Dinner Card
If you could give your past self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Follow-up: What happened that taught you that?
Hidden skill: Reflection + summarizing
Free Detective Kit
A taste of detective training you can use tonight
No account, no credit card. Just a few of our favorite tools for building reading confidence at home, straight from the full program. Here's what's inside:
- 2 Detective Dinner Cards
- 1 Detective Training Drill
- 1 "What to say when your child says…" script
- 1 practice passage with 2 FAST-style questions
Inside the kit · 1 of 4
Detective Dinner Cards
Conversation starters that quietly build comprehension while everyone eats.
Dinner Card
If our family was a band, what would each of us play?
Follow-up: What is it about that person that made you pick that instrument?
Hidden skill: Character analysis + perspective-taking
Inside the kit · 2 of 4
Detective Training Drill
A screen-free game that secretly practices a FAST skill.
The Case of the Missing Cookie
10 min 2+
Materials
- A few household objects to set up a "crime scene": crumbs on a plate, a sock, an open book, a toy left out
How to play
- 1Send your child out of the room while you set up a scene. Example: an empty plate with crumbs, a chair pushed out, a dog toy next to it.
- 2Call in the detective. Your child has 2 minutes to name 3 clues they see. No guessing yet, just clues.
- 3Now they crack the case using the detective formula: "Clue + what I already know = my inference." They have to say: "I think ___ because ___."
- 4Reveal your story. If their answer is different but the evidence backs it up, it still counts. That's what a good inference is.
- 5Swap. Your child sets up a scene for you to solve.
The sneaky skill
Making inferences by putting clues together with background knowledge, then backing them up. FAST questions like "What can the reader infer..." are asking for exactly this.
Brain science
A mystery creates a curiosity gap, and curiosity releases dopamine. Dopamine tells the memory center of the brain to hold on to this, so the thinking that solved the case sticks too.
Easy version
No setup needed. Just describe a scene out loud: "I walked into the kitchen and saw muddy paw prints and the back door wide open. What happened? How do you know?"
Inside the kit · 3 of 4
What to say when your child says…
The right words for the hard moments, plus why they work.
When your child says…
“I can't do it.”
Usually said with tears close behind. Your instinct to rescue is love, and here's a way to help that builds confidence instead.
Don't say
- "Yes you can!"
- "Here, let me just do it."
- "Stop saying that."
Try this
- "It feels like you can't right now. Let's shrink it. What's just the very first step?"
- After they do one step: "You did that part. What's the next tiny step?"
Brain science
When a task feels too big, stress hormones flood in and working memory (the brain's thinking space) actually shrinks, so it really does get harder to think. Shrinking the task to one small step lowers the sense of threat, and each small win gives a little dopamine boost that fuels the next step.
Inside the kit · 4 of 4
Practice passage
A real Week 1 mission passage. Read it together, twice, then try the questions.
The Busy Buzz Job
A Busy Worker
1Bees may look small, but they have one of the biggest jobs in nature. Every day, bees fly from flower to flower looking for food. As they move, they help plants grow new fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Without bees, many of the foods we eat would not exist.
2When a bee lands on a flower, tiny yellow dust called pollen sticks to its legs and body. The bee carries this pollen to the next flower it visits. This is how plants make seeds and grow new fruit. Bees are doing important work even when they don't know it.
Why It Matters
3Farmers depend on bees more than almost any other animal. Apples, strawberries, blueberries, and pumpkins all need bees to grow. Some farmers even rent bees and bring them to their fields. Without these tiny workers, our grocery stores would have far less to sell.
4Bees may be small, but their work is huge. Every honeybee is a busy helper that keeps our food growing strong.
Question 1
What is the central idea of this text?
Question 2
What does the heading "Why It Matters" help the reader understand?
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