Getting children interested in words when they are starting to learn to read can be difficult in an age where digital products are so visually exciting and ever available. One company, Mrs Wordsmith, is taking the best illustrators and putting them to work on reading products for kids.
We are on a mission to illustrate the English language with our Art Director Craig Kellman, the artist behind Madagascar, Hotel Transylvania and more. We will leverage these illustrations across state-of-the-art paper and digital products that drive vocabulary growth and support reading and being read to. Our curriculum director Lesley Sand is a leading neuroscientist specialising (among other things) in reading development and phonics. She is working with our Senior Advisory, Professor Paul Thompson, Deputy Head of the Linguistics department at University of Birmingham. Our methodology has strong research underpinnings, the core of which are 1) that children learn better visually and 2) that little bit often or spaced repetition is highly effective.
In May 2016 we launched a six month subscription-based, home delivery product that motivates children to build their vocabulary through cleverly disguised reasoning and comprehension exercises. Children 7+ will learn 300 richly descriptive words like ‘extraordinary’, ‘ diabolical’, etc., in six months through illustrations.The monthly package includes items that can be easily integrated into dinner table or “on the go” settings such as placemats, sticky notes, flashcards and more. Our product is designed to encourage children to develop a love of words and to bring the family together around the dinner table. There is a wide body of evidence which suggests that children who have a richer vocabulary do better in school. Please see our research report on vocabulary development below.
Later in 2016 and 2017 we will use our illustrated word bank to launch products such as the world’s first Illustrated Dictionary of Moods and Emotions (for kids), teaching software based tools, and a new line of Early Phonics Readers. We are also working on an audiobook robot that curates and reads audiobook robots for children in partnership with Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Imperial College. The robot is a character in the the Mrs. Wordsmith narrative.
For more information about Mrs Wordsmith visit the website https://www.mrswordsmith.com
