Alpha-Phonics taught Mom Who Teaches Own Daughter to Read with It

(The following post is by the Paradigm Company’s founder, Peter Watt.)

In October 1988 at the Teaching Home Homeschool Conference at the Red Lion Hotel in Troutdale (Portland area), Oregon, Sam Blumenfeld, author of Alpha-Phonics, conducted workshops in using his phonics reading instruction program. He spent the sessions explaining to a group of Homeschool Moms how his book Alpha-Phonics is designed to be used.

At one point a Mom in the audience, Mrs. Jeanie Burgin, informed Sam her daughter Patty, then 3, was part way through the Alpha-Phonics. A delighted Sam Blumenfeld requested the Mom bring little Patty up to the podium to read for the people from Alpha-Phonics. (Little Patty read from Alpha-Phonics Lesson 17) The video you see attached to this article is what those Moms heard and saw 24 years ago.

Today, in February 2013, 24 years later, little Patty is the Mom of little just turned 3-year-old Anna Kate who is part way through learning to read with Alpha-Phonics. Anna Kate is being taught to read by her mother Patty! Patty, by the way, is also the Mom of little 1-year-old Caroline. No doubt Caroline is destined to learn to read with Alpha-Phonics also.

Reproduced below is an email we at The Paradigm Co., publishers of Alpha-Phonics received in January 2013 from Patty, now Patty Tolbert, living in South Carolina. She is a graduate of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina where she received a teaching degree and has been a music teacher.

On February 12, 2013 Patty Tolbert sent us Video of Anna Kate, just turned 3 in early February 2013, reading from Alpha-Phonics Lesson 71 !!

Patty’s parents, Ron and Jeanie Burgin, eventually moved to Florida and presently are Missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ in Costa Rica.

Here is the email we received from Patty Tolbert in January 2013:

Good afternoon!

My name is Patty Tolbert, mom of two-year-old Anna Kate. I just wanted to thank you for your book Alpha Phonics! I myself was taught to read using Alpha Phonics in 1988 in Troutdale, Oregon where I grew up. My mom, Jeanie Burgin, was even asked to bring me (as a 3-year-old) to some of Mr. Blumenfeld’s conventions to read for other homeschooling parents.

I started using Alpha Phonics with my two-and-a-half year old daughter Anna Kate in September. I was a little hesitant because of how young she was, but she had already mastered all of her letter sounds and was very interested in learning to read. I figured that it wouldn’t do any harm to just show her the book, so we jumped right in!

She has done approximately 3-5 lessons per week since September and is now reading fluently through lesson 59. She can also read many beginning reader books (e.g. Bob Books) from the library. She will be three next month.

Thank you for your phonics-based approach to teaching reading! It truly works, even for the youngest of children!

Thanks!

Patty Tolbert