Nothing in our years of homeschooling has caused me to doubt myself more than helping my children learn to read. With six children we have experienced a full range of experiences. From children who have taught themselves “early” to children who have learned “right on time” to children who have struggled for years. We are currently working with our 12-year-old son. He is doing great in all subject areas except reading. His reading comprehension is above grade level, but the actual decoding of those letters into words is really challenging for him. We have tried many tactics and programs, trying to make progress without discouraging him with resources aimed at children much younger than his age. We have finally found a great fit with MaxScholar‘s Reading Intervention Programs.
My poor son has suffered through so many placement tests and evaluations over the past year. We noticed straight off something different with MaxScholar. The main skill areas are divided into MaxPhonics, MaxReading, and MaxWords. Because these are treated individually, my son is able to work at higher and lower levels as needed. MaxPhonics is, as the name suggests, all about phonics. This is the area where he has started very low. While some of it has been easy, making sure that it is well learned before moving on is important. MaxReading addresses reading comprehension skills while MaxWords covers vocabulary and how words are built. He started lower in MaxWords but has moved quickly through. He spends a minimum of 30 minutes, longer as he wants. Even though we are on a relaxed summer schedule, he has been working 4-5 days a week.
MaxScholar has been designed to help any age person that is having difficulty with reading skills. From adults to children, from dyslexia to dysgraphia and everything or anything in between, Maxscholar can help. The method is based on a combination of Orton-Gillingham and Lindamood-Bell approaches. I’m familiar with the Orton-Gillingham method, but Lindamood-Bell was new to me. Research it to learn more (I did). Multi-sensory certainly reaches more learners overall but also helps what is learned to stick better and in different areas of the brain. The tactile learning that is included (especially when we accessed the website from a tablet vs the desktop) really helps. Highlighting words within the passages read aids in not only the comprehension but has also helped my son to better understand sentence structure, etc. We often forget that multi-sensory approaches aren’t just for young learners. Some of us need to use all areas to make a better impression on our brains (both figuratively and literally).
In addition to these main skill areas, you can allow your child to also access the games and other resources in MaxMusic, MaxVocab, MaxPlaces, and MaxBios. While more relaxed and fun, these areas are providing further practice and skill building. I don’t assign anything in these areas but let my son access them as he wishes after completing the main areas for each day’s session.
One of our other favorite things is that the directions can be read to the learner. So often we have encountered resources that he couldn’t use without someone first reading the directions. This not only makes him feel “dumb”, but keeps him from working independently and moving at his own pace. We have yet to encounter any activity that was not self-explanatory or had the speaker button to have the instructions read. Even the short stories for the reading comprehension activities are able to be read to the student. With an older student, this is huge! He already struggles with how hard it is to read and how far behind he is compared to friends his age. If he needed to have mama nearby throughout his lessons, that would only add insult to injury.
Other Crew families have been working with MaxScholar and shared their experiences. Be sure to read all the reviews. Simply click the image below to get there.
