Written by Heather Vaught

When traditional schooling failed her son and the pandemic forced shutdowns, Clerissa Kritzinger turned to homeschooling, which ignited a love of learning in her family.

“I was at my wit’s end,” Clerissa Kritzinger recalls. “We had tried everything the traditional system offered, but nothing seemed to work. The tension in our relationship was palpable.”

Clerissa’s journey began with her oldest son’s struggles in school. Despite various therapies and medications for his ADHD diagnosis, his situation didn’t improve. 

The Kritzingers moved Anthony to a tutoring center, hoping that a smaller environment with more one-on-one attention would make a difference. Then facing pandemic-related school closures, Clerissa found herself alone with her son’s reading difficulties.

A Turning Point: Discovering Dyslexia

Homeschooling was not common in South Africa, but with the pandemic, it became a widespread reality. Clerissa found herself with no other choice. She quickly discovered that teachers had been sugar-coating Anthony’s progress, and she was upset. She chose a different curriculum, hoping that would make a difference.

It wasn’t until her friend, Alene, suggested her son might be dyslexic that Clerissa found a new direction. After researching and finding Nessy, a free online dyslexia screening tool, she confirmed her son’s condition. 

“It was a moment of relief and clarity,” she shares. “Finally understanding the cause of my son’s struggles opened up a world of possibilities.”

Alene also recommended Fun-Schooling journals and Dyslexia Games by Sarah Janisse Brown, author and founder of Thinking Tree Books. 

Slow and Steady: The Impact of Dyslexia Games

“You’ve got to be kidding me. How is my kid going to learn to read by doing pictures?” says Clerissa of the moment she first looked through Dyslexia Games. “It did not make sense to me.”

Alene reminded her that her daughter began reading within three months of using Dyslexia Games. “Just trust the process,” she advised.

So Clerissa plowed ahead with assigning her son two pages a day. She was surprised to see him enjoying the games and asking for more pages. His concentration began to improve. 

Then, a month and a half in, Anthony started to pick out random words during daily activities like grocery shopping or playing a game. At three months, Clerissa introduced a phonics program and he took off with it.

“It was like night and day,” Clerissa explains. “He’s never been depressed since we started homeschooling and using Dyslexia Games. The meltdowns that used to happen every single day at school just stopped. Now, his favorite place is the library.”

“The Dyslexia Games approach is so different from traditional methods,” Clerissa notes. “It’s like it speaks directly to the dyslexic brain, creating new neural pathways for learning to read.”

Click here to continue with Clerissa’s story.