The Active Reader

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The Active Reader

Strong reading builds confident kids. The Active Reader helps parents and teachers along the way.

09/10/2026

I’ve spent years teaching my own kids to read. Letter sounds. Decodable books. Read-alouds long after they could technically read to themselves. Nights I genuinely wondered when, or if, it would ever click. 📖

And then, both of my kids sat down on their own accord and read an entire book cover to cover. Just them, quiet, turning pages until the story was done.

I watched it happen twice, at two completely different ages and stages, and both times I felt so proud I could burst. But underneath that pride was something I wasn’t expecting: a little bit of grief. Because that’s the moment you’re not needed in quite the same way anymore. The reading time we built together, page by page, starts to belong to them now.

Here’s what I keep coming back to though: that’s the whole point. Every letter sound, every decodable book, every night of reading aloud was always building toward this exact thing, a kid who doesn’t need me there to open a book and disappear into it.

Watching that chapter close is bittersweet. It’s also exactly what all of it was for.

If you’re deep in the letter sounds and decodable books stage right now, wondering when this happens for your kid: it’s coming. And when it does, it’s one of the best, and strangely hardest, moments you get as a parent.

ScienceOfReading

08/31/2026

Why we built The Reader Pack the way we did.

As literacy specialists, we know children need explicit, structured teaching to move past basic phonics.

As parents ourselves, we know a tool also has to work on an ordinary weeknight, no elaborate setup, no meltdowns over worksheets.

So it had to do both:

- Multisensory, not just visual, kids see it, say it, and build it, not just stare at a page

- Short enough for real life, 5–10 minutes, no prep, no extra materials to dig out

- Structured enough to actually work, every pattern builds on the last, nothing taught out of order

Because reading instruction should be evidence-based and realistic for the families actually using it.

If this is the kind of tool you’ve been hoping for, you don’t have to wait much longer, presale opens soon.

Join the waitlist here - https://theactivereader.mykajabi.com/waitlist-TheReaderPack

08/28/2026

The 5-minute reading routine that fits even the most chaotic after-school hour.

Backpacks, snacks, activities, reading practice can’t compete unless it’s short.

Here’s a routine that actually fits:

- Minute 1: Let them pick the book, ownership makes the next four minutes easier

- Minutes 2–3: They read out loud, no interruptions, let them work through tricky words before jumping in to help

- Minute 4: You read a page, modelling fluent reading teaches rhythm and expression without a single worksheet

- Minute 5: One question, one high five — “What was your favorite part?” ends on a win, not a quiz

Five minutes, most days, beats thirty minutes some days.

Save this for tonight.

08/26/2026

A first look inside The Reader Pack.

Same simple, screen-free routine as Pack 1, built for the next stage of decoding.

Here’s what’s inside:

- Pattern cards, organized by stage, no guessing what to teach next, the sequence is built in

- a-e, ai, oa, ee, and more vowel teams, the exact patterns that unlock hundreds of new words at once

- ar, er, ir, or, ur (r- controlled vowels), the trickiest sound shifts, broken into small, teachable steps

- A simple guided routine, not a workbook, 5–10 minutes, hands-on, no worksheets required

The goal was never memorizing words. It’s learning the patterns that make reading scale on their own.

This is the pack our waitlist has been waiting on. Presale opens the week of September 8, before it’s open to everyone on September 14.

Join the waitlist here - https://theactivereader.mykajabi.com/waitlist-TheReaderPack

08/24/2026

If your reader seems a little rusty right now, you’re not imagining it.

Reading is a bit like a muscle, a summer off can leave it stiff. Stumbling over words they knew cold in June isn’t regression. It’s normal.

It usually takes just 1–2 weeks of light, consistent practice to shake it off:

- 10 minutes a day beats one long weekend session, short and frequent rebuilds fluency faster than a cram session
- Re-read an old favorite first, familiar text rebuilds confidence before tackling something new
- Read out loud together, not just silently, it lets you hear exactly where the rust is, and fix it early

Give it two weeks and see how it goes.

Save this for the first week back.

08/20/2026

Your child can sound out “cat,” “dog,” and “sun.” So why does reading still feel hard?

Most parents assume that once basic phonics clicks, the rest is just practice. But there’s a whole second stage of decoding that almost nobody explains:

- Long vowels — where “cap” quietly becomes “cape,” same letters, new rule
- Vowel teams — ai, oa, ee, two letters, one sound, and dozens of exceptions
- R-controlled vowels — ar, er, ir, or, ur, the sound shifts that trip up even strong readers

This is where a lot of readers quietly stall. Not from lack of ability, but from a lack of explicit teaching at exactly this stage.

Something is coming this September. Join the waitlist so you don't miss out 👉 https://theactivereader.mykajabi.com/waitlist-TheReaderPack

08/18/2026

As a literacy specialist, here’s what I’d do this week before school starts.

This isn’t a test, and it isn’t about being “ahead.” It’s just what I recommend to families in the week or two before the first bell:

- Do a 5-minute letter-sounds refresher together, not to test them, just to warm recall back up after a summer off

- Practice blending a few 3–4 sound words together (like “frog” or “swim”), this is what turns individual letters into actual reading

- Read out loud together a couple of times this week, even 5–10 minutes gets the muscle moving again

- Pull out a “just right” book, not too easy, not frustrating, since confidence rebuilds fastest in that middle zone

- Let them sit with a mistake before jumping in, give them a beat to self- correct before helping

None of this needs to be perfect by day one.

Work through it at your own pace over the next few weeks.

08/14/2026

Remember when we told you something was coming for early readers? It’s almost here.

Back in March, we introduced the stage that comes after letters and basic sounds, the stage where a lot of readers quietly stall. Not because they can’t do it, but because long vowels, vowel teams, and r-controlled vowels are rarely taught in a clear, structured way.

That’s exactly why we built The Reader Pack, the next stage in the same simple, guided routine as The Early Reader Pack. Same hands-on, structured approach families already know, now built for the patterns that come next:

- Long vowels (like “cap” becoming “cape”)
- Vowel teams (ai, oa, ee, and more)
- R-controlled vowels (ar, er, ir, or, ur)

Presale launches for waitlist members the week of September 8th, before it becomes available to everyone on September 14th.

Join the waitlist here so you’re first in line when the doors open - https://theactivereader.mykajabi.com/waitlist-TheReaderPack

08/12/2026

For 10 years, I was a classroom teacher. Then I looked at my own kid and realized I didn’t actually know how to teach her to read.

Teacher’s college never covered the actual mechanics of reading. And working in the classroom, I never picked it up there either.

So I built what I needed, first for my daughter, then for every family and teacher who’s had that same “wait, why don’t I know this?” moment.

That’s the real story behind The Active Reader. A teacher, a mom and a former struggling reader, figuring it out.

There’s something new coming this September, built using the same familiar strategies as The Early Reader Pack: because there’s a stage of reading that needs it, and nothing else out there was teaching it right.

If this is your first time here, welcome. I’m glad you’re in it with us.

🎥 HOLLY | CREATIVE MARKETING STUDIO

08/11/2026

Your child misreads a word mid-sentence while reading out loud. What do you actually do in that moment?

Most parents jump in almost instantly, within a second or two, often without even realizing it. It’s completely well-meaning.

But that instinct, repeated enough times, can quietly teach a kid to stop trying, because they learn someone will always jump in before they get the chance to work it out themselves.

Here’s a simple framework I use and teach:

1. Pause. Count to 3 in your head before you say anything at all. That short window is often all a child needs to catch and fix the mistake on their own.

2. Prompt, don’t tell. Instead of just supplying the word, try something like ‘Sound out the first letter,’ or ‘Read that again from the start of the sentence.’ These prompts help them use their own tools instead of relying on you to solve it.

3. Praise the attempt, not just the outcome. ‘I like how you tried that’ teaches more than ‘good job.’ It reinforces that trying and self-correcting matters, regardless of whether they got it exactly right.

4. If they’re genuinely stuck, just tell them the word and move on. No lecture, no drawn-out pause. One skipped word isn’t a crisis, and making it feel like one does more harm than the mistake itself.

None of this is about achieving a perfect reading session. It’s about teaching kids that mistakes are a normal, expected part of reading, not something to feel embarrassed about.

Save this post so you have the words ready next time it happens, because it always happens.

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33 Mapleview Drive West
Barrie, ON
L4N 9H5

Website

http://www.theactivereader.com/

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