Live online small groups · Pre-K–5
For children who read slowly, need frequent help, or avoid reading.
A live teacher, a small group of about four, and guided practice help your child build skills for more independent reading.
Cancel anytime before your next billing date.
See the program →Your child can start this week.
Small-Group Reading Program
Start this week.
See the program →Child in grade 6 or above? Explore our middle and high school reading program →
Your child might be just starting to hear the sounds in words, reading slowly and working hard at it, or reading fine and rarely choosing a book. Each of those is a stage of reading, not a verdict.
When a child avoids reading, it usually isn’t defiance. Reading hasn’t become easy enough to enjoy yet. Skill makes reading easier, easier reading builds confidence, and confidence makes a child want to read more. Every part of that is teachable.
Prefer a teacher working individually with your child? Explore 1:1 private tutoring →
The week starts with a live 50-minute class with an IRD Expert Teacher and a group of about four children, never more than six. The teacher introduces new skills every week, shows how they work, leads students through fun activities, and opens the week’s book with the group.
Your child reads, speaks up, and gets coached every session.
Between classes, your child completes four short online lessons, 15 to 20 minutes each. They read the week’s story with questions built in. They learn new reading skills directly. They practice reading a passage from the story smoothly and with expression. Then they take the week’s skills check.
The skills check is the one scored piece at the end of each week, so the teacher sees what landed before the next class. Then the next week begins with more skills and a new story. That is how reading compounds, and why kids keep doing it.
The printed books are optional. Every book is included as an ebook in the online lessons either way.
Every book in the lessons is ours, created by our own curriculum team for our own programs, and written at a level that matches your child’s reading ability.
As the program progresses, the skills and books become more challenging, building on what your child has learned.
Real pages, a real spine, a stack on the shelf that says this kid reads, and a book to reread on the days between lessons.
Pick the level your child is reading at. Tap any cover to see it larger.
If you add the printed books, your first set ships the next business day after you join. Ebooks are available immediately inside the online lesson activities, so your child can start reading before the books arrive. After that, four printed books come with each month’s worth of classes, one book for each week.
Live online reading tutoring for children in Pre-K through fifth grade.
Your child joins a small group of about four students for one live weekly class with an IRD Expert Teacher, plus structured reading practice between classes.
Printed books are an optional $22 a month, plus applicable sales tax on materials and shipping.
Cancel anytime before your next billing date to stop your next payment.
Start this week. The first class can be as soon as a few days out.
Enroll your child →Try the first two sessions. If the program isn’t the right fit, tell us, and we’ll refund your payment in full. See the guarantee and time limits.
The school year is not the summer. Our programs are built for both, sized to be doable and sustainable beside school, not an extra burden. Working on reading belongs all year. You still can’t know until you’ve lived a couple of weeks of it whether this time, this teacher, and this workload fit your week. So the first two sessions exist for you to find out.
Try the first two sessions. If the program isn’t the right fit, tell us within 48 hours of your child’s second session or within 21 days of purchase, whichever comes first. We’ll refund your payment in full, and any books already shipped are yours to keep.
Email help@readingprograms.org to request your refund.
The Triple Guarantee applies for as long as your child is enrolled. Its remedies provide additional instruction. The separate two-session fit guarantee above provides a full payment refund within its stated time limits. You keep any books already shipped.
In our 56 years, we’ve partnered with more than 200 colleges, universities, and school districts to offer our reading programs in their communities.
1,320+ Google reviews4.5 stars on Trustpilot from 655 reviews
That’s who we are. Here’s what the kids do.
Reading help rarely falls short because of what it teaches. It usually falls short because a child doesn’t do enough of it, consistently. The hardest part of reading help is getting a child to do it. That is the part we can show you evidence on.
Those are hours completed, not hours assigned. It gets done because it is sized to get done.
The hours show how much reading children completed. And all that reading mattered, because the vast majority of our students proved that skills were sticking by passing their weekly checks.
“My son had major breakthroughs. His overall confidence has grown so much. He went from avoiding books to asking to read before bed.”
“We searched for a program that could help our daughter, and nothing worked until this. This program is absolutely amazing. I will recommend this to everyone.”
“This program has been a lifesaver for my child’s confidence. She can read more fluently and has started to comprehend what she’s reading so much better.”
“She is so excited about learning phonics and being able to recognize more words! The teachers have great energy and make learning fun.”
Reading isn’t one more thing on the calendar. It’s the skill underneath almost everything else.
Because reading develops in stages, not on a birthday, and the build either keeps moving or it stalls. Skill makes reading easier, easier reading builds confidence, confidence makes a child want to read more, and reading more is what builds the next skill. Once that cycle is turning, it carries itself. When it isn’t turning, waiting doesn’t start it.
The fall is when a reading routine gets set, or doesn’t. The week fills up, and families who mean to “add something later” find that later rarely happens. Starting now is how the year stays on your side, not a burst you try to wedge in after conferences and homework have already won.
School teaches reading among a hundred other things. It will not give your child a separate hour with a live teacher, the right book, and a few guided minutes a day. Our programs are built for school year and summer: sized to sit beside school, doable and sustainable. Working on reading belongs all year.
Waiting doesn’t start the cycle. Starting does.
Enroll your child →Try the first two sessions. If the program isn’t the right fit, tell us, and we’ll refund your payment in full. See the guarantee and time limits.
What does it cost?
$199 a month. Add the printed books for $22 a month, plus applicable sales tax on materials and shipping. Either way every book is included as an ebook in the online lessons. You pay when you enroll, and it bills once a calendar month until you stop it. Nothing is owed past the month you’ve already paid for. Cancel anytime before your next billing date to stop your next payment.
When does my child actually start?
Within days, if you like. After you enroll, you can pick your day and time, and the first class can be as soon as a few days out. We encourage you to schedule the 20-minute reading assessment as soon as you can, but your child doesn’t need to wait for it to start class. If you added the printed books, they ship the next business day.
What if none of the available class times works?
Choose your class time after you enroll. If none of the available times works for your family, we’ll help find or create another option—or refund your payment in full.
What if we need to stop?
Cancel anytime before your next billing date to stop your next payment. Email help@readingprograms.org. Classes continue through the period you’ve already paid for. Any books already shipped or being prepared for shipment are yours to keep, with no return required and no additional charge. We stop any remaining shipments that can still be stopped.
When do the books arrive?
If you add the printed books, your first set ships the next business day after you join. Ebooks are available immediately inside the online lesson activities. We issue new sets of books for every 4 weeks of our classes. If you enroll close to the start of the next set’s classes, we’ll send you the upcoming set to start. After that, we’ll send you the next set of 4 books for every month’s worth of classes you take, shipped based on our class calendar, rather than your monthly billing date. That way your child always has the books that match up to their lessons.
What if it isn’t the right fit?
Try the first two sessions. If the program isn’t the right fit, tell us within 48 hours of your child’s second session or within 21 days of purchase, whichever comes first. We’ll refund your payment in full, and any books already shipped are yours to keep. Email help@readingprograms.org.
What if my child misses a class?
Tell us at least 24 hours ahead and we schedule a makeup lesson so your child doesn’t lose instruction time. With less notice, tell us anyway and we’ll do what we reasonably can. That week’s book and the online activities are still there either way. The online activities are designed to be done independently, even if a child misses class.
Can we pause later?
Yes. You may pause once per calendar year, for up to 90 days, by email to help@readingprograms.org. You name your return date. Billing and classes stop together and start again together. We do our best to hold your place, but we can’t promise the same day, time, or teacher when you return.
What is the 20-minute reading assessment?
It gives you and your child’s teacher a clear idea of where your child is with reading right now. It helps confirm that this is the right program and the right grade, and it lets the teacher start personalizing instruction from the very beginning. It takes 20 minutes, low pressure, with a warm and encouraging teacher. We encourage you to schedule it as soon as you can after you enroll, but your child doesn’t need to wait for it to start class.
Do you offer one-on-one tutoring?
Yes. 1:1 Private Tutoring gives your child one teacher to themselves. Explore 1:1 private tutoring →
How do I reach someone?
Email help@readingprograms.org. That is the contact path for enrollment questions.
Put them in the program kids actually do.
Enroll your child →$199 a month, printed books optional
Printed books are an optional $22 a month, plus applicable sales tax on materials and shipping.
Preview only — you'll choose your session after you enroll.
Wait — grab the program brochure
Tell us your child’s grade and get a free overview of the skills we teach in our School-Year Reading Program — and why those skills matter most.
