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Magic Words began on the kitchen table when a young Mum was playing games to teach her three young children how to read.

Marcella Reiter had been a Primary School Teacher for many years and knew the importance of learning the 100 most frequently used words in English. These 100 words are the most important words in learning to read and write.

Learning to read the top 100 words is essential to every child's reading success.

 

Research

Marcella researched and found the most important words in learning to read and write. 
Using an old set of QANTAS (Australia's National Airline) Playing Cards with the words stuck on the face, she began inventing fun and exciting ways to engage her children in playing card games with these 100 most important words. The aim was to play for short periods of time, often, so that the children would be able to remember the words automatically. They began calling these words the "Magic Words" because they were in every book, magazine and newspaper and just "magically" appeared in everything they read!

Little did Marcella realise at the time, how rapidly her children would master these 100 most important words in reading and what dramatic acceleration it would have on their literacy skills. 

Occasionally, Marcella tutored struggling students with reading difficulties who, after playing with the "Magic Words" card games made remarkable gains in reading and writing.

 

Magic Words Games

As one mother reported; 
"This morning the teacher asked to see me; she said that Alexandra had gone up seven reading levels over the Christmas break and wanted to know what we had been doing!" 

These initial success stories gave Marcella the inspiration and passion to research the potential of using card games to engage children in learning to read. There was significant, rigorous and robust research supporting the frequent use of these 100 words in rapid reading success and that the playing of games was the most efficient way to accelerate learning. 

The exclamation of a young child whilst playing Magic Words became the company motto - 
"Learning to read while having fun is... magic!"