Happily Ever After

Reading readiness program with children’s literature at its heart. Happily Ever After gives children the foundation to begin reading instruction with the Superkids Reading Program. Beautifully illustrated, classic stories from children’s literature are the basis of the 10 units in the program.

Curriculum Highlights

Development of language and vocabulary

To succeed across curricula in future years, children must develop concepts and vocabulary to comprehend written and spoken language. Happily Ever After builds this foundation by anchoring instruction in classic stories from children's literature. Children listen to a well-known story in the first lesson of each unit and return to it again and again as they move through the other lessons in the unit. The story gives them a common framework for new words and concepts.

In addition, new vocabulary, skills, and concepts are introduced in a concrete way through a game that relates them directly to the familiar, physical world. In this way, instruction always proceeds from the concrete to the abstract.

Fine motor skills

Ultimately, children need to develop fine motor skills to be able to write. To build these skills, Happily Ever After provides constant practice in cutting, folding, coloring, gluing, tracing, and drawing. Happily Ever After builds children's fine motor skills through practice, practice, practice—but practice that takes place in the context of activities children enjoy.

Direction-following skills

Success in school depends on children’s ability to understand instructional vocabulary and follow directions. Following directions involves good listening skills and concentration, often applied to multi-step instructions. It also requires familiarity with common school tasks, such as circling an answer or drawing a line across or under. Happily Ever After builds children’s ability to follow directions by teaching the necessary skills systematically and explicitly and giving children the opportunity to apply the skills in every lesson.

Listening skills

To learn to read and spell, children must become conscious first of environmental sounds and then of sounds that make up speech, such as words and syllables. Finally, they must learn to hear phonemes, the small units of speech that correspond to letters. Happily Ever After carefully builds this sensitivity to sounds through direct instruction and daily routines. Children must also learn to attend thoughtfully to the teacher, to the narrator in CD lessons, and to other children. Those listening skills are developed in every activity throughout the program.