My name is Lisa Pedersen. I have 2 children who are in enrolled in The Ten Minute Tutor (TTMT). Their ages are 8. They are identical twins. We’ve only been doing the program for a very short time. Maybe about a month.

What I love about this program is that so far, it’s been very empowering to the girls. Not just them, but for me too. We only recently, found out that they are dyslexic. For a while, they had just been feeling like they were dumb.

Dyslexia used to define them and now it’s not what defines them. It’s just part of who they are. It’s not what they are. It’s been such a huge confidence builder for them, to see that there are all of these successful people out there that had trouble in school. One of the first interviews they watched was of Lucas Haynes and he’s an aspiring actor. He’s such a young child and he has severe dyslexia and he is still able to go through school and focus on the things that he loves to do. He’s obviously very creative and that’s wonderful.

It’s been such a confidence builder to them. We used to have days where we would have crying and lots of sadness and sorrow because we couldn’t read as well as other children, even other children in the family. It was really hard to see them struggle through that. The Ten Minute Tutor has given them more confidence like, ‘okay, I have dyslexia, so big deal.’ It wasn’t like that before.

I know they are only 8, but we have tried other curriculums, even curriculums specifically for dyslexia. You know, not to treat dyslexia, but for dyslexics. The sitting is anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, the phonics drills and trying to learn the rules and all of the letter sounds and then you’d have to read for a certain period of time and then be read to for a certain period of time – We still do some of that on our own, but it was built into the curriculum.

So, The Ten Minute Tutor is really refreshing, these videos; the way they are laid out. They love Ms. Liz. They look forward to it. I don’t have to tell them to do The Ten Minute Tutor like I have to with other subjects, they just know. They get up in the morning and it’s one of the very first things they do. The bite sized pieces of what they’ve learned so far, you know, the phonics side of things, it’s really nice. I know that they are learning and they are learning in a format that they are enjoying, so it’s really made just perfectly for them.

I can only speak from my limited experience so far and my experience with fairly young children, I love it. I just really feel like I was led to try this. I have spent a lot of money on other curriculum and it just never turned out to be something for them. That’s my take on it.

So anyway, one other thing I wanted to say about The Ten Minute Tutor is that Liz’s approach; The Ten Minute Tutor’s approach to teaching phonics is different. It’s completely different from anything that I’ve ever seen that’s out there and I’ve researched a lot of different programs and curriculum and that is what I was drawn to. Dyslexics, they learn differently. Their brains are wired differently and they need a different approach to learning. Liz gives them that. She doesn’t just drill them with the rules, they are just integrated into the program, because they need to learn those as well.

I guess my final thought on this, is hope for the future is finally here. I do believe that my children can progress. I don’t know how quickly they will progress but I do believe that The Ten Minute Tutor is going to be an integral part of that. I have 5 children that I home-school. Three 8 year olds, I have a 10 year old and I have a 12 year and they all stop when The Ten Minute Tutor videos are on and they watch. They watch them all. They love them. It’s just that engaging.

I do feel like there is hope. Anybody out that that is thinking about researching curriculums for dyslexics, I very much encourage you to give this a try. It’s definitely worth the money. One of the biggest investments you’ll ever make is in your children’s future especially when you have more of a special needs situation in your home. You want to give them every tool to succeed, but you don’t want to overwhelm them at the same time. I believe that The Ten Minute Tutor is just that perfect balance for that. Those are my final thoughts.