The first-week playbook
Seven nights that end with your child asking for one more page.
The app does the teaching. This is what to expect, night by night, and the one move that lands each one. Print it and check them off.
Night 1
The check, then the first page.
A five-minute reading check places your child at their exact step. It ends with a warm summary and one button: start tonight’s first episode. Sit shoulder to shoulder, follow the script, keep it short.
You say: “Ready to try this? I read the story, you read the parts in gold.”
Watch for: your child asking, “That’s it?” The first session is designed to end on a win, not a wall. Ten to fifteen minutes total.
Night 2
The story remembers you.
You open the app again and the story picks up where it left off, in the world your child chose. That continuity is the whole product; it’s why kids come back.
You say: “Look, your sidekick is right where we left them last night.”
Watch for: a small hesitation on the first line. It’s cold-start friction. Read a warm-up sentence yourself, then hand it over.
Night 3
Your child will probably say “boring.”
The honeymoon breaks around night three. The novelty is gone, the story hasn’t hit its first big turn yet, and your child’s testing whether this is real. This is the most important night of the seven.
You say: “I know. Two pages tonight and we’ll stop. And I want to see what happens to the sidekick.”
Watch for: the urge to skip a night. Don’t. Doing two short pages beats doing zero. The habit is the whole game.
Night 4
A hard word.
Your child hits a word they can’t get. The app’s job is to help. Your job is to stay warm.
You say: nothing, for three seconds. Then, without drama: “That one’s tricky. Try again, and let’s tap it out together if we need to.” If still stuck: just say the word. Move on.
Watch for: your own frustration face. Kids read it faster than they read the page. Breathe. Nothing costs you the moment more than looking disappointed.
Night 5
The first cliffhanger lands.
Somewhere around night five, the story throws its first real hook. Your child will notice. Some kids will actually ask if they can read one more page. Let them.
You say: “One more, then bed. Deal?”
Watch for: the pride in their voice on the last line. Name it out loud: “You read that whole page. That was hard, and you did it.”
Night 6
The weekly report shows up.
After six sessions the parent dashboard has enough data to draw the first weekly report. It shows what your child mastered, what’s coming next, and a short note written to a teacher or IEP team. Print it or save it as a PDF.
You say (out loud to your kid): “Look at this. That’s all the sounds you locked in this week.”
Watch for: the temptation to celebrate speed. Accuracy is what matters at this stage. Speed comes later, and only after accuracy holds.
Night 7
The habit is real.
After a week of consistent nights, you have a habit. Not a hope, a habit. This is the point of the first week. Whatever comes next is easier because of this.
You say: “Same time tomorrow. And every night this week is because you kept showing up.”
Watch for: the desire to skip a night now that “it’s working.” Don’t. The gap between four nights a week and six is much larger than it feels.
If any night doesn’t go well, that’s a normal night, not a broken week. Read the Coach’s Card again in the morning, then just show up tomorrow. That’s the whole method.