Ember and Ivy Literacy (@emberandivyliteracy)

Who says phonics and comprehension can't be spellbinding? Here’s how we’re practicing decoding and reading comprehension with a whimsical Halloween twist this week!🎃👻 #ScienceOfReading #earlyliteracy #tutor #homeschool #kinder

30 minutes. 4 core skills. Maximum growth! Here is how we turn a quick session into a complete literacy workout. -Phonemic Awareness & Segmenting: Isolating and manipulating individual sounds -Spelling & Sound Mapping: Encoding those target sounds onto sound boxes. -Word Decoding: Reading isolated words to build automaticity and accuracy. -Sentence Application: Bringing it all together by reading connected text in real time. #scienceofreading #tutor #dyslexia #kinder #earlyliteracy

If you want short vowel sounds to stick, you need a systematic progression. Here’s the breakdown of this lesson: 1️⃣ Initial Position: Start with the sound at the beginning (Astronaut, Axe, Ant). 2️⃣ Medial Position: Move the sound to the middle (Hat, Rat, Map). This is where blending gets real! 3️⃣ Multisensory Check: Count those syllables and map out the spelling to lock it into orthographic mapping. Structured literacy doesn’t have to be boring. What’s your favorite routine for short vowels? #ScienceOfReading #literacy #homeschool #kinder #tutor

This takes 5-minutes to setup and does serious work. Kids are reading words AND staying engaged—no prep worksheets, no laminating, just a game board. This is how you sneak in structured literacy without it feeling like work. #ScienceOfReading #dyslexia #literacy #tutor #homeschool

This is an activity that bridges phonemic awareness to reading. Kids who can blend three sounds into a word are building the neural pathways for decoding. The scratch-off reveal? Instant feedback. They KNOW they’re right, which builds confidence and reinforces the pattern. This is structured literacy in action. #ScienceOfReading #dyslexia #literacy #kindergarten #earlyliteracy

Should I tell him🤔 #ScienceOfReading #dyslexia #literacy #tutor #homeschool

Forget flashcards. We’re sinking battleships to practice multisyllabic words today! Do you have a favorite game for practicing literacy skills? #dyslexia #ScienceOfReading #literacy #tutor #homeschool

He’s in 7th grade and couldn’t care less about spelling practice, but he cares A LOT about @Ford trucks❤️ So we opened a dealership. Every word he spells correctly earns him a truck for his garage. Kid is LOCKED IN. Incorporating interest into learning is a game changer…literally. #dyslexia #ScienceOfReading #literacy #homeschool #tutor

Current status: Sipping coffee, typing fast, and manifesting the perfect lesson plan. #scienceofreading #tutor #LiteracyMatters #reading #summervibes☀️

When a student can decode but can’t comprehend, the missing piece is often visualization — the ability to construct a mental image while reading. Research shows that strong readers automatically create sensory-rich mental models as they process text. Struggling readers don’t — but it’s a skill that can be explicitly taught. The five W’s give them a framework. The senses add texture. And imagination? That’s where engagement lives. If your child reads fluently but can’t tell you what they just read, this is worth paying attention to. Save this if you have a strong decoder who struggles with comprehension. #dyslexia #scienceofreading #tutor #comprehension #literacy

Vision problems are real. Convergence insufficiency, tracking issues, accommodative dysfunction — these can absolutely make reading harder and they’re worth addressing. But they are not dyslexia. And treating them will not fix dyslexia. A child can have both. Many do. But if vision therapy is the reason you’re delaying a psychoeducational evaluation or structured literacy intervention, that delay has a cost. The brain is most responsive to intervention early. Every month matters. Get the vision checked. AND get the evaluation. These don’t have to be either/or. #literacy #earlyliteracy #tutor #homeschool #kinder

This game is a hit in my virtual reading sessions! Roll. Read. Mark it off. First to blackout wins. This is the kind of low-prep, high-engagement practice that actually gets kids excited to read sentences — not just words. Drop GAME in the comments and I’ll send you the free link. 👇 #literacy #ScienceOfReading #tutor #homeschool #kinder

Quick interactive phonics activity. Level 1: Vowels. Level 2: Open vs. Closed syllables. 10/10 recommendation for early readers! #literacy #kindergarten #earlyliteracy #tutor #ScienceOfReading

Leveled readers promote guessing. The pictures, the context, the repetitive patterns. They’re built for a child to predict words, not decode them. That’s the opposite of what an emerging reader needs. Decodable texts only contain words with patterns the student has already been explicitly taught. Every word is within reach. No guessing. No relying on pictures. Just applying what they know. The interactive piece is a bonus! #scienceofreading #literacy #kindergartenactivities #tutor #homeschool

Replying to @dawnalizarraga Some comments require more❤️ #dyslexia #dyslexiaawareness #learningdifferences

For years the debate was — letter names first or letter sounds first? Science settled it. Both. At the same time. Teaching the name and sound of a letter simultaneously actually strengthens retention. The name gives the sound an anchor. Together they stick better than either one alone. Here’s exactly how I introduce a new letter sound with my students. #scienceofreading #literacy #kindergartenactivities #tutor #homeschool

Replying to @Runts321 Multisyllabic words use the same strategy just with more moving parts. Once a student understands their syllable types — closed, open, vowel team, r-controlled, silent e, final stable — they have everything they need to tackle bigger words. Break it apart, identify what you’re looking at, and decode chunk by chunk. Adding prefix, suffix, and base word knowledge on top of that makes longer words even more manageable. Morphology and syllable division together are a powerful combination for upper elementary and middle school readers. Like with any strategy, you will run into some difficult words, but all in all it’s a solid strategy. #scienceofreading #literacy #literacymatters #tutor

Flashcards are everywhere for sight words. But asking kids to memorize a word as a whole unit without any sound support is like asking them to memorize a random string of letters. For kids with dyslexia or reading difficulties—it's even harder because their brains literally aren't wired for that. And it's not their fault when it doesn't stick. Heart words are taught differently in structured literacy. We still use the sounds we know — and we identify the one part that doesn't follow the rules. That's the part that goes in the "heart." Everything else gets decoded. Sound boxes make that process visible and concrete. And this strategy is for all ages! #dyslexia #sightwords #scienceofreading #tutor #homeschool

Phonics isn’t just for younger kids. Older students with dyslexia or reading gaps still need foundational phonics work—they just need it delivered differently. Same skills, different feel. Engagement isn’t a bonus, it’s the whole point. A kid who checks out learns nothing. If you have an older struggling reader, their intervention should look more like this. Share this with a parent who needs to see it. #dyslexia #scienceofreading #literacy #tutor #homeschool

Your kiddo just asked if we can do reading practice AGAIN tomorrow. Structured literacy + a little friendly competition = a high impact session that flies by. #dyslexia #scienceofreading #homeschool #kinder #earlyliteracy

Replying to @Overdue and Obsessed Being a parent is hard and supporting a struggling reader can leave parents feeling overwhelmed. But there are simple ways to support your readers at home without frustration. #earlyliteracy #dyslexia #scienceofreading #homeschool #kinder

It's not laziness. It's not bad parenting. And it's almost never about intelligence. After 25 years of sitting across from kids who can't crack the code yet — here's what I see all the time. Frustrated parents doing everything the can—but it’s just not working. If this sounds like your kid, your next step is simple: book a free 15-minute call with me. Link in bio. #dyslexia #scienceofreading #literacy #homeschool #kinder

Before a child can learn to read, they need to hear the sounds inside words. That’s phonological awareness — and it has nothing to do with letters yet. It’s purely about sound. Two of the first skills we build: phoneme isolation (what’s the first sound in “cat”?) and phoneme segmentation (breaking “cat” into /k/-/a/-/t/). These aren’t just warm-up activities. They are the foundation everything else is built on. And here’s the part most parents don’t know — these skills are completely teachable. You don’t have to wait and hope they click on their own. I put together 6 no-prep activities to build both skills at home or in a session. Grab them at the end of the video or drop a comment and I’ll send you the link. #earlyliteracy #dyslexia #scienceofreading #homeschool #structuredliteracy

The Science Behind the Play According to the Science of Reading, reading comprehension relies heavily on automatic word recognition. To get there, advanced readers must master Orthographic Mapping (how the brain stores words for immediate retrieval). When students learn to break down big words (like ob-scure or trom-bones) into predictable syllable patterns, they stop guessing and start decoding with precision. 🔍 Look Closely at the Blocks: Closed Syllables: com-plies (short vowel sound hidden inside) Vowel-Consonant-e (Silent E): vol-ume, ob-scure Vowel Teams / Diphthongs: trom-bones, shore-line When a student pulls a block, they don't just read the word—they have to identify the syllable type and rule keeping that word together. And when the tower falls? It's just a great excuse to rebuild and practice again! #scienceofreading #dyslexia #literacy #homeschool #structuredliteracy

7am slides and coffee while the rain falls and the rest of the house sleeps❤️

No more Robot Reading! We use gamified repeated reading with decodable text to practice prosody-the expression and rhythm that signals true understanding. #scienceofreading #dyslexia #literacy #structuredliteracy #tutor

What happens when the door closes? 🚪 Dyslexia & reading intervention tip! When a consonant closes in a vowel, it’s a closed syllable, making the vowel short (ch-o-p). But when that door opens and the consonant leaves... the vowel is free to shout its name (meeeee!) This simple visual makes abstract syllable rules concrete for early readers and neurodivergent learners. #ScienceOfReading #dyslexia #structuredliteracy #virtuallearning #literacy

They said virtual learning wasn’t going to be fun. My students disagree. #dyslexia #structuredliteracy #virtuallearning #readingintervention #scienceofreading

We love a good system until it becomes the problem. Labeling every vowel and consonant under a word adds MORE letters for a struggling reader to process. Instead, just put a dot under each vowel. Same result. Half the chaos. Simpler is almost always better for dyslexic learners. 🌱 #dyslexia #structuredliteracy #readingintervention #dyslexiamom #scienceofreading

This is actually backed by the same science that supports structured literacy programs like Wilson. It’s called the Orton-Gillingham multisensory approach — using sight, sound, touch, and movement together. For kids with dyslexia especially, that motor memory can be the anchor. When everything else feels slippery, the movement gives the brain something concrete to hold onto. So when we tap our chin for short /a/ or punch the air for short /u/— we’re not just being fun. We’re giving the brain more ways to remember.