7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Grades K-8
Homeschool Reading Curriculum With Spelling and Phonics
Feel confident knowing you’re using the most effective, research-backed way to teach reading and spelling.
Scholar Within’s Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET has been featured on
Brain-based Homeschool Reading Program
What parents are saying
“My daughter has not only increased her words per minute but also has improved her comprehension.”
– Mary M.
“The video spelling and phonics lessons are like having a private tutor in our home.”
– Wendy R.
“The games were really enjoyable! We even played them AFTER the lesson was over for the day.”
– Natalie M.
Everything you need to teach reading and spelling at home
Step-by-step, online and offline lessons
Carefully selected online reading curriculum
Tap-to-read, online read-aloud technology
Take notes offline with graphic organizers
Offline reading fluency training
Spelling and phonics video lessons and tests
Learn to spell with phonics and spelling patterns
Offline puzzles and worksheets
Vocabulary and word-attack card games
Offline planning and time-management
activities
Executive function and mind-body activities
Print at home or get materials shipped to you
What grade level is your child?
Select a grade level to learn more about each individualized program:
Reviews from Parents
How it Works:
Homeschool Reading and Spelling Curriculum
Scholar Within’s homeschool reading curriculum is self-paced, step-by-step with video instruction, printables, and offline activities.
-
Start where your child is currently reading and spelling.
We have different levels for grades K-8 to meet your child where they are over the school year. Spelling and reading levels can be adjusted independently. There are 20 weeks of lessons per level. When you get to the end of one level, you can graduate to the next.
-
Each day, your child will train their eyes to read faster.
This is NOT speed reading. This is reading fluency training.
With this 5-minute reading activity, your kids will train their eyes to read more smoothly from left to right. They’ll identify letters and words faster. Your child will learn how to read faster and more accurately. They’ll improve their decoding skills, fluency, and comprehension. Your child will love to see their progress each day. -
Each week, your child will read two engaging reading selections and take notes.
Taking notes not only helps you remember what you have read, but it helps you organize your thoughts. Taking notes helps you summarize and talk about what they have read.
We teach even younger kids to take notes! Younger kids can dictate or record their notes. We make taking notes easy with our custom-designed graphic organizers. Kids just need to fill in the blanks. This activity takes 15-20 minutes. -
A day or two after your child reads their selection, they will review their notes and answer questions.
By asking questions a couple of days later, children improve their memory and long-term reading comprehension skills.
Too many other homeschool reading programs and teachers ask children to answer questions immediately after they have read a selection. -
Each week, your child will get a new list of spelling words grouped by their spelling pattern.
These are activities like completing the pattern and matching uppercase and lowercase letters. They’ll also learn to write simple sentences with provided printable word cards. These activities improve visual perception and fine motor skills.
-
Your child will follow along with video phonics and spelling lessons.
Your child will fill out a corresponding spelling worksheet as they watch the videos. Younger kids can use provided printable letter cards. Spelling tests are self-correcting.
This spelling system is Orton-Gillingham based, multisensory, and custom-designed by learning expert Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET. -
Spelling puzzle and pattern worksheets supplement the lessons.
These are activities like word searches, sorting your words, fill-in-the-blank, and more. Your child will start to identify spelling patterns in words not in their spelling lists each week.
-
Improve executive function skills and move your body with mind-body activities.
These executive function activities include planning, organizing, strategizing, flexible thinking, remembering, and paying attention to details.
Mind-body activities activate your vestibular system which helps improve higher-order thinking, interpreting information, and helps get your body operating in unison with your mind. -
Play new card games every couple of weeks.
Your kids can play these games at any time during the week with your family or their friends. They work on strengthening reading and spelling skills as well as make learning a lot more fun! You can print these games at home or get them in the homeschool kit.
-
45-60 Minutes a Day
All of these activities are each only 5-20 minutes long and you can fit them into your schedule. We have planning calendars to help! This is not an all-day-long program.
Homeschool Reading Curriculum Compared
 | Online Homeschool Reading Curriculums | Offline Homeschool Reading Curriculums | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online and offline activities |  | Some |  |
| Science-based curriculum | | Some | Some |
| Phonics | | Some | Some |
| Reading comprehension | | Some | Some |
| 5 Minute reading fluency training | | | |
| Tap to Read: read-aloud technology | | | |
| Learn to spell with spelling patterns | | | |
| Executive function and planning skills | | | |
| Designed by board certified educational therapist and reading specialist | | | |
| Orton-Gillingham Based | | Some | Some |
Designed by Learning Expert Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET
Bonnie Terry is a board-certified educational therapist with over 35 years of experience. She has helped thousands of students across the globe improve their reading skills whether they are gifted or are having difficulties.
Bonnie Terry has been featured on…
FAQs
Physical Products
30-Day Money-back Guarantee
We offer this program because we love seeing parents and their kids succeed. It is an extraordinary experience to watch parents empower their kids, and we are 100% committed to your success. For your part, the success of the program relies on your commitment to completing the weekly activities as outlined.
We are so confident that our Reading Program and Spelling Program will be a life-changing experience for you that we offer a no-risk 30-day guarantee on our printed material kits.
If you are unsatisfied with the print materials and program within the first 30 days, just ship us back the printed material, and we’ll refund your purchase excluding actual shipping cost and return shipping. Materials must be unused and in a resaleable condition. The material must be postmarked within 30 days of receiving the material.
Bonus free physical products must be returned in their original, unused, new, and resalable condition. If the bonus free item is not returned, you will be charged for the full cost of the bonus free item.
If you think you might return or cancel the program, print out the material at home before using any of the physical material.
Online Programs
14-Day Money-back Guarantee
We offer this program because we love seeing parents and their kids succeed. It is an extraordinary experience to watch parents empower their kids, and we are 100% committed to your success. For your part, the success of the program relies on your commitment to completing the weekly activities as outlined.
We are so confident that our Reading Program and Spelling Program will be a life-changing experience for you that we offer a no-risk 14-day guarantee. If after completing the program’s first week’s activities within the first 14 days from the initial sign-up, simply let us know, and we will refund your purchase. If you purchased print materials with the online program, actual shipping costs will be excluded from your online program refund.
Bonus free physical products must be returned in their original, unused, new, and resalable condition. If the bonus free item is not returned, you will be charged for the full cost of the bonus free item.
If you think you might return or cancel the program, print out the material at home before using any of the physical material.
7-Day Free Trial
We offer a 7-day free trial only on the Monthly Reading & Spelling Program Membership.
This gives you a chance to try the program without having to pay. If you cancel within the first 7-days, you will not be charged. If you are considering the yearly option, this is a great way to try the program first before deciding to upgrade.
All other membership options require an upfront payment. For these other membership options, we offer a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Our 14-day money-back guarantee starts when you sign up for the program.
If you signed up for the 7-day free trial and you are still within the 7 days, you can cancel the program on your own. Log in to your account, click Go to Program, go to My Account > Settings > Membership, and you can cancel your account from here. If you cancel within the first 7-days, you will not be charged.
After sign up, you will be asked what grade your child is currently and whether they are above grade level, at grade level, or below grade level by 1-3 years in their reading skills.
Give your best estimate. If the material you choose is too easy or too hard, contact us and we’ll adjust your account.
Additionally, you can choose a couple of sample reading passages at the grade level you think your child is capable of reading proficiently.
Have them read aloud to you. Make a note of any repetitions, substitutions, omissions, or mispronunciations they make. Then ask them at least five comprehension questions.
Instructional level is reading without mistakes with a 93% accuracy and a minimum of 75% comprehension.
The program materials and teaching videos are delivered and accessed online. Each day you will print out a few pages of handouts to use with your kids. Most of the lessons and activities are done offline at a table or outside.
There are a lot of fun activities and games. With grades K-3, most of the activities are done with the parent and child together. For grades 4 and above, there are a couple of activities done with the parent and child together, and the rest the child can do independently.
The short answer is yes!
Each day there are a few handouts to print out and instructional videos to watch. Each day’s actual activities should only take 45-60 minutes of actual work.
The first week takes a little bit of time and prep to get up to speed, but by the second week, the activities become second nature.
We often suggest breaking up some of the activities to different parts of the day.
- Print out the handouts
- Watch the short videos either by yourself or with your kids to know what to do (about 5 minutes)
- Do the fluency training with your kids (5 minutes)
- Activities for comprehension, phonics, brain-body, and executive function rotate throughout the week (20 – 40 minutes)
No. We currently do not have live classes.
We have designed this program to be step-by-step with bite-sized activities. You won’t have to worry about missing a Zoom class, being late, or your kids being still in their pajamas. You can do the activities in the program on your schedule and make up missed days at your convenience.
We have video spelling instruction that your kids will follow along with their corresponding worksheets. If you want feedback on your child’s work, send us a picture of it via email.
The program was designed by learning expert Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET. The curriculum in the program was designed over the course of Bonnie Terry’s 35+ years of teaching from hands-on in her former private learning center and now, in an at-home and online environment. Bonnie has worked with kids of all abilities, whether they are struggling, have learning challenges like dyslexia, auditory processing disorder (APD), and ADD/ADHD, or are just looking to advance faster.
The National Reading Panel has made it clear that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates:
- Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
- Systematic phonics instruction
- Methods to improve fluency
- Vocabulary instruction
- Ways to enhance comprehension
Scholar Within’s summer reading program includes these components through short step-by-step multisensory activities. The program is Orton-Gillingham based and is the perfect way for your kids to not only keep their skills up over summer but to get ahead, make learning easier, and spend less time on homework come the fall.
Reading comprehension is your ability to understand and use what you have read, listened to, or watched.
In our summer reading program, your child will use our custom-designed graphic organizers to organize information of what they have read into a graphical display. This is a critical component in improving reading comprehension. These organizers make note-taking easy.
Additionally, story structure, summarizing, question answering, and question generation are all critical pieces of comprehension. We also include these components of comprehension in our summer reading program.
Reading Fluency is the ability to retrieve words automatically and easily, almost without thought. When you read nearly effortlessly and accurately, you are able to hold pieces of information (text) in your mind which improves your overall comprehension.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the author of Overcoming Dyslexia, states, “Fluency Training is one of the most important things a parent can do to help their child improve their reading skills.” Improving your reading fluency is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your reading skills.
Our summer reading program includes short reading fluency activities that you will do each day. This activity only takes 5-minutes and your kids will see and chart their progress each day. These specific activities work on eye-tracking skills, visual processing, and rapid automatized naming. In other words, these activities help your kids learn to read faster. You can download the first fluency activity here for free.
Research on teaching reading and spelling dates back to the early 1930s, first with Samuel Orton and then later with Anna Gillingham. They developed a teaching approach, the Orton-Gillingham method (OG), to help struggling readers and spellers. Their teaching methods include what is currently considered best practices: sequential, phonics-based systems that teach the basics of word formation before whole meanings.
Learning through all three senses (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic) is essential. This multisensory approach has been proven effective for students of all abilities, including those with dyslexia and other learning challenges.
The Scholar Within Reading Program incorporates these OG principles and strategies along with the latest research on learning.
Orton-Gillingham Instructional Components for Optimal Learning:
- Multisensory: Uses all of the senses (auditory, visual, and tactile-kinesthetic)
- Sequential: Proceeds step-by-step in a logical sequence
- Incremental: Each lesson builds upon prior learning
- Cumulative: Constantly and consistently reviews previously taught concepts
- Individualized: Meets each student’s individual needs
- Phonogram-Based: Words are based on combining letters and letter combinations known as phonograms (the sound-symbol relationship, also known as the Alphabetic Principle)
- Explicit: Stated clearly and in a detailed manner
Different from other summer reading programs, in this summer reading program, your child will learn through seeing, hearing, and doing. Learning to read through multiple senses builds stronger associations, improves retention, and speeds up recall skills.
In other words, learning to read in this way makes reading easier and automatic. This at-home and online reading program is specifically designed with short activities that integrate hearing, seeing, and doing.
7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Grades K-8 Homeschool reading and spelling made easy.
Scholar Within’s online and offline homeschool reading curriculum makes teaching reading and spelling easy with self-paced, step-by-step lessons.
