Our Story
In 2005, I was like many of you. I had small children who were eager to learn. At the time, my teaching background had been limited to first grade. I was accepted into the Reading Coach program, and my eyes were opened to the world of Early Childhood Education.
So, I plunged into the text books and relied heavily upon my support team of amazing childhood education experts. Slowly but surely, I started to absorb the knowledge and started working with my own three and four-year-old. Concurrently, I was struggling to find a preschool that was nurturing and, would meet the needs of the whole child, while exposing them to early literacy and math concepts. I became committed to helping them embrace a love for learning.
In 2007, I took a huge leap of faith. God had put this mission on my heart in 2005, and I felt like He was telling me to either walk through this door or close it. I chose to walk through. I resigned from my position as a Reading Coach for the school district where I worked. Also, I was pregnant with our fourth child and was not in the financial situation to give it a go. But I did. We converted our small den into a classroom and opened the doors to The Reading Corner in the Fall of 2007 with two students: one being my own daughter. became known as the short-haired blonde lady who teaches reading out of her house. By the end of that first year, I had about 20 students, so I took another leap of faith. I signed a lease on a small commercial site and earned my Directors Credentials to operate a preschool. About that time, I learned that we were pregnant with our fifth child. During the 10 years since we opened, we have grown to over 20 teachers and 300+ students. My husband is the CEO of our company, and my children have reaped the blessings of learning from some of the most amazing teachers who teach a developmentally appropriate curriculum.
From the beginning, I started writing my own curriculum locate existing curriculum rigorous enough for my studentsneeds. In 2012, as students started exiting our kindergarten; I began receiving from parents who wanted to purchase my curriculum for home school, for summer review, or for supplemental materials children werent receiving in their schools. From the 2nd edition of my curriculum, I published materials into workbooks ranging from Early Preschool to 2nd grade. It was time to go back to the drawing board, and I started the three-year process of writing my 3rd and final edition of The Reading Corner curriculum.
Research demonstrates that 90% of a child's critical brain development occurs by age five. We have made it our mission to provide curriculum that meets the following criteria:
Developmentally appropriate
Meets the objectives developed by Teaching Strategies Gold
Provides not only an opportunity to expose children to high quality activities,, but allows the activities to be a social platform for parents to engage with their children.
At The Reading Corner, our goal is to teach children fundamental literacy and math concepts through engaging, hands-on learning. The unique advantage of our games and activities are that they are kid-tested and teacher approved. Every activity you find in our products has been presented in the classrooms at The Reading Corner. From there, our trained educators work alongside our eager students and give critical feedback that ensures the curriculum is the best it can be.
We have learned that children are drawn to the activities not only because they are fun and engaging, but because they are developmentally appropriate. Children do not realize they are learning critical, foundational concepts. They become eager to learn: one of our primary objectives. out importantly, they are making lifelong connections.
We believe that learning should be as organic and child-centered as possible. Although our curriculum is presented in a "worksheet" format, that is not how it is intended to be utilized. The activities are designed to be used as tools to introduce new concepts. It becomes the parents' and children's opportunities to take those new concepts into real-life experiences. We have found that the best way to instruct is to teach WITH you child, not TO your child. Sit down alongside your child: play the games and engage in conversation as an active part of learning. You will soon find that you child is making connections outside the classroom and the real world: the world of words, sounds, vocabulary, connections, counting, and comparing.
We hope you enjoy learning with your child.
Sincerely,
Karen Green, Founder of The Reading Corner and Curriculum Developer