Way to Grow
Celebration is an important part of learning, and we applaud these #waytogrow moments from our Rooted in Language community!
To submit your student’s Way to Grow moment for public celebration on our website and social media accounts, contact us to share your photos, videos, and testimonials.
"We are in [Pinwheels Year 2] Level 3, Unit 9, and the write your own story project has really captured my son's imagination. He's 10, and has learning disabilities due to epilepsy. Learning to read and write has been such a difficult journey, but he's excited, and writing more than I knew was possible! I'm just so thankful." ~ Amber
"Major Plot Arc work going on this morning! Thanks to Pinwheels, language arts is my daughter’s favorite subject. I have seen so many improvements that have bolstered my daughter’s confidence, I have had tears in my eyes on multiple occasions. Thank you for this wonderful curriculum!!" ~ Amy
“We started this program when my first child was 5. His brother joined when he was 4. Four years have past and we still love our reading dragons! For this summer dragon each color represents 15 minutes. We read Dragons Love Tacos and so our snake/caterpillar changed slightly. Best idea ever! They now write their own body parts and stick them on the wall.”
~ Sonia
"I’m just so proud of this girl! She is loving going through Pinwheels Year 1 and learning to read. It’s fun seeing her pick it up so quickly and improve in writing and editing as well. She loved doing the suffix crown! Most days we only do one worksheet that has writing on it because she is still so young (4.5) and not ready to write a whole bunch, so when I pulled this out I was only going to have her write 3-4 words, but when I told her she could stop she said, “What about these?! I want to do them all!” And then she wore the crown all morning until it got rained on. Maybe I’ll print another one for her to do! This program rocks!" ~ Kacey
"Level 3 took us a year, but we finally finished today! He’s so proud of himself and we plan to celebrate with a trip to the arcade." ~ Amanda
“We tried many programs. Pinwheels was the only program that helped my child gain literacy and retain it. She can now read, write and present! We are celebrating her accomplishments.” ~ Melissa
“My 5 year old just finished reading his first book! I NEVER thought I would be able to teach reading. Science, yes. Math, absolutely. Reading? Seemed too abstract and confusing. I’m so thankful for this program giving me the tools, knowledge and confidence to teach this skill!” ~ Chelsie
This 10 year old dyslexic student is nearing the end of Pinwheels. “Today she surprised me with how much she enjoyed making her ‘quest’ word web. She told me she likes that she can read such big words now and excitedly asked if I would share her finished work with the group." ~ Amy
"Pinwheels is hard work for my son (11). He is not a huge fan of the work, because it is so hard for him. However, I see huge improvement from him and I know that it’s working so well for him, despite his displeasure at seeing the pages come out. One of his least favorite parts is copywork and apparently poetry. Haha. Today he read Shooting Stars so easily and secretly enjoyed it. He still does not enjoy copywork but I’m not sure that will change anytime soon. He did enjoy finding the rhythm of each line of the poem and seeing it repeat. Not every day has a win but the progress he’s making still brings me to tears each time we work on Pinwheels." ~ Marybeth
“This!!! It's so beautiful to this proud mama! Yes, he's 14. But he's (we've) been stuck for so long with little direction and diminishing hope. This is his first ever full page of free/original writing! It makes my heart sing! He worked so hard and applied his new skills. I love how he added humor which shows that he's happy and the creative juices were flowing. I've never seen this type of commitment and discipline out of him. He feels so good about making progress and says himself that this curriculum is working! Big yay!!!!” ~ Rachael
"Last night my son read 2 paragraphs from Pinwheels Level 3 in under 2 minutes with one error. Six months ago that would’ve taken 30+ minutes plus anger, hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing, and/or tears on one of our parts—or both. Today, he read a math word problem, understood it, answered it correctly both numerically and with the necessary words. He laughed at me when I was brought to tears in that moment. I can only try to imagine how that felt for him, too. So, thank you Rooted in Language for providing the parent support to make this happen. But also, go kiddo!" ~ Alecia
“This was a fun craft project for my daughter this week, she made vowel chart flash cards! We can work these into our weekly Vowel Chart practice in Pinwheels Level 4. It was also good practice in list making and planning out a project, she couldn’t wait to get it done!” ~ Katie
“My 10 year old daughter began this project completely unprompted. She’s been very passionate about dragons for a long time and made many versions of similar guidebooks. This picture has so many details and more writing than she’s ever added before. We’ve struggled a lot with transfer of skills so to have her hand me this book this morning feels like a real victory!” ~ Jessica
"Such a big, special, milestone day for this kiddo. Pinwheels Level 3 Author’s Tea. She spent so much time preparing for it this week and was so excited to share it with her dad this morning." ~ Ashleigh
“My current 3rd grader who is dyslexic wrote 1-3 sentences per day, building on his story over 2 school weeks. Look at all those words on paper! There was so much learning happening here. He took ownership and worked independently quite a bit and felt so successful each day. Y'all, he's my 2nd dyslexic kid. RiL teaches strategies that work! Pinwheels, Wand, and Foundations are amazing!" ~ Chantelle
"The kids and I have been working on this alphabet board for a few months. It was an idea that the Rooted team posted after an Office Hours session. We used our science topic: Arthropods. Each kid was a different color and if I wasn’t sure if the word fit our topic they had to explain to me why that word fit. It was really engaging for our family." ~ Anna
“‘Mummy, this one is just too funny for me to read smoothly, I have to stop to laugh.’ Thanks Pinwheels team for such fun readers, they were bringing all the joy today!” ~ Rosie
"This was written by my 10 year old this evening, all on her own without any prompting. Is it perfect? No. However, I am absolutely blown away. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that she would not write a single sentence with more than 5 words (especially not long or tricky words) without a fight and a struggle, as recently as a couple months ago. We started Pinwheels Year 1 in August to bridge over any gaps that may have occurred in her earlier learning, and her skills have just exploded! Thanks Rooted in Language team for giving me the tools to help my girl with her writing skills!" ~ Melissa