The Southwestern Company Corporate Blog
The Southwestern Company, more specifically the Ask Me series of books, was mentioned in a February posting on the Hooked on Phonics blog. Read the blog here. It’s a great story of a Mom reading to her 3 year old son as he starts to put together words and their meaning. It also mentions the importance of reading to your children and the great rewards that both the parent and child gain.
Reading this makes me proud to work for Southwestern and have a small part in the development of children. Sometimes we here in Nashville get so caught up in helping University students start their own businesses while in school, we can easily forget the impact these students directly have on families all over North America.
How about you? Did a Southwestern dealer have a direct impact on your family? Did you make a difference in a family by selling them books? Leave a comment and tell your story!
Wow, this is awesome Geoff! Not only did I grow up with SW books but now I’m able to help families get them too. Knowing that Southwestern books have a great impact on early childhood education is such a huge reward it makes the challenges of running my own business seem so small. As SW’s leaders always teach, “No need to be nervous when your mind is on service!”
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I love the Ask Me series. I think they were my biggest hit last summer in Pittsburg.
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Awesome blog Geoff! As an employee of Southwestern, one of my favorite stories to tell involves my niece and nephew. Each time I read to them, I let them pick out the book we will read. It never fails that each time they reach for one of their beloved, yet tattered from use, SW books. A couple of months ago, I sat down to read with my nephew – 5 and niece – 3. I was amazed when we opened the My Fun With Words book and rather than me asking all the point and learn questions, my nephew took on the role of “reader” and started asking his sister all the questions I had asked him so many times before. The author of this blog is absolutely right in stating the importance of reading. We are fortunate to have such a great product line that even our 5 year olds become so engaged they can read and teach their siblings!
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Good stuff
I have had several of those special moments during the 2 summers I have sold.
The first summer (Oregon State) I met a dad who recognized the My Books because his mother, who is a speech pathologist had been using the books for years as one of the main tools in her work.
That same summer I also met a grandma who told me a crazy story. Her grandson was not interested in books at all, but he was very interested in tractors. In one of the My Books there is a tractor picture and that got him interested in the rest of the book and later on into other books also.
The most heart warming story regarding the Ask Me Why series is also from my first summer. There was a single mom and she was worried about her 2 boys who were into video games and neither of them could read because they were not interested in any books until I came along with the Ask Me set. I sat down with the family and the boys were playing some video game. I started asking them questions from the sample I had with me. After a couple of questions they got interested and came to check out what the answers are. After a few questions they did not want to stop anymore (practicing reading, that is).
There are more stories, but these are the main ones I remember clearly.
Keep up the good work guys! The products make this job worthwhile
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This is awesome! I love the Ask Me books. I remember my first summer when I stopped by a house that I thought was the home of a family with toddlers, but it was actually the grandpa. I just showed him a little bit of one of the Ask Me books so that he knew what I was doing, and he decided right then and there to get two sets–one for each of his grandkids.
Kids books are phenomenal!
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The Ask Mes were definitely the top seller for kids books in my turf last summer in Michigan!
This is exciting that other people recognize this as well!
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I remember a family I met this past summer who had an 8th grade son, who I was told read at about a 3rd grade reading level. I showed the boy the Explore and Learns, and he was so excited! When I delivered the books, he was totally into them and couldn’t wait to start reading and learning about animals and science. (“Do I have to read them in order?” “No, you can skip around!” lol) The kids books are awesome for elementary/pre-schoolers, as well as 8th graders!
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The ask me series were definitely my favorite kids books to sell last summer, because they totally just sold themselves. Its a real cool way of answering kid’s questions. Even after seeing the sticker books, I kind of wanted a set myself…=-p
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