INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
CEO LETTER
For more than 40 years, Learning Without Tears has been making a difference in children’s lives by giving them the foundation for a lifetime and LOVE OF LEARNING. Our dedication to better outcomes for students is rooted in building superior educational products and ongoing research and development.
We reach more than 4 MILLION STUDENTS EACH YEAR, building key foundational skills with our flagship product lines Handwriting Without Tears®, Get Set for School®, Readiness & Writing, Phonics, Reading, and Me™, and Keyboarding Without Tears®. Our Pre-K to grade 6 curricula serves diverse learners with multisensory, developmentally appropriate instruction, innovative technology, and training and support for educators.
We have grown from one amazing entrepreneur, my mom, Jan Olsen, to a team of many. We are fueled by our collective PASSION, CREATIVITY, AND INNOVATION
Learning Without Tears is a growing, thriving company reaching more students each year and building on our legacy of success—resolute in our commitment to young learners.
Our next 40 years promise to be as fulfilling and successful as the first 40.
Eric Olsen
LITERACY FOUNDATIONS
Enhance your core curriculum with Learning Without Tears® products, featuring explicit teaching and engaging practice to provide a solid foundation for literacy success.
EMERGENT WRITING
Readiness & Writing I Pre-K Get Set for School® I Pre-K
PRE-K PROGRAM
PHONICS AND READING
Phonics, Reading, and Me™ I K–3
KEYBOARDING
Keyboarding Without Tears
WRITING
Building Writers I K–5
HANDWRITING
Handwriting Without Tears® I TK–6
READINESS AND WRITING
SETTING CHILDREN UP FOR SCHOOL SUCCESS
We’ve combined our years of experience and the most relevant research about how children learn best to meet children where they are in their developmental progression. We believe our playful approach allows all young children to learn as they move, manipulate objects, build, sing, develop motor skills, and learn to form letters.
In Readiness & Writing, we use purposeful play and hands-on learning to build essential fine and gross motor skills, alphabet knowledge, coloring, pre-writing, and writing skills.
Our children progress developmentally through hands-on letter play and learning grip. They write capitals and numbers using a unique crayon stroke font and progress to writing lowercase letters using pencil and paper.
HANDWRITING
TO HELP CHILDREN READ, START BY WRITING
For over 40 years, Handwriting Without Tears® has empowered millions of children to develop fluid, legible handwriting. Our adaptable, research-based program integrates the science of reading, writing, and handwriting to meet the evolving needs of educators—providing an intuitive, customizable learning experience for students from Pre-K–6th grades.
Handwriting is a foundational skill that supports children in developing letter recognition and letter-sound knowledge, essential for reading. In fact, it’s a fundamental skill that children need to participate in school. A student’s academic skill progress to their ability to convey their thoughts in writing.
Handwriting Without Tears is built on the explicit teaching strategies that align with what we know about how students best learn handwriting. Our students succeed with multimodal teaching and expertly designed lessons.
PHONICS
PERSONALIZED PHONICS, POWERFUL RESULTS
It’s the moment that inspires and humbles every educator—when a child makes the connection between the name of a letter and the sound the letter makes. In that moment, a whole new world of possibilities opens; with systematic and explicit instruction of letter/sound relationships, the path to reading unfolds.
Phonics, Reading, and Me™ is a research-based program focusing on phonics and phonological awareness through
scaffolded practice to ensure students can read connected texts independently.
Designed for K–3 students, Phonics, Reading, and Me provides targeted, systematic, and explicit instruction through carefully crafted decodable texts. The program includes personalized, scaffolded digital practice, through voice-enabled technology, reinforcing the skills learned in the print decodable readers. Each lesson is anchored in small-group instruction, guided by a Teacher Lesson Card, helping students reach grade-level proficiency.
KEYBOARDING
BUILD DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS
Keyboarding Without Tears® teaches K–5 students the critical 21st century skill of typing while building crosscurricular knowledge. Our web-based curriculum for grades K–5 teaches typing, general computer readiness, online test prep skills, and features an award-winning digital citizenship curriculum.
Keyboarding Without Tears is research-proven to help students improve their typing skills and to prepare them for digital communications with minimal effort.
Keyboarding Without Tears is proven to make a measurable impact on elementary students’ typing proficiency. This evidence underscores the effectiveness of the curriculum in preparing students for future digital demands, equipping them with skills that are crucial for success.
WRITING
BUILDING WRITERS
Building Writers offers a carefully scaffolded approach with practice specifically designed to help K–5 students develop core writing skills. Each workbook provides support to build writing fluency, language, and vocabulary through structured, age-appropriate activities. With a developmental approach to writing, an intuitive design, and everything for supplemental writing practice in one activity workbook, Building Writers is an easy-to-use resource for increasing literacy.
Designed to supplement any writing block, Building Writers is versatile for both independent practice and whole-group activities, meeting varied student needs. Cross-curricular lessons address each main writing genre: narrative, information, and opinion. Ready-to-teach lessons and assessment checklists reduce prep time for teachers, helping students become confident, fluent writers.
GET SET FOR SCHOOL
A PLAYFUL PATH TO EARLY LEARNING SUCCESS
Get Set for School® is our complete Pre-K program, designed to help children meet essential early learning standards through purposeful play. With multimodal activities, engaging lessons, unique hands-on materials, a library of Read-Alouds, and student award-winning activity books, this program makes learning joyful and effective.
Built on the belief that Pre-K should be active, friendly, and engaging, Get Set for School brings early learning to life. It’s cross-curricular lessons and specially designed manipulatives and activities foster skill development in a way that resonates with young learners. Developed by experts and grounded in proven research, this interactive curriculum meets children where they are, encouraging growth through methods that make learning fun.
Our Pre-K students are engaged with unique, proven-effective lessons that have them building and singing their way through Pre-K. Structured, play-based activities lead to meaningful learning that fosters Kindergarten readiness.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING
Learning Without Tears’ Professional Learning builds educators’ knowledge on effectively teaching foundational early literacy skills. This collaborative process is joyfully guided by expert, authentic, and passionate facilitators to inspire and empower professionals and educators to grow, propelling them and the children they serve forward—to THRIVE.
Educators of all experience levels benefit from our interactive sessions focusing on readiness, handwriting, reading, and keyboarding, ensuring they gain valuable, applicable skills. Through our customizable Professional Services, your school or district can host a learning session with our facilitators. Choose from a range of learning plans that build upon each other to meet the needs of your entire staff, helping educators apply their knowledge to achieve full implementation success.
TESTIMONIALS
“Using the teacher’s guide, activity books and broad spectrum of manipulatives, Pre-K teachers have the tools they need to successfully prepare young children for kindergarten.”
Schronda McKnight-Burns, M. Ed., Assistant Director of Early Childhood Education
“In Handwriting Without Tears, the intertwined connections to real world, real life, and all the learning modalities facilitate learner success.”
Vanessa Brown, B.A., M.Ed., Retired Assistant Principal and ELA Coordinator
“Our students have used Keyboarding Without Tears for years. This program goes beyond nurturing students’ typing skills. It gives them the confidence with technology they need to truly succeed today.”
Mary Toomey, Assistant Superintendent
AWARDS
Learning Without Tears’ programs and products have won many awards over the years, recognizing the innovation at the heart of what we do, and the success of the students that learn with us.
