Launch HN: Litnerd (YC S21) – Teaching kids to read with the help of live actors
I&#x27;m a parent that just taught my 4yo preschooler to read. So I&#x27;m not really your target user, but I watched the walkthrough and read the website, and here are my reactions. Hopefully something here is useful for you:<p>- I&#x27;m honestly baffled by spending so much time on one book (program?) in a classroom context. I imagine some kids won&#x27;t be interested in the particular story, but it will go on for an entire month. I could see this damaging interest.<p>- The pace seems incredibly slow. To learn to read, you need to read a lot. But this is one book per month?<p>- The more stories a child is exposed to, the more chances there are to encounter something especially captivating for that child, and to spark an interest.<p>- It&#x27;s hard to believe how much participation there will be without seeing an example class and interactions between the students &amp; actor. The videos on the site make it seem like a completely passive experience.<p>- Craft activities seem like a distraction from reading unless the activities are grounded in literacy (e.g. letter&#x2F;word games or creations). Even then I&#x27;m kind of skeptical.<p>- I predict you&#x27;ll end up changing the name &quot;litnerd&quot;. Being a nerd is cool on HN, but elsewhere?<p>All that said, I&#x27;m a fan of your mission and understand that learning to read in a classroom is going to look a lot different than learning 1:1. But I wonder if you could leave the group instruction to teachers and go direct to kids with a more Duolingo ABC-like experience, but include live instructors&#x2F;actors. It&#x27;d be sort of like reading with a remote parent. Instructors could act out the story as you&#x27;re doing with litnerd, but also unstick kids with reading help and mini-lessons. Basically, build a literacy-specific Young Lady&#x27;s Illustrated Primer from A Diamond Age with gig economy ractors.