringing in their dinosaur and bringing in whatever they’re already playing with and associating that with reading because that helps build those connections. It also connects it with something that’s pleasurable and happy and a good thing, which is the association I want my kids to have around reading because reading is awesome.
Hillary: Yes, I totally agree. And it’s interesting because kids go from whether they’re home immediately with their parents, or if they’re just home for their first six weeks. They go to school and their first association with school is that it’s fun and you play. And then as soon as it gets to reading and in kindergarten, it’s like well, we have to be serious about this. This is important. If you don’t know how to read then you can’t do anything. And that’s kind of scary to have that go from, we were having fun and playing.
And wait, I did learn stuff during that time. I did learn how to walk. I learned how to talk to my friends. I learned what the different names of fruits and vegetables are from my play kitchen. That’s still learning. So why do we have to be so serious all of a sudden because now we’re school age? It goes from I’m four years old, I get to play and now I have to have a backpack and there’s always papers in it. And it becomes so serious. And that transition is scary. And I think part of that transition as a parent is scary.
You do have to be serious, my kid’s going to school. We can’t have these fun things. When really it’s still fun. And people still read for pleasure because it’s fun. So why put that out there? Why have that be a thing that reading is we have to practice these things? And in order for you to know how to read, you have to do it in this set way and that set way has to be boring because it’s serious. And it can still be serious while being fun. And we can still want to learn new things and make them fun.
Amy: I’m listening, I’m hearing you. It was so funny, someone was making a comment to me this week. We’ve been doing some ancient civilization fun learning, whatever. And someone was telling their parent about me this week. They’re like, “Wow, she even made listening to a documentary on mummies, fun.” Something like that, because we were making our little sour patch kid mummies and building our little rice crispy treat, pyramid, burial temples, whatever. Anyway, we like to have fun and play while we’re learning because it’s awesome. It’s amazing that way.
Okay, let me ask you a couple of questions about this. So when you actually started the program, did you kind of notice the sequential building of the phonic skills as you were working your way through the different units that maybe you were a little bit unsure about before you got the program?
Hillary: Yes, so I did, like I said, I used some programs previously and they weren’t working, but I knew that they were ones that had been used for years and people had used. So I knew the sequence already just from looking at them. I didn’t do any prior research or look at any standards for my state or anything. I was just like, “Okay, let’s try.” She really likes these Planning Playtime activities, and this is a great transition to them. So immediately I noticed the two letter blends right away, which was something that was taught in other them.
So I was like, “Okay, this is the same.” It’s just she doesn’t even realize it’s the same because when I say, “Do you want to do reading or math first?” She’s like, “I want to do the one where I get to play with Play-Doh.” And she didn’t even realize that it was reading. The other one just seemed more reading to her, I guess. And she’s like, “How come we haven’t been doing that other one anymore?” And it wasn’t because she missed it. It was because she thought I wasn’t teaching her reading.
Well, little did she know it was the exact same stuff, it was just fun and she wanted to do it when we weren’t even doing school time. I actually turned it into a binder with those clear sheets for her to just do whatever she wanted. And she was following all those same standards, the two letter blends and the CDC words and the CK and it’s all in the same exact order. And we just had to follow along with the order. So I still had what I felt like I needed and then she was getting what she needed, which was to just play and have fun.
Amy: Oh, I love it.
Hillary: And it followed the exact same sequence.
Amy: Yeah. Isn’t that so cool? You can learn the same phonics, this kind of phonics. And you can learn it and also have fun. It’s so cool. It’s the most magical thing in the world. Okay, so tell me then, as a parent, once you got it, do you feel it kind of helped you make your way through it? Because I know you were nervous initially to try to teach your kid to read. Did it help you feel comfortable? Did you feel like you knew what you needed to know? What was that experience for you like as a parent?
Hillary: So what comes with the curriculum is the units. And it tells you the sequence. I guess it’s a table of contents. And it tells you the sequence all the way through of everything in every unit that you’re going to learn. So you can kind of see an end goal, which was important to me to be like, “Okay, great, she knows how to do blends, but is she actually going to know how to read?” There’s very few two letter words and that was great because I was able to see the whole thing. And then within the unit it’s broken down by each lesson and I can see these are short A, she’s learning short A.
Now she’s learning and it followed along and I could use that. I could leave it digital or I can print it out and check off my box if I felt that was important to me, but I didn’t have to. It wasn’t made, I am a type A personality, but I can tell that this was made for anyone. You could just print it out and use it. And there is no need to plan anything, like I said, to just bring right in a toy and you’re good to go, print it out and you have a toy.
But it followed it exactly the way that the other curriculums were and I could see that because there was a scope and sequence kind of table of contents to let me know what was happening. And then within that, every single unit tells me exactly that lesson, what’s going to happen. There’s also a built-in review, which is great. And then I didn’t discover it at first until we finished the lesson, I realized that there was kind of an assessment where I can see, is she ready to move on to the next step, or do we need to review something?
And again, it was still play based. It wasn’t now we’re serious and we’re taking a written test and this is important and you’re five and you’re going to circle these double letters or circle what it is. It was exactly the same. She didn’t even know it was a review. It looked just like every other paper but it gave me kind of a rubric or a tool to say, “She knew how to do these many things. Now we’re ready to move on.” Where a lot of the other curriculums to be honest, didn’t have that. It would have a review, but it looks so test-like.
And to me, I was like, “Well, what’s the grade she’s supposed to get on this test? How many is she supposed to get right and wrong?” And how do I teach her how to take a test when we haven’t even practiced that using this curriculum at all? And so it made it a lot easier because there is kind of a parent guide. It’s not called that or a teacher guide because it’s meant to just, I think, be used for whomever wants to use it. But it has that table of contents and everything kind of written out so that I can see it without it being written on her papers or any of her stuff.
Hers just looks like fun, these are the things that I’m doing. “Oh, look, there’s goldfish on my paper.” That type of look for her. And then for me I had, these are some manipulatives you can use for this particular lesson. And this is the skill that you’re learning all in one place, not 15 million pieces of paper, not a separate student book and a separate teacher book. And it’s very simple and laid out exactly the way that I needed as a mom who was nervous about teaching my kid how to read. And easy for my daughter to follow because hers also followed a sequence.
She saw the same kind of little people sometimes or the same idea of things. The layout is similar, just a different activity that we’re doing that day so that also made it easier for her to follow. She didn’t have to learn something new while also learning the reading. Everything was set up the same exact way and same thing with my end. Everything was set up the same way, it’s unit one, lesson one, lesson two. And they were set up exactly the same. I knew exactly where to find what thing because it was laid out that way.
Amy: That’s so cool. This makes me so happy. It was making me think too when you were talking about the testing thing. I love that, too, because when I had my second kid, so I have five kids and I’ve homeschooled some of them, taught all of them to read. But my second kid tends to have some anxiety, particularly around testing, and so if she knew it was a test, her performance would change, and not because she wasn’t good at whatever skill it was, but just because of the pressure of this is a test, oh, my goodness. And it and it became this huge thing.
So I love that you talk about that you actually get to see what their skill level is because they don’t even realize they’re taking a test. They’re doing the assessment. They have no idea it’s an assessment. They’re just playing. They’re just playing and you have your rubric. You can see how fast they make it through this. You know, are they able to blend this correctly, whatever?
So you know if you need to go back and play some of the dinosaurs on the previous page or if you’re ready to move on to the Play-Doh on the next page or whatever. But I love that, that that’s so helpful because it really focuses in on the skill as opposed to are they feeling anxiety over the test part?
Hillary: Especially I mean fortunately, I have been with her doing this program and teaching her since she was three and a half. But I would say, and I recommend to people, moms who are new in the homeschooling community, their kids are second and third grade. And they’re still struggling to read because they, just whatever system was teaching them previously, wasn’t working. And I say, “I’m telling you, it’s not, baby. It’s not baby at all. You wouldn’t even know.” I said, “The graphics are cute. They’re not baby, they’re clip art and it’s just them playing.”
So when it comes time for them to take the assessment that they have in their minds from wherever they went to school, it’s not an assessment. They don’t feel like I’m getting to this point and now I am going to fail this test. Even though this was fun with my mom and I practiced and I played and then where’s the test? And where my daughter didn’t even know what a test was. And so this was kind of a good introduction. I could have her do it and I said, “Did you know that was a test? I could check all the stuff that you’re doing, it was a review.” And she was like, “Oh, okay.”
And there’s no anxiety there because that was her first experience with a test. Where other kids, they may have had one and they have in their mind, at some point I’m going to be tested on this. Let’s not make that a stressful thing. Let’s just make that something where they’re doing the exact same thing they were doing previously, except for now you as the parent or the teacher have a way of testing these certain skills. And all they know is they’re doing the exact same thing that they did three days ago, just in a different format.
And I think that’s beautiful to have that where any kid, no matter what age they are, it doesn’t feel like it’s baby, the kindergarteners are doing this. It doesn’t have a label on it of any kind. They don’t even know what the skill is that they’re learning, you only know. It’s just, this is the bubble page where I use Play-Doh. This is the one where I get to use these popsicle sticks and make little fences. They have no idea that this set skill is being taught on that same day.
And then when it gets assessed they know how to do it and they’re like, “Wait, I know how to read this word now when I’m in the grocery store.” And how did I learn how to do that? I was playing, it was fun.
Amy: Isn’t that so cool? It’s the most magical thing in the world. Let me ask you this because I’m a little curious on this. I’ve been noticing a little bit of a trend here. So I’m wondering if it happened for you as well. When we talk about bringing some of your toys, your dinosaur or whatever into your activity, your Play to Read lesson for the day. Do you find that your daughter’s doing any kind of pretend to play your storytelling sometimes while she’s kind of working through her lessons?
Hillary: Yes. And it’s funny you said right after that because, so the one lesson I think it’s one of the first CDC ones. You build these fences with the letter that’s missing. So you’ve already practiced the blends and then you’re adding that third letter in to make the CDC words. And immediately as soon as we started making the fence I just had the popsicle sticks. And then she’s like, “I need my farm animals.” And so we paused, she gets her farm animals, and then they’re saying the words. She’s obviously the one saying it, they’re plastic. But they’re saying the words and then they’re saying it to each other.
And then there were little houses communicating with each other, practicing the words. And then she wanted to keep playing and we’d kind of done the lesson. And then they just continued to play with each other. So it’s kind of a nice little playmat, continue the lesson thing. And in fact I started actually putting them in a binder with those sheet protectors so that she can bring whoever she wants with her to the doctor’s office or whatever.
We can do the lesson and then she can continue to play and it’s kind of a little play thing we can keep in the car or at the doctor’s office and two in one. She’s learning how to read, practicing her skills while also having kind of a playmat to use just to expand her imagination of what she would have normally done if all she had was the cow and the pig and the chicken for the scene.
Amy: Isn’t that magical? So had you had that experience with any of your other curriculums where she just kept playing with it afterwards?
Hillary: No. In fact, there were some that I brought out the book and it was like, “I don’t like that one. That one is not one I like.” And some of them, she did like certain things. There’s one that has a puppet. There’s another one that does have some reading aspects to it and it does have some interactive pieces they give you. But none that she can incorporate her own choice into and can make it her own. I think that made her have more of a motivation to like it, more of an investment. It was hers. This is her book.
She wants to show that book to people and say, “Let’s do this.” She actually, because we’re part of a homeschool and because we’re an only child family, we belong to quite a few playgroups and homeschool groups. And when she first started using it and I decided, this isn’t something I can just print and then I have to put in the recycle bin. This is something we want to treasure and keep. We keep it in the car and she actually brought it to one of the playdates and the kids were playing on it. The parents were like, “What is that?” And I was like, “I’m not getting paid for this sponsorship, I brought that.”
Amy: I love it.
Hillary: They were like, “What is that? That looks so fun.” They’re like, “Are they playmats?” And I said, “No, it’s actually her reading program.” And they’re like, “What? Wow, that looks so cool.” And then quite a few people after that were like, “Wow, my kid has actually started to learn to read. Thanks for showing that to me.” And it’s funny because again, it’s one of those things where they probably came across it in an ad or something and they’re like, “Well, I don’t know, again, this is not one of those big five curriculum. So we’re just going to stick with this. And I homeschooled my kid and he’s 16 now and he’s successful and knows how to read. So why do I have to change it?”
When they may have been struggling with that one kid. And then my daughter brought her little binder and the kid’s like, “What, I can learn how to read using this?” And it really has enhanced not only her imaginative play just in her everyday life, but then obviously her reading has improved and it continues. She keeps practicing it, which is something that a lot of the curriculums build in that spiral thing, but this has a built in one that actually hasn’t been created by you.
It’s the one that’s been created by the kids because they’ve invested in it so much that they want to go back to it and they want to add, “Last time I didn’t have my [inaudible], so let’s [inaudible]. He can be in charge of this part of it.” And that was what we really loved about the Planning Playtime stuff. But she was kind of growing out of it. And it was kind of a nice transition to still be able to use that same stuff but learn how to read and it be school work time instead of just play time.
Amy: Yeah. And I love the incorporation of them bringing in storytelling and stuff, because words, that’s what we do with them. We create stories. We use language where we’re helping them build their lexicon, all this. And so I love that there’s kind of that pretend to play, that storytelling element in the Play to Read program because they can bring their toys into it. And I love that she brought her farm animals and had them reading the words to each other. Just I’m obsessed. I love that so much.
Okay, last question because I’ve got to let you go. But if someone were considering options like you did where you have done, it sounds like a lot of research and looked at a lot of different programs trying to come up with the best stuff for your kid. So if you were talking to another parent or even teacher that’s considering using this program, what would you say to them?
Hillary: I would say don’t be afraid to try something new. We’re kind of wired to want the same thing that we’ve used previously or proven things in our minds. If we always just did the same old thing, we wouldn’t progress at all. And the world has progressed over time and we’ve learned things.
And some of the things are wonderful that we learned 100 years ago. Again, like you said we were going back to the phonics approach and we realized that’s the way to do it, but we can adjust how we do it. And just every time we parent or teach a classroom, every day is different.
And even though we want consistency, it’s not going to be there. And using this program is just as scary as not having the same meal yesterday, not having pasta, not having leftovers. Yeah, it might be a little extra work at first but then you’re glad that you didn’t just have the leftovers from yesterday. You tried something new and you had chicken for dinner and your kids are fine. They’re still nourished. They’re still eating. They’re still doing all the things they need to. And I would say it has been proven. Enough people have used it to add it to the list of proven curriculum.
And the accreditation thing is a made up thing. Big companies can be like, “We’re accredited.” That’s made-up. As long as they’re following the standards that your kid’s school would follow or the public school, private school in your area, if you’re a homeschooler, then that’s what you’re looking for. And don’t be afraid to try something that works for your kid, because otherwise you’re just going to keep doing the same thing and your kid might learn how to read, but it might take them three/four years and they’re not going to love it.
And the point is to get your kids to love learning, to love what they’re doing so that later on as adults, they learn that same exact thing is that I can work, but I can also love my job. I can do this particular thing that I don’t want to do, but I can make it fun because I’ve learned that skill from using this program. My daughter’s vocabulary, not even just the words that she’s learned how to read, but her vocabulary from imaginative play with this program is incredible.
People are like, she’s six, but she’s turning seven tomorrow, they’re like, “She’s only six years old, and she used this word?” I’m like, “Yeah, because we’ll research about whatever that is while we’re doing this. And it doesn’t take very long. It really is five/ten minutes a day and I’m telling you, your kid will ask to do it more and it won’t be something where it takes 15 minutes to start and then it takes another 15 minutes to do and then 15 minutes to clean up. It’s 10 minutes, your kid will run over to want to do it. In fact they might hand it to you before you’re even ready to do it.
And then the clean-up is your kids toys. They’re still playing with it afterwards so there isn’t a set clean up. They’re still playing with it. You can go make dinner and you’re good to go.” So don’t be afraid to try it. It was amazing. My daughter still wants to do it. We’ve finished the program, the first set, unit seven, I think. And she still goes back to that binder and still wants to do some of the activities even though they’re simple for her now. But it’s great review and I don’t have to go find something for her to review. It’s already been made and she already knows all the rules because she’s done it before.
Amy: I love it. That’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. And I’m just so happy to hear it and it’s fun to hear how you’re using it with your kiddo. And it’s just a delight to get to see it working and doing what we meant it to do in the world, which is help kids and empower them with not only the ability to read but the love of it. the love of reading, which I think will impact them for the rest of their life. So thank you so much for coming on. It was so much fun to talk to you today.
Hillary: Thank you for having me and thank you for creating this because it was something I was looking for and it was right in front of me. And I didn’t do it at first but thank you for making it and for advertising it enough that I finally did it. And my daughter is, I’m sure in 20 years from now when she either homeschools her kids or it’s time for her to teach her children. I hope that more people will love this and this would be on that list of all those other ones. And people will just go, “Oh, yeah, that’s the one I use and that’s the one that I’ve always used and it works.”
Amy: I love it. I love it, yes, so good. Awesome. Alright, well, thank you so much. It was a pleasure talking with you today.
Hillary: Thank you.
Don’t you just love all the fun things we’re learning on the show together? Well, we wanted to give you a chance to practice a little bit of it at home. And so we made you a special freebie just for being a listener here and you can grab it at planningplaytime.com\special-freebie. That is planningplaytime.com\special-freebie. So what this freebie is, I’ll tell you, is an amazing alphabet activity that you can start using with your kiddos and it is based in play and is so fun.
You can use dot markers with it, you can use Q-tip painting, you could use circle cereal. There’s all kinds of options, but you can print it out today and get started. Just head over to planningplaytime.com\special-freebie and we’ll send that to you right away.
Thank you for hanging out with me today for this fun chat on Raising Healthy Kid Brains. If you want to see more of what we’re doing to support kiddos and their amazing brains, come visit us on our website planningplaytime.com. See you next week.
