How the See abc's reading method began

Sherry has told you how her lovable characters came to be and now I would like to tell you how the See abc's reading method began. When my youngest child, Joni, was in Kindergarten learning the shapes and sounds of the alphabet, she would bring home papers with the shape of the letter at the top of the page and a picture beginning with that letter below it. This worked well as long as the picture clue was there, but when I wrote the letter without the clue, she was left wondering which picture clue went to which letter shape. There are 26 different letter shapes and 26 different picture clues. That's a hard matching job for most kids. All five of my children learned this way.


Then one day while working with Joni, I realized that all of my children learned the letter 's' fast and never forgot it. How come? It was because for 's', all I had to tell them was, "It looks like a snake and it sounds like snake." So, every time they saw the letter 's', in their imagination they could see a snake; they didn't have to search for anything. I decided to try that concept with all of the letters and I made each letter shape become its own clue. For example with letter 'a', the circle of the 'a' is an apple and the line is a worm. The results were amazing. Joni learned every letter solid in only two days and had a blast doing it because now it was a fun game of pretend and imagination. Then she got out her paper and pencil and starting writing the letters and turning them into the pictures herself. So, her reading was reinforcing her writing and her writing was reinforcing her reading. That's when I knew I had something really powerful in my hands! So, I put my little alphabet into book form, "ABC's See What They Say". Sherry tried it with her son, and saw how great it worked with him and she wanted to help me market my book. She then wrote a fun alphabet song to go along with my book and a numbers book based on the same concept as the letter book. We then had our books professionally illustrated. They are designed so that they are very interactive, using three tactile steps in teaching each letter or number. Over the years, I have come to find out how crucial it is to use all three of these steps to have the best results.


And so, the See abc's method was born. As time went on, I expanded the program. I will share more about the other books soon.

Doreese

Introduction to Tia and Bob Frog

Goooood Mornin'!
It's a beautiful sunny day and I feel energized about Tia and Bob Frog this morning. Let me tell you how Tia and Bob Frog (the main See abc's charactors came about). Tia is my daughter and when she was three her grandmother gave her a stuffed frog which she named Bob. Bob and Tia were best friends, everywhere Tia went she had Bob Frog. I have taught pre-school to all of my children so it seemed appropriate that I incorporate Bob Frog into a teaching tool to help Tia learn her colors, shapes, numbers etc... Thus the Tia and Bob Frog series of books was born.

Gumfounded was my first book to get published. This book tells about Tia having a mishap with a gob of gum someone had spit out on the ground. The gum sticks to her shoe and as she runs to school the gum collects litter. Soon Tia is on a MOUNTAIN of litter which is all tangled in the gum on her shoes. Once she gets to school all of the children help her put the litter in its right recycle bins. It was illustrated delightfully by Kirk Werner. I have written two other environmental books which are now illustrated and imletterated.

It is a riot going to schools and presenting these books and teaching children how to respect our earth. Kids LOVE them!!! You know anything is fun to learn about if it is presented in a humorous way.

I better quit blogging now and get my house clean. It's a MESS! I'm watching some of my grandkids today so I'm sure it won't stay clean for long, but heck, at least I'll know I had it clean at one point of the day!

Take care and join Doreese and I again in a couple of days. Toodles! Sherry