ACT I: IT STARTED WITH LUCY

I adopted Lucy from Smolensk, Russia when she was 4 years old. Her prior life had been deprived on many levels. So it was not surprising that when she began school, learning disabilities became apparent.

Auditory processing was the primary problem impacting Lucy's spelling. It was hard for her to learn and remember the spelling rules because she often could not hear the words correctly.

We tried all kinds of games to make her remember her spelling. Singing the spelling of the words was one option. But unless you're an Elvis you run out of lyrics and tunes pretty quickly. And truthfully, even the singing didn't help it "stick".

We tried making cheers: Trying to clap and yell the words into her long term memory. At one point we even went so far as to record these on the PC and play them back. (As you can imagine, the recording process was the only thing that Lucy easily bought into.)

And of course we tried the traditional methods of giving her pre-tests and having her self-correct. On Friday mornings I'd give her a pre-test after breakfast, and hope that the test would be given early - before the words could leak back out. Typically even the words we learned vanished from one week to the next.

ACT II: MOM GETS AN INSPIRATION

I don't remember having difficulty in school, or struggling at all. Times were different then and I could be too old to remember it properly. I think though, that I must have been an "academic snob" believing that the kids who were then in what was called "Special ED", just didn't try hard enough.

Then I fell in love with the little girl I adopted and I watched her struggle to learn. I felt her heart break when she was called "dummy". I knew her fear at having her writings placed on the bulletin boards for public viewing in the hall - not knowing how many words were misspelled. And most importantly I learned about how much courage a kid has to have to persevere through that and go to school everyday.

I am a web designer and developer by trade. I had been wondering if a web based tool could help her. I knew by then that she compensated in her learning with her eyes. If her ears let her down - her eyes did not.

I built her a rudimentary tool that faded the spelling words out and prompted her to spell the word herself. Low and behold she began to get "A"s on her spelling tests. As a parent I don't know if there is a single joy that exceeds seeing confidence born in your children. Their faces change. Everything becomes a possibility.

ACT III: IF WE BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME

I kept thinking I'd go back and refine the tool in my spare time. But spare time never has a way of making itself appear. Before I knew it a year had passed. And truthfully it needed more than my skills alone to become a true product.

So it began to feel as though something important had been learned. Something important could be done. And that there was strong evidence that there was a large population of children that could also benefit.

So here we are. We (my sister, brother in law, husband and I), took a chance and built a tool for others to use. We are proud of this work, proud to be doing it, and proud of how it may help other kids.

Herein lies the soul of this web site.