Kendra Turner, M.S. Ed.

From Struggling Reader to Aspiring Librarian

My youngest daughter was a struggling reader.

When my youngest daughter entered kindergarten, she absolutely loved going to school. By the end of first grade, it was a fight to get her to school each day. She loved her teachers, loved her friends, but had begun to hate reading.

I lost count of how many times she would cry and say, "I can't."

She would come home with little books to practice reading, but she struggled to sound out any of the words, preferring instead to just guess what they were based on the pictures or based on the first letter of the word. After multiple parent-teacher conferences, endless hours of reading with her at home, and lots of tears (both hers and mine) I decided something had to change.

The next year, I opted to homeschool her.

I began teaching her reading using a structured and systematic method. She flourished with this type of instruction.

She began to identify letter sounds, blend them together to make words, connect those words to their meanings and ultimately became a confident and capable reader.

Now, that little girl who was struggling to read is a freshman at an elite university studying to be a librarian.

We are often told as parents that we should "just give it time" and that our kids "will eventually catch up," but those statements simply aren't true. Most students cannot learn to be proficient readers without structured and systematic reading instruction.

My daughter is a perfect example of how the right kind of reading instruction can change the trajectory of a student's future. Now that she's moved on to start the next stage of her life, I'm ready to share that success with families in Michigan and beyond.