By providing our literacy promotion programs, we meet children where they are in their reading journey and encourage them to become confident readers through the experience with the mini equines. The child builds confidence with an understanding listener, one who doesn’t criticize, who encourages the child to continue to read with the resulting goal of improving their reading level. Tender Little Hearts helps them discover what their obstacles are in reading and through the equine experience, helps them overcome these struggles in a stress free, playful, learning environment.
TLH is an Arizona ESA-approved provider, meaning your Empowerment Scholarship Account can fund unique, hands-on programs for youth aged 5–17!
Arizona is facing a literacy crisis and it begins in early childhood. Today the literacy skills demanded by 21st century work and learning environments are increasingly more complex. We are unsuccessfully preparing our children to meet that demand. Well-established research underscores the vital importance of addressing this crisis. Children entering kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed in school rarely meet the critical milestone of reading proficiently by third grade, a strong predictor of future academic and vocational success. And there is a high correlation between vocabulary size at age three and language test scores at ages nine in areas of vocabulary, listening, syntax, phonological awareness and reading comprehension. By age four, children from low-income families hear an average of 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers. Success in addressing this crisis will require ensuring that young children in Arizona have strong learning experiences from birth through grade three, rich in literacy and language acquisition at school, at home, and in the community. The key to Arizona’s future is a statewide, community-based literacy project. Educators, families, businesses, public agencies, philanthropy and communities all have a role to play. Only when early literacy becomes everyone’s responsibility will we have the kind of impact and change we need to see Arizona thrive.
The evidence keeps mounting that different forms of play are the best way for children to learn and thrive. From their earliest days, play is how they relate to the world, and to each other. When children have plenty of opportunities to learn playfully, they do what they do best: pursue their natural curiosity.
Horse Powered Reading invites a child, or group of children, to team with an equine during their learning activity. Research shows that children learn best from experiences that are joyful, that meaningfully connect the play to their lives, are actively engaging, allow testing things iteratively and are socially interactive. Children won't always experience all of those characteristics at the same time, but it's another reason children need lots of different kinds of play. Each strand helps them weave a strong and flexible tapestry of skills to use throughout their lives. Horse Powered Reading® activities provide these experiences, enhancing learning and retention of learning through their interaction and connection to our equines.
Children interact with horses from the ground, while using toys and props to identify obstacles and learn five critical reading skills - phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Session goals vary depending upon the needs of the child or group.
During sessions, children are given the opportunity to:
Identify: Issues affecting learning are identified and made visible by the child, through the use of obstacles (toys and props), which symbolize stumbling blocks that get in the way of their understanding.
Experience: Memory retention and recall improve dramatically when movement anchors learning. Issues getting in the way of academic and social emotional growth are addressed by our expert team in the moment.
Connect: Students are allowed to choose their own horse to work with, just as they would choose a book to read.
Reflect: Sessions allow students a chance to reflect on what they are experiencing and provide an opportunity to create new patterns of learning in a supported environment.
The outcome of our programs is to promote personal development and positive life choices. By providing our literacy promotion programs, we meet children where they are in their reading journey and encourage them to become a confident and proficient reader through reading to the mini equines. The child builds confidence with an understanding listener, one who doesn't criticize, one who encourages the child to continue to read with the outcome goal of improving their reading level. Our programs increase a child's vocabulary, helps instill moral values and lessons and can improve their conversations with others. These are just some of the wonders of children reading aloud as well as being read to. This simple act of reading aloud practically works like a magic multivitamin in the lives of kids. Reading aloud imparts many tangible benefits to a children's mind and character, but the more intangible rewards are equally important: it's just plain enjoyable to see the delight on a child's face when they succeed and are able to orally read to the miniature equines.
We are now an ESA Vendor, making this program available to all Arizona students.
