Hi, I'm Spencer. I help parents teach their kids to read.
I'm an award-winning teacher, a dad, and I was once one of the lowest readers in my own first grade class. This is the story of how those three things became Toddlers Can Read.
Three chapters, one method.
As a kid…
In first grade, I was one of the two lowest readers in my class. I was one of the kids people quietly gave up on.
I eventually caught up, but plenty of kids never do. I still remember what it felt like to be behind, and that feeling has stayed with me ever since.
As a teacher…
I went on to spend six years teaching kindergarten and first grade, then three more training other teachers.
That is where I learned how reading really gets built. Not with guessing. Not with random activities. With clear sounds-first instruction, the right sequence, and adults who know what to do next.
As a dad…
When my own son was a toddler, I started using the same approach at home, in smaller steps made for a younger child.
That experience changed how I thought about early reading. The same structured phonics principles that help older kids can be adapted much earlier than many parents are told. That discovery became Toddlers Can Read.
Built from the classroom, not theory.
Before Toddlers Can Read was a brand, it was a method I used with real kids, real families, and real classrooms.
- Six years teaching kindergarten and first grade
- Three years training educators
- Teach For America alum
- Harriett Ball Excellence in Teaching Award
- Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award
- Amherst Commitment to Teaching Award
- HEB Rising Star, TX Teacher of the Year semi-finalist
Every kid deserves to feel like a reader, not the one who is always behind.
I won't promise you a toddler who reads Harry Potter, and I'd be careful with anyone who does.
What I teach is built on the science of reading, then broken into small steps a young child can actually follow. It is the same structured, sounds-first approach I used in my classroom for years, made simple enough for parents to use at home.