Sunday, February 26, 2012

TOS Review - Reading Eggs

Teaching Julianna how to read has become my homeschooling Achilles heel. I have tried many different approaches...which could be part of the problem.  Anyway, recently we had the opportunity of to review an online reading program called Reading Eggs.


Some information about the learning process behind the Reading Eggs program from their website:

1. Learn skillsChildren complete animated online lessons where they learn essential reading skills. The variety of fun activities within each lesson provides the repetition needed for these skills to become part of the child’s long term memory.

2 Read books:  Children gain confidence by reading books online that only contain words they have already learnt in the program. For further reinforcement, they can also read the real books at home if they have the Reading Eggs book packs.

3. Earn rewards: Children earn golden eggs as rewards for work completed. They can use these eggs to buy reward games.

4. Quiz:  After 10 lessons, children complete a Mastery Quiz. This provides you with a report of what your child is learning. Children can repeat the online lessons as many times as they like. Young children enjoy repetition and it has great benefits too, as it helps them to learn.

It truly is a wonderful experience to watch a child learn a new skill. And when that skill is as important as learning to read, you’ll love being part of that experience. We wish you much enjoyment in the journey you’re about to begin with your child.
My musings:
Reading Eggs is a colorful, fun, educational experience.  It wasn't a big hit in our house, though.  I don't know if it moves a little too slowly through the activities or if maybe I'm throwing too many different things at her (all moving at different levels and using different methods to teach reading).  I think if I had done this program when she was younger, maybe we would have had better success.  For a preschooler, I would definitely recommend Reading Eggs, but it didn't work for Julianna.  They do have a more advanced level called Reading Eggspress, but she's not ready for that yet.

Details:
Reading Eggs offers two programs:  Reading Eggs (3-7 yr, setting the stage for reading and then building on it) and Reading Eggspress (7-13 yr, continue strengthening the skills they have learned.)  They offer a free trial, so if you have an emerging reader or just want to give your older reader some extra practice, check out their program.  After the free trial, subscriptions run monthly to yearly.

** As a member of TOS Homeschool Crew, I received a trial subscription of Reading Eggs in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was given. **

3 comments:

Miss Riya said...

This is completely off topic, but I love your new background.
Back to the topic....
hang in there girlfriend. I'm praying that the Lord gives you a new inspiration and you have a reading breakthrough with Miss J.
Love,
~Me

Tiff said...

We have Reading Eggspress for the boy and he loves it so we're keeping it for awhile. I love that he is excited about something that has to do with reading.

I soooo completely understand the "reading as Achilles heel" thing. I'm gonna go all hypocrite here and say "Patience...deep breaths and patience." It will come. When you are frustrated just take a moment to reflect on how lovely it is that she can develop at her own rate and not have someone else's arbitrary benchmarks hanging over your head. :) J is brilliant...it will click one day and she'll be reading like crazy and you'll hardly remember this being a frustration because you'll be too busy banging your head on the wall teaching her fractions (or how to avoid run-on sentences! Lol!)

Jessica said...

I think you should create your own reading program!
And I agree with Tiff, it will click one day and she'll probably jump straight to reading novels! :)