About Literate Kids

Hi, I’m Kerry Whitney, an experienced primary school teacher and the founder of Literate Kids.

In 1986, I gave birth to my first child and in 1988 my second. I taught both my children to read and write before they commenced primary school, and judging by the work that was being brought home, I was shocked to discover that their teachers had failed to recognise their abilities. When their enthusiasm for school began to wane, I talked to their teachers, but felt dismissed as a ‘pushy mother’ which was never the case.

To keep my children interested and enthused learners, I developed fun mini lessons to do with them during homework time. My lessons incorporated spelling games, reading games, writing games and maths-for-a-purpose games.

Eventually my passion for teaching overcame me and I enrolled in a Bachelor of Primary Education degree, graduating from Southern Cross University in 2001. A single mother, I studied while supporting my family by simultaneously holding down two jobs, but I still managed to give my children quality time with their homework.

One of the key roles of a teacher is to make each and every student feel valued and accepted, no matter who they are or where they come from. As an educator, it has been a privilege to have the opportunity to work with children from all walks of life and situations, and I'm proud to have been a part of their lives.

As parents, we want the very best for our children, and when we see them struggling and not understanding their schoolwork, we do our best to help them. The thing is though, that so many parents want to help but don’t know where to start or what to do. I hear so often, “Oh, I can’t do that. I don’t have the patience.”

My response is, “Yes you do.  The reason why you say this is because you are anxious and fearful that your child is lagging behind the rest of the class. It is this fear that makes you frustrated when your child can’t recognise a word or understand a concept, even though you have gone over it a thousand times."

As parents, we need to remember back to when we were children and how we felt when we didn’t understand a concept or couldn’t remember how to spell a word. It is no different for today’s children, except for the enormous amount of pressure to achieve the level of education expected of them.

Adults do not work well under pressure, and the same goes for children. I am a strong advocate of children learning when they are ready. As a teacher, one can plant so many seeds, but conditions must be right before a seed can grow into a plant.

My teaching philosophy is simple - accept every child, do not judge or label, do not listen to any negative comments from anyone about a child, observe and work out how each child learns, never put pressure on any child, understand where the child is having problems, draw attention to the child’s strengths and not their weaknesses, treat every parent and caregiver with respect, and always remember that as adults we like to feel accepted and understood -  children are no different, just younger.

And that's why I've created Literate Kids - to give you, the parent, age-appropriate skills, rules and strategies that will help your child learn and grow.

Our workshops have been created for parents who want to help their kids but are unsure...

Literate Kids workshops are a fun couple of hours filled with age-appropriate skills, strategies and rules with easily understood information and instructions. You will leave our course with ideas and strategies, a list of recommended resources as well as the knowledge and confidence to spot possible problems with your children’s learning.

For more information on our workshops, please click on one of the buttons below. 

Please, don’t leave the future success and happiness of your children to chance - invest a few hours of your time in these skills…

For further information, please contact us by clicking here.

Until next we speak,