1st-Grade Reading Program With Spelling and Phonics

This program is amazing. My son just did week one this week and has loved it! He actually said “That was so fun! I didn’t think it would be, but I like this!”

The program perfectly rounds out the curriculum he is using, and I’m so happy I found it!

Thank you for creating this!

This has been THE BEST spelling and reading program we’ve used for homeschooling so far! Both of our boys(age 10, 5th grade, and age 12, 7th grade) love this program! It’s laid out so well and very easy for them to navigate. What I love most about the reading program is that it’s teaching them to take notes. So often this skill can be lost especially with homeschoolers, but not with Scholar Within! The reading selections vary and my boys are always interested to see what they’ll be reading about next. My oldest is a strong reader but struggled with spelling and because this program focuses so much on spelling patterns, he’s finally getting it! He’s doing well with it and nothing makes me happier than watching my kids as things click, they succeed and how proud they feel. THANK YOU Scholar Within!!

Best curriculum I’ve seen so far for homeschoolers! It’s precisely organized by week and day, for everything. Which I have yet to experience by all other programs claiming the same.
This program even tapers the workload to ease in on Monday, peak midweek and taper down Friday. Though they have a couple suggested alternatives with a handy calendar, the primary schedule is our favorite and keeps the day and week on track.
There isn’t an easy way to take a day off without catching up or skipping. So it isn’t quite self paced as mentioned, namely because everything is executed so well and organized to perfection! It’d just be easier to take the week off than try to catch up if you missed more than a day – but that’s what makes homeschool special anyway. No makeup sick work or jamming in school while on vacation.
This program is what I expected for homeschool curriculum but never found. I almost considered returning to regular school because it’s so costly and laborious putting materials with worksheets and tests. Scholar Within is a game changer! I wish they covered more topics honestly.
The daily drills bring a lot of confidence because there is not an expectation to read a set amount of words. Plus, they naturally improve just by reviewing the words right before the one min timed drill. No additional practice needed! So smart! He begs me to do drills every day. Zero struggles. Then students chart their word count progress right after, so they see improvement everyday. He’s so proud of himself for the first time ever with reading and spelling.
Brilliantly designed to help kids organically challenge themselves without the pressure of comparison or expectation of a certain number.
He loves that he can review notes and I love that this program clearly teaches how to take effective, useful notes. Schools don’t even teach that and I had to learn in college which was hard.
We’ve homeschooled two years now and I’ve spent so much time and money with the “big” guys to no avail. Not with Scholar Within. Everything is perfectly paired and materials are exactly sequences to online. Each worksheet page says what lesson week and matches exactly to what is shown online.
We spent four days on the trial and bought the year subscription without hesitation. Mind you I’d already spent over $400 for the semester with other curriculum.
The materials prep for printed workbooks is staged so you might want to consider that before setting your start date. We subscribed a couple days before their packing materials. It shipped in a couple days later and we received our free printed materials 5 days after signing up for the year! So we don’t even have to wait the extra week we thought we would.
The boy 4th grade cheers, screams and thunderous happy dances are a sight I’ve rarely seen. The morning of materials arrival he was keeping track for the delivery truck like it was a toy ordered from Amazon. Thank you so much! We’re so excited for the year to come!
A few days is all you need to see the value. It’s easy to use and improvements happen on day two for every student.
Best online program by far!

I bought the program for my daughters in Kindergarten and Grade 2 and I can’t rave enough about it to my family and friends. It offers a variety of lessons in reading and spelling to keep your child engaged in the learning process. I also found customer service to be very efficient and helpful when I reached out to them about a question. Highly recommend this program!

My daughter has really struggled with spelling over the years – she is now in seventh grade. This program has been one of the best programs to help her grow in her ability to spell. Thank you!

I started using this program after a TON of research. I needed a good fit for my 8 yr old dyslexic daughter. I’d say she 1.5-2 reading grades behind. We tried the summer program and loved it. This program was very simple and easy to acclimate to, which was a blessing bc these days I don’t have the time and energy to deep dive learning new programs. Scholar Within was instantly engaging and with the easy to follow step by step layout it made everything so approachable. I had to reach out through chat a few times and always received responses quickly and they were kind, helpful, and encouraging. 5 star customer service! I like how you can change the levels within the program (I started lower so that I could build her confidence) and the variety within lessons. You might see that some are saying there’s a lot of printing, I was at first concerned about this but it really wasn’t bad. I’d just print a few lessons ahead of time and keep them in the folder. It was actually pretty easy and only took 1-2 minutes. They also have an option for some of the weeks to buy pre-printed materials. Do what works for you 🙂 My daughter said she really liked the games too.

I was a newbie to homeschooling when I signed up for this program. Now I realized, after almost a year of homeschooling, that this program is too expensive. It does have good content, but the way it is delivered is very boring that my children don’t want to use it. Please make sure you do lots of research before you sign up.

Wonderful program for children, especially for my child with ADHD and speech delay. I am so grateful that there is a program out here for children like this.

My son is 13 years old and struggles with reading, reading comprehension, and auditory processing. I thought this program seemed like just the right fit for him but we were disappointed in it. It’s the same stuff repeated over and over again. You read a passage and fill out an outline/graphic organizer page. It wasn’t teaching my child anything new. The spelling was ok but the words seemed a bit under average for even a poor speller. The games for executive function were not great. My son felt like they were geared for children not a tween. The field trip section we found very boring and unsure of the expectations.

We tried Scholar Within for our student in the summer of 2022. Our student has ADHD and diagnosed learning disabilities. This program was just what we needed to keep our student engaged during the summer. The executive function focus that this program includes was so helpful especially for kids with ADHD. I highly recommend this for families that have students with reading and reading comprehension as an opportunity. This program covers spelling, reading comprehension, note taking, executive function, and has so many great brain games and virtual field trip ideas. We will be doing this program every summer going forward. Phenomenal program and the price points are so much better than a lot of the other programs out there. Keep in mind this is a team effort, this program has an online aspect but it also has worksheets and requires parent interaction. I absolutely love that it has text to speech and encourages the student to read aloud. I also love that it puts focus on writing and not just typing up stuff online. There are so many great things about this program I wish I could list them all.

Our second grader is a great reader, but really struggled with spelling. This program offered everything he needed in order to begin spelling words correctly and with so much more understanding. The program is well organized and efficient, offering a great foundation to students. We couldn’t be happier!

The program is well organized and easy to follow. The program helped my son with dyslexia a lot for ready fluency. Nothing else had helped… It was like a game for him and we called it his “brain activity”. Very happy and totally recommend it.

This program is absolutely different from everything we have tried in the past, it’s truly amazing !! I think the layout online is wonderful, it really helps that the kids see what is expected of them everyday (and a time estimate keeps them motivated). I love way they teach planning is a great life skill! The printed materials are beautifully done and organized! They make learning simple and fun. The reading lessons vary in topics keeping kids interested and they often tell dad at dinner what they have read because they’re actually retaining it. The spelling program is also amazing teaching VC patterns and going over phonic patterns. We also enjoy that the reading and spelling lessons can be at different grade levels to perfectly adapt to each child and their needs. 5 stars from me!

My son and I have tried many reading programs; this one has made the most significant difference. It trains the brain to think of reading and spelling in ways beyond rote memorization. In addition, the reading program is enjoyable and effective. As a result, my son started the school year with increased confidence as a reader, and I feel better prepared to help him with his learning.

My child was diagnosed with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and it has been a difficult journey in getting her to develop phonemic awareness skills and reading fluency, among other reading deficits. After enrolling her in Scholar Within’s reading and spelling program over the summer, I have seen the improvement that I’ve been waiting for! I will definitely continue using this program throughout the school year.

Fabulous reading program! We enrolled our daughter over the summer. It was so wonderful we decided to continue using the program during the school year.

My son was diagnosed as dyslexic at the end of 3rd grade. We did the reading program for a few months over the summer before he started 4th grade. We did a lot of traveling over the summer and had no issue keeping up with the program. My son really enjoyed the word games included. The few times I needed to reach out to customer service they were professional and prompt with their help. By the end of the summer I noticed a huge difference in my son’s reading. The real proof was on his first quarter 4th grade report card, his ELA grade was 95% (he ended 3rd grade with a 62%). This program is amazing, I cannot recommend it enough!

Great program, even for an older struggling reader with auditory processing disorder and possible dyslexia.
I like the option of switching between grade levels as needed customer service has been fast/useful so far.

After a recent diagnosis of dyslexia, we started our son on this program over the summer. He has taken to it so well and we have already seen such great improvement. We are looking forward to continuing the program year-round!

I have two children who just completed 8 weeks of the reading and spelling program. My oldest is dyslexic and I’ve been looking for a spelling program that is geared towards older kids since she is in 8th grade and many of the other spelling programs we’ve done feel like they are for younger children. My daughter appreciated that the lessons were straightforward in teaching the patterns through sight, sound and writing. Her spelling confidence and ability grew tremendously. My youngest benefited from the Ready Fluency Drills and Reading Comprehension activities. Both enjoyed the games and puzzles. We look forward to continuing with the program into the fall as homeschoolers.

This program kept my kids sharp over the summer. Thank you!

We love the reading and spelling program. My daughter has not only increased her words per minute but also has expanded her comprehension. She is learning valuable note taking strategies and has drastically improved her spelling. She also enjoys the content! We are excited to see her growth.

Last summer, my husband and I enrolled our daughters (then entering grade 3 and entering grade 2) in the summer program. This program really helped them with reading comprehension! It gave us as parents the tools we needed to ask the right questions to help them too! Also, the games were really enjoyable! We even played them AFTER the lesson was over for the day. We were very impressed with the variety of activities and tools available with this program. We will be re-enrolling them this summer! Thank you!

My daughter is begging me to do your reading program again to strengthen her skills. The guides for note-taking and how to pick out important information was only second to the fun activities each day last year. We look forward to seeing what’s in store for this year!

Thank you for partnering with me to help my daughters improve their reading skills. They are really enjoying your program and are excited about becoming more confident readers. I am loving it already! I signed up my twin daughters, who are homeschooled.

My children took the Scholar Within reading program. I was impressed with how user-friendly and intuitive the program is.

The Monday exercise of reading and taking notes followed with questions on those selections on Wednesday is a really great help for my kids. This lets them work on their comprehension skills. It has made a big difference! The whole program has been a good experience for us. Thank you very much!

Even when I’m not sure how to reason/explain to my son about a reading comprehension answer, all I have to do is ask you. You are so good at giving quick replies that are easy for me to tell my son. Thank you!

My son couldn’t write or spell. Our lives changed when we found your system. It was just what we needed. It was a 100% turnaround! I noticed the improvement immediately, but it became more dramatic as time went on. He came home with smiles. He started liking school. He became a confident learner. In fact, by the time he was in 4th grade, he was at the top of his class.

We really loved the program. Thanks so much for all of the neat assignments and games to enhance executive function skills.

Your videos make it so easy for my kids to actually see and hear how letters and sounds come together to make words. They are improving my kids’ spelling and reading skills. Such a bonus! And, they love playing the games, too.

Ma’am, you are a blessing. I am on my 2nd year as a kindergarten teacher and your technique eased my doubts about being effective towards teaching children who have zero spelling and reading skills.

Thanks for your help throughout this process. You are so responsive whenever I have a question or concern. I see activities on the different levels for my kids which makes them easy to follow. This has been an awesome experience for our family.

This program really helped my daughter and we saw a difference in her reading and spelling fairly quickly. Plus, she enjoyed the lessons which, as a parent, is probably the most important thing as she was motivated every day to continue learning.

My son is doing well and shows improvements with the reading drills each day. He is also doing well with all the work that is presented. His overall work is improving too. He’s even able to find spelling errors now. Woohoo!

This is great a reading program. My son has really improved his reading comprehension skills. Thank you, Bonnie Terry, for designing such a great course.

Scholar Within has been an amazing resource for my 8-year-old twins. It has been great to see how far they have come. They definitely enjoyed how interactive it has been, not just reading. I have recommended this to many of my friends.

I really do like the reading fluency drills. They are making a difference for my son. They are so easy to fit into our day. The thing we didn’t like was all the printing we had to do each week.

I enrolled both my sons in the Reading Program this summer. It made such a huge difference for my son who has learning disabilities when we did the program two years ago. His teacher was amazed at the improvement in his fluency and comprehension (going into Grade 5). The team has been so flexible with “pausing” our program for a couple of weeks while we are away on vacation too. Note taking is such a key skill that is not really taught here in Ontario, Canada. I think this course will help my kids not fall behind from missing 3 months of school due to COVID 19. I am a poor substitute teacher, but I have confidence that Bonnie’s system is evidence-based, so I just have to follow instructions. Very glad to be able to access this course for homeschooling this summer!

I am very grateful for having found Scholar Within. As a homeschooling mom, I am always in search of good materials that fit the needs of my children. Scholar Within has been especially beneficial for my 7th grader, his greatest challenges have been spelling, and clarity while reading out loud. I was amazed at the way in which Scholar Within combines phonics, spelling, and reading comprehension. My son has advanced significantly in these areas since we started using the program. He loves the reading selections and finds them very educative and interesting.

Great program. I highly recommend it to any parent.

The videos made all the difference in the world. The spelling videos showed me step by step the structure. You really made spelling easy for my kids. I just keep working with the video, the spelling, the way you explain it, they watch it over and over. It really sinks in. Your materials help build their self-esteem up. They’re short quick activities. You can get so much done in half an hour.

We are really liking the summer reading program. I appreciate that you moved my daughter’s level to make the program even more effective for her. Thanks so much.

This is a comprehensive program that can be implemented at home. I bought 5 folders and labeled them for each day of the week, plus an extra folder to hold copies of extra forms that are used regularly. You need a decent printer, lots of printer paper, and toner (though I hear they are making print material available for a separate purchase soon!). I prepped the whole week every Sunday evening and had the folders ready for my son and his grandmother to work on each day. It can be kind of overwhelming at first to figure out all the assignments and get it all prepped, but it’s worth it. This is a well thought out program with excellent customer service. We had several questions and adjustments throughout our time with the program and always got quick, helpful, personable replies. Unfortunately, my son’s school year has ramped up and we don’t have enough time to fit Scholar Within into his day. We hope to be back to do the program next summer!

I did find the videos and activities interesting. There was a bit too much printing for me.

Jake is doing well and enjoying the program. I’m so pleased with how he has improved and that he likes doing our sessions! Thanks so much!

My son’s first drill trend is definitely going in the right direction. His words per minute increased by 17%, and his mistakes decreased, and this is only the first week. I can’t believe he had that much progress already. Thank you for this program and thanks so much for being available for questions, too!

Last summer my 3 kids were enrolled in both Scholar Within and another major reading program. Scholar Within had more fun activities and games and really focused on building the underlying skills to really prepare for the upcoming year. The other program didn’t build skills in the same way and was less interactive in my home.

Your program has so many great things in it. The plan for an excursion was a brilliant idea! We made a trip to the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis and to the Science Museum in St. Louis. I have seen improvements and I have gained insight into how my daughter reads and processes (or lack thereof) the reading assignments. Thank you so very much! The whole-brain approach to improving reading has been very insightful.