7,200+ Confident Readers and Spellers
Kindergarten Homeschool Reading and Spelling Curriculum
At-Home and Online
Scholar Within’s Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET has been featured on
Give Your Kindergartener a Head Start with Reading
- Learn beginning phonics skills
- Learn to read simple words
- Read picture books with fun and captivating characters
- Meet Sam and Mat and their friends as they go on adventures
- Learn how to easily spell simple words
- Enjoy fun and engaging short, daily activities
- Feel confident and excited about learning to read
- Improve listening and auditory processing skills
- Play card games that work on phonics skills
- Research-based, results-driven reading program curriculum
Why Scholar Within?
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.
Kindergarten Homeschool Reading and Spelling Curriculum
Hand Selected Picture Books for Kindergarteners
Your child will feel empowered by these kindergarten reading program books with simple words and sentences with fun characters in engaging stories. We’ve chosen the best time-tested books and compelling stories that will open your son or daughter’s world of reading.
Each week, the kindergarten homeschool reading curriculum provides two fun digital books for your child to read aloud. Your child will have fun talking about Mat and Sam’s adventures. They will even learn to summarize the stories they have read. You’ll also receive a reading selection each week to read aloud to help your kids build their listening skills and awareness of words and stories.
Learn beginning phonics with video spelling lessons.
Scholar Within’s kindergarten reading program makes teaching reading easy for homeschool parents. Reading instruction includes video spelling and phonics lessons in a multisensory approach. The direct instruction provided by the video lessons starts at the very beginning skills of reading.
Your child will learn to identify and match individual letters with their sounds. They will start to understand that spoken words are made up of individual sounds (phonemic awareness). Putting several individual sounds together makes words. The individual sounds of /b/, /a/, and /t/ come together to make the word /bat/.
Our interactive video kindergarten spelling lessons explain step-by-step how words are put together. Your child will learn to spell 10 new words each week according to their phonetic spelling patterns. Your child will also learn to recognize easy-sight words.
The combination of spelling, phonics, and reading activities builds reading success for your child.
Letter Recognition and Pattern Matching
Your child will work on recognizing letter shapes and names. They will work on matching upper and lower case letters. They will also work on completing letter and shape patterns through simple kindergarten worksheets.
The matching activities are included to help develop visual perceptual skills, thinking, and memory skills. All three of these are critical pieces of the reading skills your child needs to do well with your reading and language arts program in your homeschool curriculum.
We include pattern activity sheets as the ability to find patterns is a step in helping your kids to make logical connections and to use reasoning skills. Patterns help kids to understand order as well as sequence. Both order and sequence are stepping stones to teaching reading words.
Rapid Automatized Naming
Rapid naming is one of the biggest predictors of a child’s success with reading. This is your child’s ability to see a shape, symbol, word, or object and to instantly recognize what it is. We have simple, custom-designed drills that you will do a practice and timed read where your child will see their progress in 3-4 days. These drills also work on their eye-tracking skills and start to move their eyes fluidly from left to right across a page. These rapid naming drills are the perfect way to set your kindergarten reader up for success with reading words from left to right.
Build Long-Term Memory Skills
Comprehension skills are an important part of the learning process even at the kinder level. Young kids will answer questions about the books that they have read in the program a day or two after reading them. Your child will learn to remember and recall what they have read by reviewing notes that they have written or dictated about the reading. Yes, reading instruction that includes comprehension is part of a complete program for kindergarten-level readers.
Brain-Body Activities
The brain and body work together as a machine, one designed to move through space efficiently, walking, moving, and maintaining balance. This connection allows you to see the shapes, sizes, and positions of letters on a page as well as improve eye tracking skills. As we improve the brain-body connection, reading and overall learning improve.
Scholar Within includes brain-body activities for homeschooled kids. This portion of the program helps the homeschooling parent do activities that benefit multiple children at the same time as the activities can be done with the whole family.
We have different activities each week that your kids will think are just fun games, but the activities actually work on improving their motor skills and brain-body connection.
Build Executive Function Skills
Executive function skills are the decision-making and planning skills that we all need in our daily lives. Your child will help decide when they will do certain activities and they will estimate how long each activity will take. After the activity is completed, they will reflect on how long it actually took and will start to build their time awareness and planning skills.
Research-Driven, Results-Proven Curriculum
Every component of our reading program is research-based and is specifically designed to boost your kindergarten child’s reading skills. The program has been created by learning expert and board-certified educational therapist Bonnie Terry, M.Ed. She put together her 35+ years of working hands-on with children of all learning styles and abilities into this step-by-step program with custom-designed methods that you and your kids will see results each week.
Using how children learn to strengthen instruction for all learners
Sometimes homeschool parents are concerned about whether their kids can work at their own pace. They are also concerned if they have struggling readers or advanced readers. Many parents have found this reading program works with the way children learn, so it benefits everyone.
Scholar Within’s reading and spelling homeschool curriculum has been designed by our board-certified educational therapist. She has specialties in reading instruction, dyslexia, and learning disabilities and has used that knowledge in designing the best curriculum to teach reading.
The curriculum actually addresses the underlying cause of learning struggles through the variety of activities in the program. The areas of visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic processing that impact your ability to learn are strengthened with the special methodologies used.
Develop a Love of Reading
Reading will start to make sense to your child. Your child will learn and develop a strong foundation of reading and overall learning skills. These skills include print awareness, phonemic awareness, letter recognition, phonics skills, and sight word recognition. Your kids will do a variety of activities that teach and strengthen all of these skills. Your child will love doing the activities in the program and will want to do them again and again.
Reviews from Parents
Everything you need to give your kindergartener a head start with reading and spelling
Step-by-step, online and offline lessons
Carefully selected picture books
Take notes offline with graphic organizers
Offline reading fluency training
Spelling and phonics video lessons and tests
Learn to spell with 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
Homeschool Reading and Spelling Program by Grade Level
Learn more about what reading skills your kids will build in our homeschool reading and spelling program.
FAQs
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.
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.
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
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.
This program has been designed by learning disabilities expert and board-certified educational therapist Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET.
Bonnie originally designed this curriculum in her private learning center in the 1990s where she saw kids with dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, kids on the autism spectrum, and numerous other learning challenges.
She learned first hand what worked and what didn’t.
Bonnie was only able to see kids twice a week for an hour each time and had to figure out a way to make progress in reading and spelling in that short amount of time.
She discovered specific multisensory activities worked.
She discovered that she could teach spelling through spelling patterns while teaching individual sound components of letters.
She discovered that you could train your eye muscles for reading just like you can train your body for sports.
She discovered that to successfully teach reading, you must teach all 5 principles of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary).
She discovered that teaching through hands on games is not only fun but strengthens kids skills and associations with learning.
She discovered teaching by the Science of Reading before it was known as the Science of Reading.
Parents and teachers kept asking what it was that she was doing in her learning center because of the transformative results the kids saw in such little time.
She realized that she needed to make this curriculum available to all students.
When you teach in these ways, all kids can successfully read and spell, not matter whether they have learning challenges or not.
Since her private learning center, Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET has teamed up with her son, Nick Terry, who is a design and technology expert to create Scholar Within.
This way, they’ve been able to bring Bonnie Terry’s original curriculum into a step-by-step format that all families can do at home with their kids and teachers can do with their students.
Reserve Your Spot
Not quite ready to sign up? Reserve your spot for Scholar Wtihin’s homeschool reading and spelling program.
