Tips For Success

The Shining Light Reading Series has been designed to help lay the foundation for your child's reading success. Here are some tips to help maximize your child's efforts.

1. Always watch the video with your child the first time. Be an example to your child by watching with your full attention.

2. Choose a time to view the video for the first time when your child is well rested and is in a good mood.

3. Encourage but do not force participation. Make it fun and something you can do together. You may only get through part of the video the first few times. (Listening to The Alphabet Sound Song might be an appropriate first viewing for your child.) If your child doesn't seem interested, you might want to play the video when he or she is involved in another activity while you are close by. Just having it "in the air" will help your child develop the auditory skills necessary for reading.

4. Keep in mind what is age-appropriate for your child. With this program, most children will develop letter/sound recognition around age 4 1/2 to 5 1/2. At 2 1/2 children will probably be interested in just The Alphabet Sound Song and seeing and naming the objects in the video. Let your child's interests guide your child's activities.

5. Show your child how to play the video and keep the video in a visible and available place.

6. Introduce Volume 2, 3 and 4 as your child’s interest develops after mastering the concepts in Volume 1. This will occur around age 4 1/2 to 5 1/2.

7. The skills needed to read are acquired over several years. These videos will help build the visual and auditory skills for a strong foundation for reading.

8. Written language is dependent on spoken language. Keep your child's environment rich in language. Read out loud, sing and tell stories. Be precise in your choice of words. For example, say monarch butterfly instead of butterfly or bug; cardinal instead of bird.

9. Remember you are your child's best teacher. Get involved and stay involved. You will be glad you did!

Tips For Volume 1

Watch this video with your child for the first few times. Depending on the age of your child, attention span and time of day, you may only want to watch a segment of the video.

Activities For Volume 1

Sing The Alphabet Sound Song with your child.

Play the I Spy Game in the car, while waiting in a restaurant or with objects in your home. The I Spy Game helps develop the auditory skills necessary to decode words.

Word Building helps develop the visual and auditory skills necessary to decode and spell words.

My Phonics Alphabet Book is designed to reinforce letter/sound recognition. The item pictured on each page begins with the letter sound represented on that page.

Sound Hunt: Look for things that contain a certain letter sound. For example: Let's look for all the things that begin with the sound "p." Let's look for things that have the sound "p" in them.

Magnetic Word Building: A cookie tray, magnetic lower case letters and pictures of objects can make a fun Word Building Game for your child. Your child can choose a picture and then use the magnetic letters on the cookie tray to build a word. Don't worry if it is not spelled correctly. This game is to build your child's auditory and visual skills. Encourage your child to keep building words!

Label Game: Using index cards or slips of paper, write the names of objects in your home. Start the game by saying, "I am thinking of something in this room. I am going to write it. This is what I'm thinking." Show the label.

If your child can read the label, let them place it on or near the object. If he or she cannot read the label, reveal what the label says and let him or her place it on or near the object. Have fun and laugh! After you have labeled ten or so objects, ask your child to get the labels, one by one. "Please get me the label that says, 'lamp.'"

Save your labels for games together or for your child to play alone.

Suggested Books

As your child begins to read phonetic words, direct them to books that have one picture and one word per page. Make little books with your child, as shown in Volume 2. You can draw and color the books or make books with stickers, magazine cutouts or rubber stamps.

An all-time favorite of most kids is their own family photo album. Most discount stores carry small one-picture-per-page photo albums. Slip a 3x5 index card with the appropriate one-word caption on the opposite side of the picture.

As your child's reading progresses, you can change the cards to contain more challenging words. For example: "mom," then "my mom," "mom cooks," "mom cooks hamburgers" and "mom likes to barbecue" might be captions for the same picture at different points in your child's reading development.

My Phonics Alphabet Book

Download the PDF here. (485 K)

Click here to download Acrobat Reader for free.

Parents in Control Emergency Handbook

Download the PDF here. (124 K)

Click here to download Acrobat Reader for free.

The Shining Light Alphabet Sound Song
(Copyright 1993-2003)

A is for ant and alligator
B is for bye-bye, see you later
C is for cat, cup and clown
D is for dog, down, down, down.

Refrain
When you know the sound to say
You can read every day.

E is for elephant and for egg
F is for fox, frog and flag
G is for goat, go, go, go
H is for happy, ho, ho, ho

Refrain

I is for iguana and igloo
J is for jet and jelly too
K is for kangaroo, kick, kick, kick
L is for lollipop, lick, lick, lick

Refrain

M is for monkey, milk and mail
N is in nut, nickel and nail
O is for octagon and for otter
P is for paint, pot and potter

Refrain

Q is for quarter, quilt and quartz
R is in rock and rocking horse
S is for snake, s, s ,s,
T is for train, toot, toot, toot

Refrain

U is for umbrella, up, up, up
V is for van, fill it up
W is for wagon carrying a box
X is in exit and the end of fox

Refrain

Y is in yellow, yes, and you
Z is for zipper, zebra and zoo

Now I’ve sung the sounds to you
Are you ready to learn them too?

When You Can Read You Hold the Key
(Copyright 1993-2003)

When you can read you hold the key
When you can read you hold the key

Refrain
When you can read you hold the key
To everything, I guarantee
To everything that’s under the sun
And best of all, it sure is fun.

Do you want to know what’s on the land
What’s in the sky , what’s undersea?
Reading is the key I guarantee for you and me.

Reading tell us who, what, when and where
And how and why and even more
Reading is the key to each and every single door.

Refrain

Do you want to know about a place,
About someone, about a thing?
Reading is the key, I guarantee to everything.

Reading tell us who, what, when and where
And how and why and even more
Reading is the key to each and every single door.

Refrain

Do you want to read a brand new book,
Or play a game, or sing a song?
Reading is the key and you can learn before too long.

Reading tell us who, what, when and where
And how and why and even more
Reading is the key to each and every single door.

Refrain

When you can read you hold the key
When you can read you hold the key
When you can read you hold the key.

Ten-Year Research Project

Ten years ago, we handed out our first videos to families with 3-year olds. We began to collect data on these students when they entered first grade. We have been able to gather information on these same 6-year-olds for the following 6 years.

During these 6 years, we used the Brigance Diagnostic Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills, Revised and First Edition. We asked each entering student to sing the Shining Light Reading Series (SLRS) Alphabet Song with the teacher. We found if they recognized the song, they scored 2 grade levels above their classmates who did not recognize the song. We gathered and analyzed test information in 4 critical reading areas: reading, spelling, writing and vocabulary.

Our findings showed students who were able to recognize the SLRS Alphabet Song showed a significant difference in reading ability when measured against students who did not recognize the song.

For additional information, please contact us at info@shininglightreading.com or 503.550.3143.

©2003 - 2005 Shining Light Reading Series. © 1993-2003 Born Free, Inc.
P.O. Box 21414, Little Rock, AR 72221, 503.550.3143
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