East County educator founds The Re-Reading House

Braden Woods’ Amanda Chandler remembered sitting next to then-third grader ReAnn Kolbe listening to her read out loud. 

Kolbe was struggling.

Chandler knew her student was intelligent and applying all the reading techniques she had been taught, yet she was still having trouble.

A gut feeling told Chandler to look up the signs of dyslexia, and she started seeing them in Kolbe. Chandler worked with Kolbe’s mother to be an advocate for Kolbe to obtain a diagnosis and receive the resources she needed.

Working with Kolbe sparked Chandler’s interest in learning about dyslexia and the methods to best teach people who have dyslexia. 

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Chandler has taken the newfound passion she discovered in 2019 and started The Re-Reading House in which she works one-on-one with students who have dyslexia or other reading deficiencies. 

While trying to find ways to help students like Kolbe, Chandler discovered the Orton Gillingham approach, which breaks down reading and spelling into smaller skills involving sounds and letters. 

When Chandler was a reading interventionist at Rowlette Academy in 2020, she was trained in the Orton Gillingham approach and began working with other teachers on how to implement the approach into more classrooms. 

“It ignited this fire of, ‘How can I help other teachers know this,’ because I know that ReAnn isn’t the only ReAnn sitting in classrooms,” Chandler said. “I know other teachers and I would feel like we’re doing everything we know to do, and yet we’re not able to meet these kiddos’ needs.”

Chandler worked with Dr. Vanessa DeMocko, the school psychologist at Rowlette Academy, to understand the science and how the brain works when someone is reading and learning how to read. This inspired Chandler to go back to school and earn her masters in reading and a specialist degree in dyslexia from the University of Florida. 

Chandler helped the school implement a new curriculum focused on the science of reading. 

In April 2023, Chandler was writing in her prayer journal and said "God told her" that she would start her own business. 

“I remember writing this didn't make sense because I loved so much what I did and I didn’t see myself going anywhere else,” she said. 

But when her son Landen Chandler was diagnosed with cancer a month later and then started chemotherapy in August, she took leave through the Family Medical Leave Act. The priority became her family. 

Throughout those months, Chandler said she kept being compelled to start her own business, and that’s what she did. She began The Re-Reading House in January to be able to continue her passion of educating children.

“It was literally a leap of faith,” she said. “If you ever told me in 2019 that you’re going to be an entrepreneur and have a business, I would have been like, ‘I’m OK, no way.’”

Photo by Liz Ramos

The Re-Reading House now has more than 30 students with most being in elementary school, but there have been older students. Chandler also has taught other teachers about the science of reading and the Orton Gillingham approach so they can implement it in their classrooms. She said teaching the teachers will cause the impact to multiply as there are at least 16 students in every teacher’s class.

“It is so cool to watch the science work, to take my expertise and work one-on-one and offer specialized instruction for students that is tailored to their needs,” she said. 

Chandler said her work with each student is individualized to cater to their needs and provide the learning strategies that will best help the student be successful. 

“It’s kind of like unlocking the code of the English language with them,” Chandler said.

Working with children who have dyslexia also gives Chandler an opportunity to squash the stigma that can be associated with having dyslexia and other reading deficiencies.

She said she reminds the students and their parents that their “brain just works differently, and that’s OK.”

“This isn’t anything to be scared of,” she said. “Does it take work? Yes, it does. Is it going to take more work to train our teachers and to make shifts in schools? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s scary, and that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”