Reading Made Easy | Contending with the Culture

Back in September, we were very pleased to announce that we had become the publisher for Valerie Bendt’s Reading Made Easy. Reading Made Easy is a complete, phonics-based, reading instruction program. Valerie and her husband Bruce have homeschooled all six of their children and literally thousands of children have learned to read using her easy, step-by-step, reading program. One of the best things about Reading Made Easy is the love of reading that Valerie exemplifies and communicates throughout. In the appendix, Valerie lists eight pages of recommended books for parents to read aloud to their children – these are the children’s classics, time-tested titles like Curious George, Peter Rabbit, and Madeleine. Also included are two pages of suggested first readers for children.

We are now VERY pleased to announce that there are now four Student Activity Books available which supplement and provide additional practice for the lessons in Reading Made Easy. Each of the four Student Activity Books covers 27 of the lessons in Reading Made Easy and provide:

Word/picture match-ups and other exercises to strengthen phonics and decoding skills
Sentences, poems, and mini stories to develop reading comprehension
Copy work passages from Reading Made Easy with space to complete the writing exercises
Space for the drawing and creative writing exercises suggested in Reading Made Easy

The Reading Made Easy Student Activity Books offer parents and teachers the additional materials to make sure their students master each lesson before moving on to new concepts. It also enables the students to create notebooks which display the material they have learned. The notebooks are wonderful keepsakes and are a valuable addition to students’ educational portfolios.

Here are some sample pages:

Greenleaf Press is announcing the availability of all four Student Activity Books today.

Student Activity Book One for Lessons 1-27 is 112 pages and sells for $11.95
Student Activity Book Two for Lessons 28-54 is 112 pages and sells for $11.95
Student Activity Book Three for Lessons 55-81 is 132 pages and sells for $12.95
Student Activity Book Four for Lessons 82-108 is 160 pages and sells for $13.95

Or you can purchase all four Student Activity Books together at a 10% discount for $45.00 ($50.80 if purchased separately!)

We are also now able to offer the Complete Reading Made Easy Package which includes a copy of Reading Made Easy (511 pages, $49.95) and all four Student Activity Books may be purchased for $89.95 ($100.75 if purchased separately!)

As with all Greenleaf products, every book is guaranteed to be twaddle-free. If you decide you don’t want to keep a book you have purchased from us for any reason, you may return it within 30 days for a full refund.

If you’re looking for a family-friendly, mom-friendly, complete reading instruction package, we highly recommend Reading Made Easy

– Rob Shearer, Publisher
Greenleaf Press.

It’s been a busy year! And it’s only June!

It occurred to me that I should take a minute and update friends & gentle readers on what’s been going on at Greenleaf Press. A lot, actually. I forget, in the day-to-day press of the urgent some of the significant things that we have accomplished. Here’s a quick review:

Last summer saw the re-launch of Valerie Bendt’s Reading Made Easy and the publication of Cyndy Shearer’s Greenleaf Guide to Medieval Literature.

This year, Greenleaf has released three new titles and we have several more exciting projects under development.

	In March we released Handwriting by George Volume 2.
	In April we released Voices of the Renaissance and Reformation.
	In May we released The Sayings of Mrs. Solomon.

Projects under development:
Famous Men of the 16^th & 17^th Century – I am happy to report that there are now twelve chapters written, out of a projected 28. Here’s the current, working version of the Table of Contents:

Introduction

Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589)
Henry of Navarre (1553-1610)
Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Sir Francis Drake (1540-1595)
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)
James I (1566-1625)
Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
John Smith (1580-1631)
Wallenstein (1583-1634)
Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632)
Samuel de Champlain (1570-1635)

Galileo (1564-1642)

Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642)

Charles I (1600-1649)

William Bradford (1590-1657)

John Winthrop (1588-1649) combine with Bradford?

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) may be too much overlap with Charles I?

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

Rembrandt (1606-1669)

John Milton (1608-1674)

Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

Charles II (1630-1685)

Jan Sobieski (1629-1696)

William of Orange (1650-1702)

John Locke (1632-1704)

Johan Pachelbel (1653-1706)

Louis XIV (1638-1715)

When this project is finished, I plan to continue the series with the next volumes, Famous Men of the 18^th Century, Famous Men of the 19^th Century, and Famous Men of the 20^th Century. I’m already looking forward to doing the chapters on Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II!

Handwriting by George, volumes 3 & 4 should be ready to go to the printer shortly. When all four volumes are out, we will have covered all 100 of George Washington’s maxims. Volumes 1 & 2 included the first 55.

Cyndy is working on editing the text of Alfred Church’s The Odyssey for Boys and Girls, which will join her wonderful edition of Church’s The Iliad for Boys and Girls (Greenleaf title: The Story of the Iliad) which we published in 2004. She is also working on the next volume in her high school inductive literature guides, The Greenleaf Guide to Early Modern Literature. We don’t have firm dates yet, but Cyndy’s high school guides are based on ten years teaching in local tutorial and co-op programs. The Ancient Lit and Medieval Lit guides are what she uses for her 9^th grade and 10^th grade classes. The Early Modern Guide and 20^th Century Guide already exist and she’s been teaching these classes at the Schaeffer Study Center for the past six years. But she won’t let me publish them until she’s revised them to her satisfaction!

As always, we continue to scour the publisher’s catalogs to find the best children’s books published each year. The outstanding selection this year, so far, would have to be Pharaoh’s Boat. I can’t say enough good things about this book. Full review is still on the blog.

To get the latest reviews of new books and news about projects, got to the Greenleaf Press website and sign up for the Greenleaf newsletter by clicking on “Store” and logging yourself in (if you don’t have an account, you can create one). In the right-hand column, there is a green box titled “My Account.” It’s the third one from the top. Click on the My Account link in the box and you can subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the newsletter.

– Rob Shearer
(Publisher, Editor, sometime writer, husband & dad – not necessarily in that order!)

Contending with the Culture

Tag Archives: Reading Made Easy

Reading Made Easy – Student Activity Books

An Update on Greenleaf Press projects

The Director's Blog – Rob Shearer, Francis Schaeffer Study Center, Mt. Juliet, TN