 Want to raise your child's iq and
increase his capacity to learn for life? Want to prevent dyslexia and speech problems? Want to improve your child's self-esteem and confidence in school? Want to prepare your child for the workforce of the future? With the Godfrey Method, children who struggle will come up to speed.
Children who are doing fine already will learn faster and easier. By doing one simple thing today, you can launch your child to success in school and life. The best thing my Dad ever did for me was teach me to read when I was only 4 years old. So knowing that teaching starts in the home, I followed suit and always spent time showing my children phonics cards, numbers, colors, etc., from the time they were about 18 months on. My oldest children learned phonics just fine by repetition and memorization. AND then came along my son who could not- NO MATTER HOW HARD HE TRIED- conceive of how squiggly lines could mean anything or memorize which squiggly lines made which sounds,… no matter how many times we repeated them. HE JUST COULDN’T GRASP IT…. It was just too abstract for him. I KNEW I had to find a way to make such an abstract concept become more logical, more real to him, something he could wrap his mind around to link the sounds. Suddenly my son had phenomenal success with learning his phonics, and quickly progressed to reading before kindergarten. Family and friends saw his success and became interested in trying my method with their children. Then I developed rules for teaching the rationales of my method, to guarantee success for other users. In a short time my sisters, cousins, friends, preschools, and church associates wanted a set of my special phonics cards. I drew several more sets by hand and gave them away. All who used them were very successful. One day my sister, Leah, asked if she could re-do my artwork for a new set of phonics cards. She said, ‘Shannah, I LOVE your method, but I hate your drawings. Would you mind if I re-did them?’ She is the artist and I just draw colorful stick figures, so of course I was delighted at her offer! She decided to paint their picture-letters with water colors and fine details. The results were amazing! All children need this. Whenever we share it with others, we see great success. This is now available for all parents to give thier children early success and a love of reading. Children who begin school a little ahead have an advantage that helps them feel successful. That good start carries them through the rest of their school years with good self-esteem about learning.  I found that by teaching phonics with picture-letters, children learned easily to read, and were able to decipher new words.
The phonics cards and picture-letters have a fun, colorful story to showcase them. We developed stories where the same subjects of the phonics cards are carried throughout the story and that the picture-letters (sound icons) are also in the text above. The phonics cards are included in the back of the story, along with the special guidelines for using them properly, giving parents three-in-one. Does this sound familiar …remember thinking …How do I help my child to learn how to read …I'm at a loss. When you are reading the instruction page in "A Pretty Girl was Alpha Bette"... You'll discover how to redefine your definition of the word 'Reading'...you’ll learn reading is not the same for all children… A little girl in first grade, Olivia, had a teacher who said she couldn’t focus and learn, and wanted her parents to put her on ADHD meds. Her mom knew that Olivia behaved just fine at home. So she decided to use my phonics method with her at home instead, and Olivia took off with reading. She’s not ADHD, she was just bored silly with the school’s methods (which can kill the love of reading). Traditional ways of learning don’t work for many kids. Some of the methods of phonics instruction used by schools are often confusing and more rote memorization. A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette is very different in this regard, which is what makes it so special! It even helps children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Many behavioral problems and self-esteem issues in school are related to poor reading. Parents can eliminate the cause, give their children confidence, and rocket their reading to the head of the class early!
You'll learn how to move through the road blocks and challenges your children face on their road to learning how to read…
Have you ever watched a child learn to throw a ball? He tries it a few times and his mind naturally adjusts his body to make the ball go higher, lower, further, and/or faster. Did he have to read a physics text book to learn to throw a ball? Did he have to know the formulas and equations for initial velocity, force, angle, distance, or trajectory of the ball? Of course not. The mind is a super-computer that makes these internal learning leaps. It’s the same with reading, if given the right foundation. The Godfrey Method taps into all different types of learning: left-brained logic with the letters, right-brained creativity with the colorful, enchanting pictures, tactical-kinesthetic learning by touching the letters while saying the sounds, and rhyming- which is one of the easiest ways to remember things. You'll discover new rules of the game for learning to read that will put your child on an even playing field and in so many cases ahead of the game... A wonderful preschool teacher, Karen Munns wrote: “I use the phonics cards in my preschool and they work great. I have been teaching preschool for 17 years and this is the best program I have used for helping the children associate and remember the sound that the letters make. I recommend that parents get this and use it with their children at home to reinforce what we are doing at school. With the Godfrey Method, my students have learned faster and easier than ever before!” Again: Children who struggle will come up to speed. Children who are doing fine already will learn faster and easier. Will your kids be ready for the technology jobs of the future? Reading ability affects our kids’ future and the future of our nation. We all hear reports of China and India becoming the next centers for technology and innovation. We’re running behind as a nation in engineering, science, math, and technology. Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBAY and candidate for California governor says: “Being near the bottom in education is a tragedy for our kids and a threat to our future. To restore our prosperity and do right by our children, we need to better educate them in the basics… to prepare them to excel in the workforce." You'll become aware of a new way of bonding with your children...which is fun...productive and most of all, the most valuable gift that you can share with a youngster… My Aunt Carol used to call the time between dinner and bedtime, “arsenic hour,” because it’s such a difficult time to get kids settled down. In the old days, parents actually gave their kids arsenic and paregoric to quiet them, which is awful. There is a better way! What are the 2 most crucial things they need?
Parent time and reading skills! It’s easy to create a fun, bedtime routine with my phonics reading at the end of it. I always had precious, quality, family-time with my kids while showing them how to read. And most importantly, a simple shift in your current thinking about discovering how to read...can change your entire world…
 Illustrator, Leah Shingleton said,
“In comparing phonics vs. sight reading, I have never met a phonics-learner who couldn't sight read, but I have met plenty of sight-readers who didn't know how to decode an unfamiliar word.
Several adults have admitted that they were never taught phonics, and that it is very embarrassing to come on a new word, because they really can't sound it out and often must guess.” My coworker Dave Lefgren was taught to read by the sight-reading method back in the 1940s and 1950s, the old “Look Dick See Jane” method. He can read functionally, but he always struggles with new words and says a lot of “Archie Bunkerisms” by mistake. He told me that he was an adult before he realized that the letter r stood for its specific sound. The educational system is going backwards now, teaching sight words in kindergarten. Several other commercial early-reading programs out there are also based on sight-reading. This sad scenario can be avoided by teaching your children to read early and read right with A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette. Boys love it, too! Prove the statistics wrong. My son River should have LD problems in school because of his birth mother’s choices, but he doesn’t. His IQ is 116, above average, because he learned early, which helped him get ahead- and stay ahead- in school. You don’t have to read a huge manual on the mechanics of reading, either. The guidelines fit on one page. They are simple and very effective. Like my daughter- a mother herself- says, “And the child never forgets!” Your value...your reward...is by following the easy to read and understand path to the foundation of your child's future learning in a Pretty Girl was Alpha Bette... You'll experience the eye opening tips...the innovative strategies and the techniques that have brought so many children to the doorway of success…. You don’t have to be a home-schooler to help your kids learn at home. I have received thank you notes from all kinds of parents.   Simcah Reid, an at-home mom in Utah said:
“Best phonics cards ever. My 3-year-old son loves your phonics cards! He already knows all his letter sounds! This book comes with the best phonics cards ever. My kids love the cards, and the instructions for teaching beginners are invaluable. I also love that the phonics letters are in the text of the book, which teaches the kids to start looking at the text for the letters they know. The illustrations are beautiful and my kids love seeing the letters they know in the pictures on the page, too.” The opposite of The Godfrey Method is my Top Ten List of Wrong Ways We Teach Reading. You’d be surprised at some of these because they seem counter-intuitive at first. Then the light bulb goes on. For Example . . . Should we teach young children the letter names, like in the alphabet song? No. Do NOT teach the letter names. It is confusing to young children that the letter name u (you) doesn’t say the sound “y”, the letter name y (why) doesn’t say the sound “w”, and that the letter name w (double-you) doesn’t say the sound “d”. Children easily pick up the letter names on their own later. When children use my method, it taps into many of their different types of learning: left-brained logic with the letters, right-brained creativity with the colorful, enchanting pictures, tactical kinesthetic learning by touching the letters while saying the sounds, and rhyming- which is one of the easiest ways to remember things. You'll become part of compelling and insightful stories of children and parents moving through the challenges and roadblocks that once held them back on their road to learning…. Isaac Shingleton, couldn’t hear well until his adenoids were removed. By then, he was behind in his speech. So his Mom started helping him make sounds and talk with my picture-letter, phonics cards, and he has progressed very quickly! I showed my childcare provider, Kirsten Locascio, my method, and she used it with her daughters and her childcare kids. She loves it! Her oldest daughter went from struggling in 2nd grade to getting ahead. I was a single mom for awhile back in the 1990s. I was working and going to school. I didn’t have a lot of money or time. But this is so simple that I was able to teach my kids even during the hardest time in my life. Imagine what you can do for your kid’s education - without a teaching certificate. I would love to start a new bumper sticker that says, “If you can read this, thank your mother (or father)!” I had a neighbor whose son Preston couldn’t read well in 3rd grade. Once kids start falling behind in reading, they just get further and further behind each year. I gave his mom my phonics cards. With older children, what you do is have them teach these phonics to a younger sibling, cousin or neighbor child. The older child will let you show him- so that he can show the younger child. By teaching a younger child, the older child feels successful, and both children learn. You'll experience the practical step-up formula that will help you discover your child's own innate ability to become a participant in the world of reading… My daughter taught my granddaughter Kaitlyn her lower-case letter phonics using this progressive method. Then Kaitlyn taught herself which upper-case letters match the lower-case ones by playing on the computer. Her mom opened a word document for her to play typing. All the letters on a keyboard are written in upper-case letters, and many do not look like their lower-case counterparts. So as Kaitlyn pushed an upper-case key, a lower-case letter would print on the computer screen. She quickly figured out which upper-case letters to push for the lower-case letters desired. Children make these kinds of learning leaps all the time if given the right foundation! You'll experience a true sense of the word bonding as you both move through the Godfrey Method of Reading  Stasia Boyles, a busy mom of 4 and going to college said,
“The phonics cards included with this book taught my 6-year-old daughter to read. My two boys, 4 & 2, know all the sounds that the letters make and are right on track to be reading by kindergarten. I would highly recommend you try this!” With so many young children and so little time, she has experienced the gift of bonding time while helping her children learn in a fun, creative way. How many times as have we parents tried to help our kids with their homework or piano practice, only to have the whole thing end up in a fight? Your child screams, “That’s not the way my teacher did it!” You get frustrated that he won’t listen. Eventually one or both of you goes to your room and slams the door. Sound familiar? The Godfrey Method insists that you diffuse this scenario before it starts. One of the cardinal rules you’ll learn in The Godfrey Method is to have no control issues and power struggles. Never force the child to perform, nor use punishment, criticism, anger, or shame. Stay calm. If s/he wants to quit partway through the cards, then STOP. Pick it up again later. Keep it fun! The "Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow" is you get to walk away with the tools and knowledge to help your kids step up to a brighter and more fulfilling world of learning. A Sneak Peak Inside . . .
 Open your child's mind to the joys of reading! Our mission is to make abstract phonics letters become real to children, making phonics fun and understandable.
This is the first in a series of phonics story books that use The Godfrey Method, where alphabet picture-letters and stories bring phonics to life! The heroine is a girl named Alpha Bette, who gets ready to ride her horse (main supporting character) into town. Along the way, they see all sorts of flora and fauna, such as uncommon animals, apple trees, and mountains. Once in town, Alpha Bette eats a yummy treat, and is happily surprised by her best friend. Each book contains a set of picture-letter phonics cards at the end, with easy instructions for parents and educators. The picture-letters used in the story verses come from the phonics cards, and provide a link to them. Children's fiction, alphabet phonics picture-letters, rhyming verses, parent-child learning to read.
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But first, let's see what people are saying:
I Highly Recommend It
"A very valuable book to help your child become a better reader and student in school. It does this by holding the child's interest, while helping to improve the basics of eye-mind, word-recognition and comprehension coordination.
I highly recommend it."
- Frank Startup (La Habra, CA USA) Great for teaching children the beginning steps to reading! "Teaches phonemic awareness. Really fun for teaching young children phonemic awareness. The artwork is particularly good. Letter sounds are depicted by pictures (that begin with the same sound as the letter) that help the child remember the symbols that make up written language. Fantastic way to teach young children to read!!!" - Moms of Lots of Tots (Canada) What a delightful book! "I was looking for a fun and interesting way to teach my son letter sounds and this book has been great! The cards are adorable, I really like how they made the letters into the sounds, I think E is our favorite, it makes us laugh. Love the easy instructions and the do as much as the child wants, don't be pushy. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to start their kids on phonics." - Tracy Silva "Gertie" (Syracuse, UT USA) Thank you for opening up the future to a child with A Pretty Girl Was Alpha Bette!  Warmly,
P.S. Got any questions? Email Me Now
shannahbgodfrey@gmail.com
Site updated: 13 May 2010 |