Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity. ~ Margaret D. Nadald

Our Father also gifted us with the nature to nurture, keen sensitivity to the Spirit, selflessness, discernment, and heroic faith. No wonder our Father placed us at the heart of the family and thus at the center of the plan of salvation. We are the Lord's secret weapon. ~ Sheri Dew


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02 March 2012

TOS Review - Reading Eggs


When asking my daughter what she thought of Reading Eggs her first response was "cool!" I have to agree :-)

Reading Eggs is a really fantastic program that helps children build all of the skills necessary to be confident readers... all while having lots of fun!

I tried this program out on my ever so dyslexic 5 1/2 year, and we both have loved it. This is one program that she asks to use everyday (she just asked about it right now in fact! *laugh*). I had her start at the very beginning of the program with phonics etc, although there are options if your starting with kids that already read some. Meeting her was a cute duck that tracks her progress along a path. When going into the first lesson we meet another character, an ant, who introduces the letter that the child is working on, tells the child the sound the letter makes, has the child click on the letter coordinating with that sound, sings songs, acts silly, and is my daughters FAVORITE. The child is then guided through more activities with the same letter, ending with making "sound books" (which is also a highlight for my daughter). The sound books allow the child to find the written words to put with pictures.

I think the progression from learning the phonics of a letter clear through putting it to use in words is seamless. The creators of this program should be VERY happy with themselves.

We have a slow internet connection here, so my daughter has also had the opportunity to try out Reading Eggs clever egg catching game that plays while her next page is loading. So smart! It keeps the child interacting and engaged during loading so they don't lose interest.

I think the only think that I don't care for is the actual game section.... which kids of course love! What can I say, I'm a prude :-D. I think the program by itself is fun and very well put together and doesn't need a supplement of activities. That being said, the games are educational from what I've seen, and the option to dress your progress duck in different clothes using the coins one's earned is fun for the kids. Maybe my issue is more that I can't tell if there's a time limit for the games. It seemed like my daughter spent more time away from the lesson then I cared for.

Anyway! Back to my pros, Reading Eggs also tracks the child's progress and is really user friendly. I highly recommend it!

Reading eggs can be used for children ages 3-13.... and there's a FREE TRIAL! . Reading eggs can be purchased by creating a login and then selecting "Purchase Reading Eggs" on your dashboard. Then the options for a monthly $9.95, 6 moth $49.95, or 12 month $75 subscription come up. A nice break for parents with multiple children is that they offer 50% of for additional children getting the same package. Definitely a bonus!

We've really enjoyed this program and has improved my daughters understanding and confidence with letter sounds and relating them to words. To see what other crew members are saying about this product you can go here.

*As a member of the 2012 TOS Homeschool Crew I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review of its content. I have not received any other compensation for the opinions stated here, and they were not promised a positive review.*

4 comments:

crazy4boys said...

Do you like this better than Ooka Island? Or is it good but different? We tried the free trial for Ooka and Zeke loved it for a day or two and then he said he never wanted to play again. So he stopped. Now, about 5 months later he's been asking to play again. Has this sustained her interest or do you see it waning?

Gracias, chica.

Cherie said...

I would choose this over Ooka Island. While I like that program too and she enjoyed it a lot, her interest in this is a lot higher... And I think she gets more out of it. Definitely do the free trial and maybe even a month trial to get a good feel for it. The only problem I can maybe see is if he feels like the animation is too much for kids? Try it out though!

Cherie said...

Oh, and she only gets sick of it after she's been working on it for a longtime in one sitting. Even then she's quick to ask to play again within a few hours. She's literally asked to play daily over the last 6 weeks that we've had it.

Meghan said...

We used Reading Eggs for our daughter when she was 5 and she loved it. She did get frustrated with it when it got too challenging. -meghan