Who jumped up and down and said "pick me! pick me!" when it came to a product known as The Reading Game? That would be this mom! The name in and of itself had me because it describes my philosophy of learning perfectly, it should be fun! So, if we're going to learn reading AND make it a game.... I'm sold.
I received a package from the company containing my copy of The Reading Game and was pretty impressed to find a sturdy blue box that held 6 different colored illustrated story books (that are a pretty good size), and matching decks of cards that
accompany each book placed in wells within the box (so no cards sliding around, they all sit organized where they should!). Everything is very glossy and I love the bright colors, it really helps when you're working with children, especially ones that get distracted easily :-).I didn't really know what to expect as far as game play. In my mind I had envisioned more of like a Candy Land sort of board game, but, like I mentioned, there were just cards and the books in the box. After reading the parent/teacher instructions I realized that it's more of a (hopefully) high speed game of memory to be repeated 10 cards (or 5 matching pairs of words) at a time.
The first set of cards/book are red and tell a story about a Skunk (all of the books are about animals... I'm fairly certain every child will enjoy that aspect of things). My daughter and I laid out the first set of cards for the color (there are 4 sets for each color and all are labeled on the back of which set they belong to... which is great because I thought I'd have to have the word list from the book and find the cards for each grouping), and we began to play. Every time a card got flipped over we would say what was on the card and eventually she did start catching on and not having to sound out each word every time. We did a review on that set, so after she showed me that she knew the words we got to move on to the second set of cards (that she was really chewing at the bit to get to). After completing all 4 sets of cards for the book the child then knows 30 words by sight and can read the book that the cards correlate with....
... We haven't gotten that far yet, however. While my daughter enjoys playing the game, having to master a set of cards before moving on is hard for her. She really wants to see those new cards! I don't know, repeated games of memory for me can get a bit monotonous, so I wish there was some variation with the games... don't ask me what that would be, I haven't a clue, but we can only handle memory so long, especially when she's having trouble with words. On the flip side, my son can play these quickly and easily, master the words and read through the books no problems. So, perhaps the word is if you have a younger child or one with learning disabilities to not expect to fly through this one?? It doesn't bother me any. My daughter still loves to pull out The Reading Game and enjoys the time she spends playing with it. I know she'll get it all mastered and be able to retain these words, it's just a slow (but fun) go in the meantime. I've recently had her start playing with her older brother (who knows all the words) and the two of them have had a lot of fun playing together. I think it's really good that she can see him as a mentor and not have the "we're having a reading lesson now" feeling that often comes with sitting down with a parent.
To learn more about how the game works you can go here. After completing all of the games/books in the box your child will know 180 words (30 new words in each book), 23 coming from the 25 most commonly used English words and 42 from the 50 most commonly used words. There are also assessments that can be used with The Reading Game and the program meets criteria of the Common Core State Standards (which I don't really care about personally, but would appreciate if I had a picky state or needed an extra something for a portfolio, ammo for family/friends, or as a rubric for how my child was learning.)
I would recommend The Reading Game as a supplement to whatever program you are currently using. I like that the words that are being used are being learned for a specific purpose i.e. so that your child can read an entire book, as opposed to just rote memory/flash cards of words just because.
You can buy The Reading Game for $24.95 from The Reading Game Website.
To read what other crew members have said about The Reading Game feel free to go here.
*As a member of the 2011 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.*
1 comment:
Interesting. I wonder if you could make up your own version of the game, picking books your child can "earn". It wouldn't be hard to comb through a book and pull out a list of words to learn via the cards, play the "game" and then let them "earn" the book to read and then keep. I can see that working well by taking the kid to the store and letting them pick out a book (or several) that THEY are interested in and working towards making it their own. Hmmmm....things to think about.
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