How did we get here?
Humble beginnings
My wife and I visited Thailand for the first time in 1999. We immediately fell in love with the people, culture and food, as well as the beautiful surroundings that begged to be explored. We simply HAD to find a way to live there long term. We arranged our affairs and embraced our new careers as kindergarten teachers. It was a learning curve to say the least and my classroom management skills were non-existent. We came back to our tiny apartment on our first day and cried our eyes out. We were in way over our heads and had to adapt fast. We grew to cherish that experience and the picture to the right conveys the joy I had found in teaching children.
perfecting my craft
As schools in Thailand began seeing the value of implementing Phonics into their Literacy programs, it became painfully apparent, that most teachers had no formal training on the subject and many schools where left scrambling to find a decent all-in-one program that didn’t break the bank. I took what little resources I was given and observed intently what worked and what failed to achieve solid results. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was piecing together what would eventually become Treehouse Phonics.
tragedy & triumph
I continued to refine my nameless program and snuck it into schools and classrooms wherever I could. Each class held a new opportunity to test my methods against any learning challenge a child could face. It wasn’t a matter of showing off or winning achievement awards. These children were entrusted to me for a year and I had less than a year with each class, to reach levels of reading fluency that parents could truly be excited about. Two things have fuelled my drive to get results FAST!
In many lands parents are shamed and even ridiculed if their child does not meet the educational benchmarks in a core subject such as Reading. Heaven forbid their child has a learning disability. The grief heaped upon these parents was heartbreaking. Many of these parents were told time and again that their child would never amount to anything worthwhile. I wanted to ease that pain and help parents see that learning to read was within anyone’s grasp.
Years later, COVID 19 reared its ugly head and brought the world to its knees. Parents were forced to pick up the slack, as teachers struggled desperately to retrofit lessons online. The parents in my class were at the breaking point with anxiety, juggling time slots and having their child complete assignments they were not explicitly taught. I could not tend to the needs of each child as I had been able to in a classroom setting. So I shifted my focus. I had no idea how long the pandemic would last, so I decided to empower parents with the knowledge and skills they needed in order to teach their child to read. A lightbulb had gone off! I could be way more effective outside a classroom and help thousands (I hope millions!) of households around the world to teach their children to read and explore a whole new world of wonder and adventure.
behold! help has arrived
In a nutshell...
Treehouse Phonics is a program specifically designed to train parents how to teach their child to read like a pro. This program is the bi-product of 20 years of research with the sole purpose of helping children to read and to love reading. You, the parent, will receive detailed instruction via brief video lessons that reveal the secrets and techniques that gets results FAST! We don’t have time to waste. If you consider that the size of the average child’s brain is almost 90% of an average adult’s brain by age 5, one can only imagine the explosive neural growth that is begging for quality instruction. Homeschooling is fast becoming the new norm in alternative education. It’s safe. It bonds child and parent with lasting memories that keeps a family united. In many cases, formal education is failing to provide the attention and skillful direction our children so sorely need. In other cases, the grim reality is that schools are simply no longer safe to attend. Reading is by far one of the most important subjects anyone can teach a child and you are about to take command of your child’s education like you never thought possible.
