The thing I love about the Barton System is that it has allowed his learning process to be a shared experience.

My husband and I both work at a university and highly value reading. We have always read a great deal to our son. When he was younger, trips to the library involved bringing home 25 to 30 story books to be absorbed, experienced and shared. He loved to be read to, and he never tired of books.

However, as a Montessori preschooler, he was very resistant to any work that involved letters or writing. When I tried to play with the alphabet on tiles, or word puzzles, he just wouldn’t show any interest.

He couldn’t read in first grade. I would try to bribe him with money to sound out those little phonetic “Bob” books the school had. He wouldn’t do it.

During first grade, although he would demonstrate some reading skill when pressured, I was befuddled at his inconsistency. I shook my head when he would try to sound out the “t” and then the “h” in “the.” I couldn’t understand why he didn’t recognize it. He had just read that same word on the previous line.

He was so resistant about doing schoolwork that the teacher claimed he had a motivation problem. That was when I knew we needed to have him tested. Once he was diagnosed as dyslexic, I realized his needs could not be properly met at school.

I did a great deal of internet research and was very excited to find the Barton Reading & Spelling System. I was concerned about the cost of hiring a private tutor, and I didn’t like the idea of farming out such an important task to a stranger. So I took the plunge and began tutoring my son in the Barton System in the spring of second grade.

He was very excited at the beginning, but there have been times during the past two years when he did not want to be tutored. He felt it was unfair that we had to “work” at home when the other kids didn’t have homework. He expressed resentment and unhappiness about being dyslexic.

But he began to feel empowered by the skills he was learning. I could see the improvement in his reading almost immediately. He quickly learned to decode words. He began to see how syllables were constructed. At his latest reading evaluation, he tested at grade level.

We still read nightly to our son. He listens voraciously. We read literature that most fourth graders aren’t reading, such as Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Phillip Pullman books, etc. Over the past month, we have been reading The Fellowship of the Rings, dense reading to say the least.

Last night, after I had finished reading a chapter to him, he asked to take the book with him for his own bedtime reading. To my astonishment, he completed the next chapter all on his own — and then recounted the story to me with great delight that he knew what happened next, and I didn’t.

What a milestone we had reached. My son, who refused to read in first grade and who couldn’t decode the word “the,” now loves books and enjoys reading challenging material.

I feel privileged to be traveling this road with him. The thing I love about the Barton System is that it has allowed his learning process to be a shared experience. I am learning right along with him.

With the Barton System, my son has come to realize that he is gaining skills that will allow him to succeed, and although he is dyslexic, it does not need to define him, impede him, or limit him.