About Us

Why we created these kits and books

We created Ned & Patrick because, in our experience, we whole-heartedly believe that every child can and will learn to read if given the tools that they need.  So often children are told to “sound out a word” and they are unfamiliar with the sounds.  We teach children the sound for “a” and then they are exposed to the word "all".  What do they do with it?  A child may come upon a word like “card” and attempt to decode the word as if the “a” makes the short sound.  If they are not taught the skill of vowel r, they may become frustrated and lack the confidence to attack print.  Once given the knowledge of how our words work, they will become confident readers.

Ned & Patrick is a series of books about the adventures of a boy and his dog.  Children will become very familiar with Ned & Patrick and our hope is that they will make meaningful connections with the characters in the stories.  This is an important motivational aspect of reading.

Each book focuses on a specific, foundational reading skill.  The books are designed to contain multiple exposures to words containing the skill taught, sight words, and some vocabulary with which the child may need help.  Out of respect for our children, we need to let them know that they are able to attack these words and that it is OK not to know every word.  This is the learning and growing process that is so very satisfying that we have experienced as teachers of young readers.  We are firm believers that if you tell a child that they can read, they will believe you.  In our experience, we have also realized that children need the exposure to the skill that they are being taught.  The skills cannot be taught in isolation and then never practiced.  We compare this to teaching a child a music note and never giving them an instrument to play or teaching them to shoot a foul shot and never allowing them to play in a game.  We need to give children the opportunity to apply what we teach them.  Ultimately, we want to build confidence in young readers.

Our series of books is sequenced in such a way that children will build on each skill.