I am indeed grateful to Romalda Spalding, Anna Gillingham, and Oma Riggs for continuing the work of Dr. Samuel Orton in systematizing the English language. Dr. Orton battled the “whole-word” method as it grew to be the preferred method of teaching reading in the early years of the 20th century. These three women kept his work alive and developed their own “flavors” of his method during the last 40 years. The criticism of the Orton-Gillingham method, the Spalding method, and the Riggs method, even by those convinced of the need for a multi-sensory phonics approach, has been the extensive teacher preparation to be able to teach. Most teachers spend a minimum of 60 hours in training and then more weeks in preparation of their notebooks to understand and implement these curricula. With the birth and growth of the home school movement during the past 25 years came an ever-growing number of moms becoming teachers of their children for the first time. Most do not have the time or resources to spend on extensive training. Those hearty souls that have tried to simplify the method actually ended up writing their own books, larger and more complicated than the originals. Many of us over the past 15-20 years have shared with other moms the Orton method by giving 1-day, 5-day, or 10-day workshops showing moms how to get started teaching their children to read, write, and spell. But in the 10 years that I have been sharing The LATIN Road to English Grammar across the country, I have yet to meet more than a handful of moms who have finished the study. Once their children start reading, they move on to other subjects. That is why many children are good readers, minimal or poor spellers, and hate to write. They have not been taught long enough to build balanced skills in spelling, writing and reading. What I offer you that is different from anyone else is The PHONICS Road to Spelling and Reading - the only Orton-inspired phonics course to take the burden of preparation off you, the parent/teacher, by providing complete teacher training on video from start to finish, showing you what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it. And your notebook is completed for you so your preparation time is minimal. Everything you need to learn and teach is provided for you to give you the confidence to interact with your child and the resources to teach him to spell, write, read, and prepare both of you with grammar and composition for The LATIN Road to English Grammar.

A day’s lesson should take no more than an hour a day for beginners. As they progress in building the language, some days may go a little longer. But you will find that a day’s lesson can be segmented into a few 15 minute activities during the day. For example, we might spend 15 minutes in the morning drilling our sounds and practicing writing. After lunch we might spend another 15 minutes learning to spell and practice writing the 4 or 5 words for that day. When the student begins reading he will spend another 15 minutes reading aloud to you. Later in the afternoon the student might spend another 15 minutes writing his final work into his notebook. There are also times for using the skills we learn in fun games and activities. Although there is a routine to our days, what the student is learning does not have to be dull.

When will Levels Two, Three and Four be available?

Level Two will be available April 2005, Level Three in April 2006, and Level Four in Summer 2007.

I have an older student that reads okay but does not spell well and hates to write. Where do I start?

Each level of The PHONICS Road to Spelling and Reading will build upon the skills of previous levels as the student becomes more and more proficient at reading, spelling, writing, beginning grammar and composition. This foundation will well prepare both teacher and student for The LATIN Road to English Grammar where the student masters advanced grammar in the context of a classical language. So, every student needs to begin at Level One. The reason an older student struggles is that he is lacking skills, either due to lack of information, not enough practice, or an incorrect view of English. We must retrain his brain to build the English language from its smallest components to the whole. Because the student is a little older he will probably be able to work a bit harder and for a longer period of time than a beginner, so you can cover the material more quickly. In the end a poor speller or writer should improve dramatically and be able to pick up at his appropriate age level.