Cabot Street, in Beverly, is home to many wonderful small businesses, but moms will definitely want to check out the newest business to open there: The Reading Studio. This inviting new space was created by local mom, Kristen Williams.
Kristen is a former reading specialist and a classroom teacher. She also struggled with reading growing up. From both her personal and professional experience, she knows being a proficient reader impacts a child’s entire education and she has set up several programs at the Reading Studio to support children in their reading journey.
The Reading Studio will open their doors on June 18, 2022, at an Open House held during Arts Fest Beverly 2022. Kristen and her team will offer weekly Summer Literacy Camps from Pre-K through second grade, beginning the week of June 20. These camps will help kids get excited about reading!
They are also enrolling private 1:1 tutoring for the summer and throughout the school year. Private tutoring begins with an initial assessment and then each session is 50-60 minutes long. Tutors use Structured Literacy approaches, such as Orton-Gillingham (OG), that focus on the learning needs of the individual student. These approaches help by providing students of all abilities with instruction that is explicit, sequential, diagnostic, prescriptive and multisensory.
At the start of the school year, The Reading Studio will also offer Early Literacy Classes beginning with Chapter 1, which is geared toward preschool age children (ages 3 & 4) and focuses on pre-reading skills like letter sounds and rhyming. Chapter 2 is designed for pre-k age children (ages 4 & 5) and builds on the skills learned in Chapter 1, while preparing children for Kindergarten.
Kristen says, “At The Reading Studio it is our goal to not only teach each child how to read, but also to create a feeling of self confidence and enjoyment in the learning process that they can take into their schooling years.”
Last but not least, The Reading Studio will offer a program for local homeschool families. Called, The Homeschool Connection, this program is a year long cohort that focuses on the five components of reading (phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension). This cohort will be composed of 1st and 2nd graders who will attend two 90 minute classes per week, divided into terms (fall, winter & spring).
Coming out of the pandemic, so many children are struggling with early literacy skills. Kristen says that identifying learning difficulties early on and getting effective instruction for a child will be more effective than if we wait for a child to fail before beginning intervention. She has created a supportive environment for kids and parents at The Reading Studio at a time when many of us could really use this help.
The Reading Studio features a clean, simple aesthetic. Depending on how a child best learns, or the program they are enrolled in, there are several comfortable areas throughout the studio that the team will utilize, including sensory tables, a cozy rug to spread out on with tactile tools or listen to a story, and a back area with larger tables for tutoring and other 1:1 work.
Her business is also open across the street from the bank where her grandfather worked his entire career. It really feels like The Reading Studio has found the perfect home on the North Shore and I encourage you to check it out! Find more information at www.thereadingstudio.com and follow Kristen on Instagram @the_readingstudio.
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This post is sponsored by The Reading Studio but all the opinions expressed are my own. I had a great time chatting with Kristen and getting to know her as a mom and business owner, and I know you will too!