Phone Interview on the Internet

I was recently interviewed by Misty Foxley, President of LDSEHE (www.ldsehe.org), as a speaker attending the LDSEHE Conference in Virginia Beach, VA, May 29-30. This interview was recorded and uploaded to their website for conference attendees to reference. In this interview I tell about how the book concept was created and a little bit more about me. All are welcome to listen. http://www.ldsehe.org/conference.html

Friendly Comments

One of my very dear friends just emailed me. She shared the book with several women she knew at a retreat. Leslie in Nevada just emailed Angela (and Angela forwarded the message to me) and here are some of the nice thoughts she shared:

I have to tell you another Academy "miracle moment" for me. I have been meaning to email this to you--- I am SO glad that I received the Learning to Read through the Book of Mormon by your friend Camille at our Academy retreat. I have so often thought how grateful I am for this gift. My son and I read something together from it every day. Not only is he learning to read, but I have felt such strength and hope and faith (through some hard times) that he will have a strong and bright testimony. I have felt peace to know that I have this special opportunity to lay a foundation for him through reading the Book of Mormon with him.

I love love LOVE the book and have recommended it to may friends and family.

Thank you Leslie. I am so happy that the book was able to help you in any way, please keep in touch! :)

Dyslexic Children

Camille:

I came across your book in a bookstore and wondered if you’ve worked with dyslexic children? (Children with extreme difficulty learning to read and spell that can\'t be explained by lack of education, poor eye sight, or deficient mental capacity). I and my children share this quality. We have worked hard to achieve acceptable levels of literacy. I’m always looking for additional resources, would you recommend any web pages or resources?

Faye

Faye, thank you for your email. Yes, I have worked with dyslexic students, in fact my brothers struggle with dyslexia and they were one of the main inspirations for writing this book. I included a section in the book on how to adapt the curriculum to dyslexic students based upon the model I used when I was a teacher. Also, one of the greatest books I have read on the subject is

Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally Md Shaywitz

This book was initially recommended to me by a dear friend who seriously struggled with dyslexia and found this book to be particularly insightful. I have read it and agree. The one thing is that dyslexia has many faces- that is what most people don't know. They automatically assume that it is only mixing up letters and numbers. Not so, this books helps put things into perspective and helped me as a teacher. I highly recommend it.

If I can be of any more help, please let me know.

Sample Lesson

Dear Camille:

My son just received Vol 1 for Christmas. I'm still unsure how to use it. Could you talk me through how a sample lesson might go? Thx.

Verena

I'm excited for you Verena. Thank you for your email. I glad to know you received the book and hope it helps your son in his efforts to learn to read. The lessons are all organized the same in Volume 1 for convenience purposes (as well as volume two and three). Each chapter has a whole language/sight word(s) for the child to memorize (that are also displayed on flip cards for you to cut out), and a phonics lesson for you to teach your son. The preface to these lessons is that your son does need to know his alphabet sounds (short vowel and long vowel sounds).

The sight words are words that don't usually have a phonetic rule that correlates to them and just need to be memorized. Also, in volume one I drew from my experience teaching Kindergarten- when teaching the short vowel sounds. Each phonetic lesson consists of creating words from a word pattern. Your son uses the cut out letters (provided in the beginning of the book) to insert at the beginning of the pattern word to sound out. He sounds out the word. If it makes a word he is familiar with, he would write this word down on the lines provided underneath.

After this review, the words just learned are then highlighted in their corresponding colors (green- memorized words, blue- phonetic words) in the following chapter. The text is meant to be read with an adult (or someone who is able to read the words in black that your son will not know how to read.) This book is a "phased in" approach, so that your son will only be responsible for the words he knows how to read, but will still feel like he is reading the Book of Mormon. I find that with beginning readers they have fun attempting the words in black that they might know, or have learned at school. It is a fun conquering feeling for them.

Each chapter also has a Gospel Review Activity/Questions for comprehensive purposes.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions.

Printing Off Workpages

Dear Camille:

Hello, my name is Dawnella, I am a stay-at-home mom of 5 and ... home-school. My family is currently in stationed in Germany with the Army. I recently bought your book and love it. Will you ever be putting the a CD together so that the work-pages could be printed from a computer? With 4 of my children using the book it would be easier if I could print off the pages that they will be using ... and put them into a book that each of them can use as a review. I appreciate your time, desire and testimony to teach our children from the Book of Mormon.

With Much Thanks,

Dawnella

Dawnella, thanks for your email. Similar to my response to Mike below, Cedar Fort Publishing decided that they would release the last three volumes (combined with the first two volumes) in CD form. This will enable people to print the pdf files themselves from their own computer. And for those who use the worksheets with several children, they will have the ability to print of several copies if desired. This CD will be released in June and you can visit www.cedarfort.com to purchase one or visit your local LDS church bookstore. Best of luck in Germany!

All Five Volumes

Sister Funk:

I was in Seagull Book recently, and the clerk alerted me to your books for my 8 year old grandson who is struggling with reading. I have found useful in my own efforts to keep close to The Book of Mormon! When is the third volume coming out?

Sincerely,

Mike

Mike, thank you for your email. Cedar Fort Publishing decided that they would release the last three volumes (combined with the first two volumes) in CD form. This will enable people to print the pdf files themselves from their own computer. And for those who use the worksheets with several children, they will have the ability to print of several copies if desired. This CD will be released in June and you can visit www.cedarfort.com to purchase one or visit your local LDS church bookstore.

Refugee Family

Dear Camille:

I am a volunteer mentor with a refugee family from Burma. I am wondering if your book would help us teach both English and the gospel to children and very recent adult converts. Thanks so much.

Nancy

Nancy- thank you for your email. I have seen people use this book to teach both English and the gospel. Adults use it too. It works especially well because they are familiar with the Book of Mormon already, so learning to read the Book of Mormon in a new language works very well. I would suggest that the only prerequisite is that they need to know the alphabet sounds and as soon as they do, they are ready for lesson one.

Please let me know if I can help in any other way, this is a great thing you are doing!