Unlimited Dreams owner starting new channel to help kids improve literacy

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) - Amanda Cooley, the owner of the Unlimited Dreams Christian Learning Center, is starting a read-along YouTube channel for parents who want to help their children improve their literacy.

Cooley once said in a blog that she could teach dirt how to read, and some folks wanted to know how she got started.

“My grandmother, she was about 74 because I was four years old, and she taught me how to read right here on these very steps at this house,” Cooley said.

Cooley says the first book her grandmother taught her how to read was the Bible.

“I could remember her telling me some words, and she would be like, ‘Now you do it, now you repeat, now you do it.”

Cooley’s mother always told her that everything is a teachable moment, and that is a phrase that she lives by to this day.

Even in the midst of her grandmother doing work around the house, she would still find time to help her granddaughter with her reading.

“You could look in the house right there, she would be washing, and me and her would sit on these steps, and I would be reading a book. She would be right there, and I would be right here reading.”

Now, with the start of this YouTube channel, “Reading with Mrs. Amanda," Cooley hopes to help kids around the world improve their reading skills, but first, she wants to start in the city where her reading journey began.

“My ultimate goal is to bring literacy to the Pine Belt and beyond, but we want to start at home,” she said. “We always tell people that charity don’t go out, charity starts at home, so we want everybody to tune in.”

Videos will be uploaded on the first and third Mondays of every month.

The first video will air at 9 a.m Central Time, and Cooley will be reading “Everywhere in Mississippi” by Laurie Parker.

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