For so many years, as I worked so hard at teaching young children, I struggled with TIME. Time to teach the things I knew were vital in learning to read was hard to find. That kind of time was obscured by all the requirements that teachers face each day in the curricula delivery system. I signed my contract to teach in K-12 public education year after year and pledged to study harder, learn more, plan better, gain better time-management skills, put my efforts into multi-tasking, and on and on.

I had a hard time trusting my instincts and my intellect in the face of broader and more invasive requirements, and that was before the 2020 Public Education Pandemic Meltdown!  I retired in 2019, after 33 years of going in every possible direction to make things better for young readers, vowing to leave it behind and give myself some peace. I worked some “jobs” that had nothing to do with what I genuinely loved and discovered that I could not be at peace until I returned to what I do best: Teach kids to read and find joy in reading.  So, with more than a little help from friends and almost four years of nudging, I have decided to open my business and offer my skills as a reading specialist as well as my thoughts as a student of the science of reading. 

My Goal

My aim is not to replace the good work of teachers in my community, but to complement it. In my own experience as a classroom teacher, I often wished for the time to sit down with one young reader without the distractions and pressures of a roomful of others that also needed me to sit down with them, each one in turn. I know I speak for a lot of teachers when I say that this is the ever-present “heartbreak” of teachers. You know what to do, you know how to do it.  You. Just. Can’t. 

By launching my tutoring business and this website, I am carving out time to focus on one young reader at a time.   I believe that short periods of intense teaching/learning can make a big difference, particularly when started at the beginning of the formal reading process before a child develops an aversion to the process of learning to read. Help kids find that joy early and they will want to keep going until they are great readers. 

I know what to do.  I know how to do it.  I have the time and expertise to help your child.  Let’s begin!