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Now, all of our fun, friendly, fabulous and free information can be archived and accessed more easily!
It’s Phonics Friday with Your Friends on the Safari!
Every single child?
Well, yes. Gary and Victoria Beck, the creators of Expeditions to Excellence, know a thing or two about literacy, however, they also know a thing or two about children with learning differences and children with special needs. In fact, their reading program was first developed twenty years ago, when the Becks needed to teach their son (who had been diagnosed with autism) to read. You can read more about their story and all of the free educational materials they have developed, below.
It’s Fun!
Creating a new destiny for a child isn’t just a nice sounding phrase. Literacy is America’s lifeline. It is the most important determinant for future educational achievement, academic performance and success in life. Literacy is not just part of education; arguably, literacy IS education and it has the power to create new destinies for millions of children everywhere. Presently, the rate of illiteracy among young children across America is at crisis proportions. Nearly seventy percent of inner city children cannot read proficiently by the fourth grade. Forty percent of all American school children are not functionally literate by the time they are 10 years old. It is not a surprise that so many teens drop out of high school, end up in juvenile facilities for crime, or end up on government assistance by the time they reach adulthood. If children cannot read, they cannot function well in school or society. Expeditions to Excellence realizes that the magnitude of this problem correlates to the value of their literacy solution.
The cost of illiteracy, due to poor approaches in education and other factors, is significant. People who cannot read proficiently suffer in so many areas in life. Children who struggle with reading early in their schooling often have problems throughout their educational lives. Adults who are not proficient readers frequently cannot read medical labels, basic instructions, bus schedules, everyday forms and even employment applications. Bleak futures await individuals who cannot read, as do lower incomes and higher rates of crime. Throughout the Expeditions to Excellence reading system, we encourage readers and their tour guides to sing along to our New Destiny Theme song. It’s an awesome reminder of the wonderful adventures that await them, through education. It’s a positive, hope-filled message of encouragement; every child was born for wonderful things! So many dreams and destinies are yet to be!
Enjoy!
It’s Friendly!
Visit us today at www. BeExcellent.com! Each reading concept is presented in an easy-to-teach format called a Reading Expedition. Every Reading Expedition prominently features one of sixteen different safari animals. These animals represent the different levels of achievement throughout the system. As a reader progresses throughout the system, the animals lead the way through The Safari Success Trail, all the way to completion, as the king or the queen of the jungle. In addition to the phonics-based reading concepts taught in each Expedition, a fact about the animal featured is shared within each lesson.
Every Expedition begins with a simple instructional section for the Tour Guide. A Tour Guide might be a parent, a classroom teacher, a reading volunteer, a mentor, or even an older sibling or a relative. The instructions for each Reading Expedition are very easy to understand and follow. The instructions explain the reading concept that is being taught, as well as the suggested ways in which to teach it. Following the instructions, every Reading Expedition also includes a sample dialogue between the Tour Guide and the reader. While we know that each Tour Guide and every reader will bring their own personality to the safari, the sample dialogue can often help to get the lesson started.
Each Reading Expedition is like “base camp” – the place where a learner sets out on their reading journey. The instructions act as a navigation guide. This little backpack contains all phonics safari supplies. It reveals everything needed to pack for the Expedition at hand. Better yet, it has everything needed for the lesson within the click of a computer keyboard! Just point, click, and print. It’s all right there! Will they need a book? How about a song? Maybe a student wishes to listen to an audio lesson or a video. With a click, they can listen and watch it, and learn. Here’s a partial list of everything included in the system:
75 Reading Expedition Lessons
The Reading Place – 320 Pages of Word Lists, Poems and More!
The Singing Place – Sheet Music and Reproducible Masters for 26 Songs
Vocal Music for 26 Educational Songs
Piano Accompaniment Music for All 26 Songs
5 Audio Guide Lessons to Teach Important Foundational Concepts
31 Teaching Videos that Visually Communicate All of the Music and Audio Guides
37 Fun and Easy Board Games
185 Funsheets to Reinforce Lesson Concepts
26 Beautifully Illustrated Books
26 Video Books, Read Aloud to the Reader
30 Sets of Color Flash Cards
A Motivational Wall Poster to Track Success
18 Extra Game Gear Cards
A Book Journal Designed to Help Remember the Fun of Reading Forever
Dozens of Additional Reading Games, Crafts and Activities
Expeditions to Excellence teaches an assortment of readiness concepts through music too. There are songs that teach the days of the week, months of the year, colors, shapes and more. There’s even a song to teach readers how to talk about their name, address and phone number. Every preschool aged child needs these important readiness concepts in place prior to entering kindergarten.
It’s Fabulous!
A Message from the Founders of Expeditions to Excellence
It was 2:00 AM and the rest of the neighborhood was sleeping. Nothing but a black void stared back at me, as I glanced out the large, French-door windows, lifting my head and arching my back to relieve the stiffness that had settled in from nights-on-end spent cutting, pasting, researching and writing at our kitchen table. Perhaps it had been overwhelming sleep deprivation that began to lure my eyes (and my attention) vacantly across the room or, perhaps, a subconscious yearning to think about something other than autism for even a brief moment. In either case, there I sat (that evening way back in 1997), transfixed upon the Doug Webb lithograph hanging just six feet in view. The piece was entitled Life Raft; the artist’s avant-garde portrayal of a river rushing through the streets of Manhattan literally depicted a life raft whisking people away from the hustle and bustle of center-city New York’s chaos, presumably to a different, more idyllic place. A life raft in Manhattan’s streets, amidst taxis, busses and cars is the ultimate juxtaposition, I thought to myself. I hadn’t really looked at Webb’s offbeat masterpiece for a long while, let alone actually thought about it. My loving (and occasionally outspoken) mother-in-law hadn’t ever tried to hide her non-affection for Doug Webb’s art style whenever she flew out to visit. However, it was Webb’s brilliant use of unlikely opposites to create a bigger idea that had always reminded Gary and I of “us”. Through his gift of art, he had a masterful ability to develop a positive feeling of hope – using conflict and irony. Webb’s larger-than-life-litho had been the first joint acquisition of Gary’s and my relationship; we had purchased the piece even before we were married. Today, it still hangs boldly in our home office, despite the fact that its modern style coordinates with absolutely none of our other furnishings. We don’t mind that others may not feel the way we feel about it. Of course, we say that with proper respect to Gary’s mom, along with a pleasant agreement to disagree with one another about Doug Webb’s artistic genius.
The power and value of art, after all, is in its ability to transfer or inspire passion within an individual. As noted, two or more people can look at the same painting or image and each will experience something completely different. To some, it will mean nothing; to others, it can be transforming. While one individual may feel no intersection or connection, another may feel a soulful resonance for which words are inadequate. On this particular occasion, in my sleepy daydream-prone state, I experienced the latter of these feelings and, consequently, the Webb Life Raft became the genesis of what is now The LifeRaft Foundation, our private, non-profit 501C3 corporation . In the wee hours that fateful morning, as I stared at Webb’s portrayal of people from all walks of life, it communicated yet another message to me: sometimes we pick the journey and other times the journey picks us.
Resuming my focus on my laborious and mundane task at hand, in the aloneness of that moonless and silent night, I returned to creating the homemade cut-and-paste flash cards for my autistic’s son’s therapists to use in session with him the following day. As I did, however, I realized I wasn’t really alone in my personal journey at all – and, knowing that, I was inspired. All over the country (and, in fact, all over the world), there were other sleep-deprived, worn out moms and dads who were doing exactly what I was doing, for their children with autism. Some were striving to create that which wasn’t available on the market, for the benefit of their child’s education. Some were struggling to write advocacy letters to receive better educational or medical services. Some were wide-awake trying to research any shred of new information that might enhance their child’s educational program, even by just a little bit. Sadly, some were awake from the worry that an uncertain future might bring for their child who might never speak, communicate or take good care of themselves in any way.
I knew, without a doubt, that we were one of the more fortunate and blessed couples. Our little school district in New Hampshire had stepped out in front of the pack of public schools across America and had acceded to our pleads and advocacy on behalf of our son. Our school officials had agreed to tap the brilliance of some of the best consultants in the country who were, fortuitously, located just over the border, in Boston. Our son would be the beneficiary of scientifically-validated therapy hailed as the “best of the best”. That therapy came with a steep price tag that the District paid for, however, which can total as much as $100,000 per year – just for a single child. Forty hours of intensive intervention, in our home, was provided for him, for four years running. Few families would ever realize (or could ever dream of) such a level of educational service for their child. While we spent endless hours every day creating materials and advocating with our school district to enhance our son’s educational progress, we were more than grateful for the help and the people we had on our side. We shared a great desire to pay our blessings forward, in some way, to the millions of parents who were just like the Becks.
How ridiculous it was that there wasn’t a more affordable, accessible and effective educational “system” for children with autism! How heartbreaking it was that parents who were already stretched beyond their emotional, psychological and financial limits were each experiencing the same needs we were, but had nowhere to turn for help. How inexcusable it was that almost all of the funding in the autism world never trickled down to directly benefit children with autism and their families. How sad it was, instead, that the limited funding in existence found its way mostly to researchers or autism organizations mired in (and often hampered by) politics, power struggles and administrative largess. There was a tremendous and oppressive “wave” of everything wrong in the autism community – in addition to autism itself.
Looking at a landscape of the autism community is (for most, I believe) not unlike my mother-in-law looking at our Doug Webb artwork; no matter how beautiful anyone tried to paint the landscape of autism, no matter how many promises were made, no matter how compelling autism’s awful statistics, nor hopeful the kind words of sympathy or compassion, no matter how glamorous the black tie fundraisers, a transfer of passion was rarely felt or realized from any of it, by the vast community of parents who had children on the autism spectrum. After all was said and done, parents had few practical solutions toward which to turn; they reaped scant direct benefits from “awareness” campaigns and received little to no practical help from the autism foundations on center stage. For the millions affected by autism spectrum disorders (today it is one in 68 children who are diagnosed), even a spotlight didn’t make the landscape any brighter or prettier than it was then or continues to be now. Daily life with autism is a picture that even a thousand words cannot adequately begin to describe.
Gary and I knew there was a clear opportunity to do something excellent. Parents had needs in so many areas. Gary and I knew we could serve many of those needs – not in a financial way, but with the resources, skills, talents and gifts we had – our organization, intellect, communication abilities, and time. We could also pool our collective strengths to move, mobilize and inspire the community-at-large toward greater destinations, new destinies and calmer waters. We could use the voice we had earned in the worldwide community of autism to empower other families of children on the autism spectrum to expect excellence instead of accepting mediocrity from the institutions, and professionals around them. In the presence of the wave of all that was wrong, and in the eye of autism’s unrelenting storm, there could be a life raft. The LifeRaft Foundation was born at 2:00 in the darkness of a New Hampshire morning and, now, fifteen years later, LifeRaft (and its upcoming revolutionary product line) is bigger than the wave. Expeditions to Excellence is part of that project.
Tapping my skills as a writer and Gary’s vast business experience we (jointly, and with the input of highly credentialed specialists) developed high quality educational products, based on proven, scientifically valid methodologies, offering measurable results. We established the LifeRaft Foundation, a 501c3 Corporation, and created transformative, cost-effective solutions for autism (and, as a significant and separate extension, high impact solutions for illiteracy) that every single parent or professional could access and employ with their learners. By harnessing – and systematizing – the very best advice and instruction from educators, consultants, lawyers, reading experts and other professionals, we established a vast array of practical, deliberate and emergent strategies yielding educational tools, empowerment models, a phonics based literacy program, and a wide selection of useful advocacy aids. Our goal? We set our sights on creating materials that would prevent other parents (and their children) from drowning or remaining adrift in the sea of failure that existed in almost every direction of the autism and special needs arena. Within such a community, where we are told that 85% of marriages wash up on the shores of divorce and where financial prudence is often thrown overboard due to a child’s autism diagnosis and its related costs, Gary and I wanted to produce something really excellent and useful that weary parents everywhere could afford, no matter what the condition of their personal or financial status. It took many sleepless nights, years and years of work, an unwavering attention to detail, and an enormous personal investment of our time, talents and treasure.
We believe that our product line of educational materials also defends against emotional hopelessness, cuts the anchors of desperation and severs the lines that have, heretofore, been tied to low expectations. Instead of merely surviving in the world of autism, instead of tossing out nets only to bring them up empty and, instead of unsuccessfully trying to bail out water faster than it comes in, we can, with great products and solutions, offer help, guidance and tangible aid – directly to parents, directly to educators, and directly for children with autism. Our comprehensive literacy system (Expeditions to Excellence) has the potential to directly reach the 40% of all children, nationwide, who are still reading way below grade level or who are functionally illiterate by the time they reach fourth grade. During the course of our long journey, the Internet arrived and made efficient, affordable web-based delivery a reality. Now, looking back on our many years of researching, creating and developing, one thing remains crystal clear: the journey picked us.
“Directly Serving Parents and Their Children” was… and still is… our personal passion statement and the force that has been wind at our backs, since that first 2:00 AM inspiration. It is also what sets us apart from other efforts, initiatives, research endeavors, autism foundations and literacy ventures. To date, Gary and I have worked without compensation or reimbursement. Through our real estate ventures, we hope to be able to continue to fund and sponsor all of our materials so that we can provide them at no cost to families everywhere around the globe.
Autism and illiteracy are not just causes; autism and illiteracy are crises of the highest magnitude. The enormity of the pain that results, from each, directly correlates to the value of the practical and affordable solutions that we offer.
In service to others and with gratitude for our many blessings,
Victoria and Gary Beck
It’s Free!
Our program is always free. Why do we provide our exclusive literacy system to millions of children around the globe at no cost? Because literacy is the foundation of all education and is critical to the future of our nation. How do we do it? With the help of people like you who call on us to help with all of your real estate needs, anywhere across America and especially in Colorado! We personally fund 100% of the costs associated with the Expeditions to Excellence – Fun and Friendly Phonics Safari!