Hey folks! I don't know if you know or
not, but I am an affiliate with Educents. You may have seen
some of my gift guide posts around Christmas, most recently. They are
always offering sweet deals on stuff, holding giveaways, giving away
free trials through their
affiliates, etc. I was recently able to take advantage of a 28 day
free trial to Reading Eggs through Educents. Myka and I have only
been trying it out for a few days, but we both love it so much that I
felt the need to share about it with you all!
Reading Eggs is an online program
geared towards 3-7 year olds. (It also includes Reading Eggspress for
advanced readers 7-13 years old.) As you can imagine, the end goal of
it is to help your youngsters learn to read and, perhaps more
importantly, develop a love
of reading. However, this program is a bit different from such
programs as Hooked on Phonics (at least the little bit of it that I
have explored) in that it first teaches letter recognition, which is
something Myka, my 4 year old, REALLY needs to work on! For this
reason, I knew we had to give this a try and was excited to!
When
you first start the program, you are given two options. You can
choose to start at the very beginning, like we did, or have your
child complete an assessment test to see where they should start, if
they have some previous knowledge of letters and such. From what I
can tell so far from the option we chose, the letter recognition
portion starts out with “common letters”. For example, Myka just
started lesson 3 this evening, which focuses on letter “I” and
her first two lessons were on “M” and “S”.
Now
that you know a little about Reading Eggs, here are some other
aspects I/we like about it:
*It's
engaging for young kids. Myka feels like she is playing games, which
she is, but I think she realizes she's learning too, so it's a
win/win!
*You
can have progress reports on your child's progress sent to your
email.
*For
kids who can't read at all yet there is an audio option on some of
the games that require it. For example, there is a game where you
must choose which picture starts with the letter you are currently
working on. So, even if you're not sure what the picture is supposed
to be or you are unable to sit with your child and help them when
needed, they are able to complete it on their own.
*I
like that most of the games say the sound the letter makes instead of
the letter name itself. I feel like this will really help with
phonemic awareness.
*You
can stop in the middle of a lesson and pick back up where you left
off. You can also repeat lessons if they need to work on that
particular area more.
*I
kind of like that Reading Eggs is an online program so your child
isn't just able to play it on your home computer. However, with our
crummy internet situation, I kind of wish it was a download.
*Depending
on what subscription you choose, you can also have access to their
math program, MathSeeds...
To be
totally honest here, Myka has been much more interested in the
MathSeeds portion. Don't get me wrong: I'm happy that she takes after
her dad and naturally gravitates towards math and science, but the
main reason I wanted to try this program out was so she could work on
letter recognition! I'm not sure I would venture as far as saying
she's behind in this area, but I'm afraid she will be before long if
we don't really buckle down. I know she'll learn letters and how to
read eventually, but like any parent, I just don't want to see her
fall behind. Not to mention I'll feel like I'm failing her since I'M
the teacher!
Shapes and patterns are included in the math portion too!
Whether
you let your children “play” on the computer much or not, I
highly recommend checking out Reading Eggs and MathSeeds. My 4 year
old definitely still needs some help with the reading/letter
recognition portion, but I can see the gears turning in her head. :)
Plus, it's only been a few days! I don't expect miracles overnight.
(Though wouldn't that be nice!) She is doing excellent on the math
portion. It has really helped solidify the numbers she already knows.
You
can check out both programs for yourself on their website
(don't forget to sign up for your own free trial!) and stay up-to-date with them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube.
Mixed Bag Mama was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own.
Mixed Bag Mama was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own and may differ from your own.
Nice article, thank you for the sharing
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this. I have heard of Reading Eggs before - but didn't really know what it was all about. I think my homeschoolers friends will be interested in this article too. :) #FabFridayPost
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