Larry McClellan currently teaches middle school science in Columbus, Indiana.  Over his 35 years in teaching he has taught second through the eighth grade.  While teaching 15 years in second and third grades,  Larry observed a very beneficial strategy that improves upon existing instructional practices.   

In the 1970's, a study by Wylie and Durell identifed 37 phonograms, showing how over 500 primary grade words can be learned using a word chunking technique.  Larry points out that the POWER of the Rhyme'n Time series is in the vowel and word family patterns or "clusters" that the children learn by reading and interacting with these enjoyable rhyming stories. Today many children are missing poetic beat stories like "Mother Goose" rhymes that were once commonly read.  Rhyme'n Time uses a "neat beat" poetry throughout their series.

The brain is a pattern seeking organ.  For example, it will soon observe that not every "a" or "e" has the same sound, but that there ARE many sound patterns in our language. SOME kids can learn reading just by being read to and having a variety of materials available; but that's not true for ALL kids.  Phonics instruction is essential and is missing in many environments.  Fluency in reading improves a child's comprehension, allowing them to focus their attention on contextual clues and not to struggle with basic words and sounds.

The Rhyme'n Time series is a unique because it uses word chunking, placed into a poetic (think Mother Goose) beat, coloring, drawing, and listening to a multi-sensory CD of the stories and an interactive response.  Rhyme'n Time is designed for a child to take ownership of their books and their reading.  The word family patterns are boldfaced in each story to assist the novice reader in identifying and decoding each word in a family and a phonics word list is provided at the beginning of each story. The word list is an invaluable tool to the parent or teacher during the story.  Most lists in the series include prefix and suffixes to further a child's awareness of word parts.  Each story ends with helpful extended response questions and a writing / essay opportunity. The extended response questions offer not only a discussion opportunity with the child, but an opportunity for evaluating the child's comprehension and mental extension skills.

  Sample Pages

One of the best ways to teach with Rhyme'n Time is to play a game some teachers call "Popcorn".   Read the story and then stop at the bold faced words.  Encourage the child to read the word with a little more help at first and a little less as they improve. If the multi-sensory CD of the stories is listened to by the child while the child reads on their own, it will enhance and accelerate their reading progress significantly according to reading research.

Even though there are many dedicated teachers, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, two thirds of children are less than proficient readers and 30-40% are "below basic" on that same scale of measurement.  Recently, UNICEF ranked the United Stated 12th of the 21 wealthiest nations in the world in children's educational environment.  Since reading is the basis for most of learning in school, it would follow that if children can read better, they could also learn better.  Our books help accelerate those important skills, lead to faster word recognition, and enhance comprehension skills from any given reading material.  

We hope that you and your children will find enjoyment in all of our books.  Thank you for allowing us to help your child "FIND THE MAGIC" in reading. Share this with your friends so that their children can benefit with this unique program as well!