Max and Sal (Classroom and Home)

The DOG ON A LOG Get Ready! Readers Series was created at teacher request for students who are just learning to read. The seven-book series includes the sound-out content and tracing letters from The Squiggle Code and Kids' Squiggles. Reader 1 starts with just six letters and two sight words. Each following Get Ready! Reader adds a few more letters. By Book 7, students will have been introduced to the five short vowel and 21 primary consonant sounds as well as 11 sight words.

Research shows the most effective way to teach reading is with explicit systematic phonics. That means you teach just a few phonics rules then the student practices reading books with just the rules they have been taught. Each DOG ON A LOG Book has a list of the included letters and phonics rules as well as the "sight words" that cannot be sounded-out with the presented phonics. Kids can learn those words before beginning each book. The listed sight words will be the only words in the book that cannot be sounded-out with the rules from the DOG ON A LOG Phonics Progression.

Some families may use the (Blue) Get Ready! Readers in addition to their school's reading instruction or as independent homeschoolers. Other families may prefer to use the more economical Kids' Squiggles and supplement the stories with printable words and sentences.

Parents trying to teach their child to read, whether they are supplementing what their child is being taught in school or as a homeschooling family, can use the DOG ON A LOG Get Ready! Books series to teach the foundational phonological awareness skills, introduce the letters, and teach blending. These parent-friendly books are a guide for teaching reading.

DOG ON A LOG Get Ready! Books give simple activities you can do with your child. Once you understand the skills that your child needs to learn, you may wish to add additional activities. Resources are suggested that will help you find additional free or low-cost activities you can personalize to your child.

Paper books are optimized for learners with dyslexia. They have cream-colored paper, black and white images, and large Verdana font. Verdana is one of the most dyslexia-friendly fonts.

Book 1: "Before the Squiggle Code (A Roadmap to Reading)" Starts at the very beginning of the learning to read process: it helps the learner hear the smallest sounds in words. Relevant excerpts from "Teaching a Struggling Reader: One Mom's Experience with Dyslexia" are also included to help parents with children who are struggling to read.

Book 2: "The Squiggle Code (Letters Make Words)" Helps the learner discover that each sound has a letter or letters and when the letters are put together, they make words. This is when reading begins.

Book 3: "Kids' Squiggles (Letters Make Words)" The seven sound-out stories from "The Squiggle Code" in a child-friendly format with pictures and less words per page. Each story adds a new group of letters.

(Blue) Get Ready! Readers 1 to 7 (Can be used instead of "Kids' Squiggles") Each of these seven readers includes just one story from "Kids' Squiggles" along with traceable letters and sound-out content from "The Squiggle Code."

DOG ON A LOG Get Ready! Books and Readers teach phonological & phonemic awareness skills.