Joy & Lauren
Hi, I’m Joy. I am a mum to one and a grandma also. I was a trainer for a well-known airline for nine years. I left the profession and completed a degree in Psychology and Counselling before training and becoming a Primary School teacher. I developed a love of teaching using visual literacy as I realised quickly that it gave young children access to characters, settings and plots through the creativity of the illustrator. All of this even before a child can read a word on the page.
After leaving full-time teaching, I tutored to keep money coming in and soon discovered that many children struggled to read. This was not due to learning difficulties because as I taught, they learned! The inability to read and write proficiently creates a stigma for the child and heightens the prevalence of low self-esteem. Yet the education system clearly is not meeting the needs of every child.
Being literate is too important to leave to chance and so Rooted in Sounds was created, where Lauren and I design training and resources for parents and educators to teach children the foundational literacy skills. I also work with Ministries of Education in the Caribbean, training teachers how to teach children to read and write effectively and run a Saturday School. I have recently become an author of a children’s book Do I Have To? – which I am very proud of. I reside in Barbados, homeland of my parents.
Hi, I’m Lauren, I am a mother to two – my eldest is midway through primary school and my youngest is heading into her final year at nursery. I qualified as a teacher in 2011 and prior to that I completed a degree in childhood studies.
I have always been interested in how children learn and develop, and, working in a variety of teaching roles enabled me to experience the learning journeys of children from different walks of life and backgrounds. Classroom teaching is very different from teaching your own children at home where you can embed learning opportunities in everyday activities. I taught both my daughters to read, with my eldest this took place during lockdown when she was 3 years old and with my youngest daughter, also 3, using the Rooted in Sounds programme.
I am passionate about designing and am delighted to combine my creativity with the ability to produce educational materials for parents and their children.
Until next time,
