Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Reading Kingdom is Helping My 6 Year Old in Our Homeschool

Teaching my children to read wasn't working very well the first time I tried homeschooling. I'm just not as good teaching the basics as I am in continuing the lessons that follow. However, I am no longer floundering in this! I am currently using Reading Kingdom to help my 5 year old in learning to read. And she loves it! 

*Disclaimer: I was offered the chance to try out their program in exchange for sharing my honest review. All opinions are my own. I was not otherwise paid or endorsed for this review.*

My daughter loves to read, or rather to be read to. But she wants to read her books, by herself. Whenever and wherever. I have taught her the letters, in both reading and writing them. So she had better understanding in the concepts taught by Reading Kingdom. 

How does it work? 

First, there is an assessment. As a parent who has been described as a helicopter mom, you need to remember that it is important for the program to know where your child ranks on the reading ladder. This assessment will tweak the lessons to start them where they need to be. Start too easy, kids get bored. Start too hard, kids get frustrated and give up. 

Your child needs to do 2 lessons a day, for at least 4 days a week for the best results. And these are online. My daughter hasn't had much tech time. I do that on purpose. But this is not only helping her learn to read and spell words, but also to learn how to work a keyboard and mouse. I know most kids are born with a tablet these days, but she wasn't. So it took some getting used to on her part. 

The lessons will then walk the child through reading steps. Letters that are put together in words, how to recognize words that are missing letters, and how to fill in blanks to create the word.  

Where there difficulties in using the program?

For me, remembering to sign her on the laptop was the tricky part. Thankfully, she enjoys it so much, she reminds me! 

The lessons are pretty easy to follow along with. The instructions are sometimes confusing. She has had issues knowing how to click the letters and not have it come as the wrong answer. 

It did take some getting used to. However, the program was very well thought out.  

Good for many kids!

Whether you are a homeschool Mom needing help to get your kid started in reading, or just want your young one to get a headstart, it can be used either way.  It can stand alone as a reading guide. Or it can supplement a child who is learning off-screen. 

Options

You can sign up for a free trial to see if this is something that will work for you child(ren). Or you can purchase the subscription to it. They have two options. Monthly is about $20 or you can get the year plan for $200. That is the first child. If you have multiple, each one after that is half off the original pricing. 

So check them out and let me know what you think! 

Monday, June 7, 2021

Summer Reading Has Begun

Summer is here! And with it, my kids and I are again participating in the reading program with our library. Need to print off the log for Barnes & Noble too...

                                 I think the majority of these were supplied by my mom alone.

My mother sent about a truckload of books (not really exaggerating on this!) My kids and I are all proof that reading truly promotes literacy. All 3 of the school aged children are above their grade levels in language arts. Even my oldest, who has ADHD and writes in chicken scratch, has excelled in comparison to other kids his age. It makes me quite proud. This summer, we are going to put those reading skills to their paces. 

My husband and I decided to home school. This past year has been horrendous as far as public school goes. And I, for one, was fed up. Truthfully, it is a shame we didn't start sooner. My oldest sons grades began slipping and he spent more time telling me what other kids were doing or saying than he did on what he was learning academically. At 12 year old, he can tell me more about porn, watching banned videos on YouTube at school, or evolution and how his teacher says things that make me a liar than he can about fractions and division. My 8 year old spent too much time hanging with a girl who had "family troubles" according to their teacher. She started smart mouthing the teacher and then me. Stopped doing her homework. Stopped caring about the answers she put down. After all, her 'friend' did it, so why couldn't she? Hmm... Because your Mama won't put up with a brat child! 

                            The beginning of our historical adventure lies within these pages.

I could go on, but this post isn't so much about that as it is about my first step into this new journey. Which starts this summer. Home schooling isn't usually done according to mainstream school schedules. It is done with the parents schedule in mind. Which means summer can be a great time to do school work! We are going to learn how to write proper book reports. And the first one is going to be on.... drumroll please... Pirates! Yep! This nerdy Mama is going to teach them some history. Starting with pirates. What they did, who they were (the notorious ones at least) and why they were such a cool big thing in their time. My mom sent a great book to get us started. She also sent the Pirates of the Caribbean movie - Dead Men Tell No Tales. It was the only one I didn't have. I'm thinking a marathon might be in order. She also sent Treasure Island for us to read together and the movie to watch. It has that one actor from Lord of the Rings in it... I only think of him as Frodo Baggins now... Anyhow, we are going to sorta have a learning party. There was even a board game included. All this will be followed by a book report. I think kids learn best when they are immersed and having fun. I know I did. The things I remember from my school days were the things I genuinely enjoyed. Still do! Pirate history is going to be their first lesson.

To add to the fun, I think these movies give a decent representation of piracy. 

Except with Captain Jack Sparrow...

What about you? What books are you reading? Are you participating in any challenges? I'm also participating in Goodreads summer reading challenge. For that one, I set how many books I want to read this year. Then I enter each book I read. I also prefer to leave a review on each one. I'm over the halfway point already. I think I low balled my goal and need to up it. Again. But that is how a bookworm rolls! Leave me a comment below and let me know. I love hearing from you guys!

Saturday, August 8, 2015

HEB summer reading program completion!

So proud of my kiddos for completing the Summer Reading List for HEB. They got their certificates, shirts and pencils in the mail. Makes a nerd mommy proud! 
Remember, reading encourages imagination. It strengthens the mind and language skills. And it only takes 15 minutes a day. 

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Reading Eggs review via US Family Guide

Recently I mentioned a promotion being sent out from US Family Guide for a website called Reading Eggs. As home schooling mom, I can't tell you how much help this has been for me. It helps your child starting at age three, to learn reading and math skills. The Math Seeds is a new addition to their service.
First you sign up for a trial. The free trial lasts for two weeks I believe. No credit card is required for this. Simply put in basic information like your name and email address. Then you put in your child's name and age. Your child (or children if you have more than one) can take a practice test that allows Reading Eggs to know which level they need to start on. I love this option since you never want to start a child at the basics if they are ready for an advanced level. It causes them to be bored and give up far quicker.
After your child is at the correct level, they can begin their lessons. Its simple but so much fun that my boys actually fought over who could go first. I had to start timing them and keep one of them busy. Then if they both got to computer at the same time, they would tell each other what the answers were. My boys are ages 3 and 4 (almost 5) years old.
I love how the lessons are voiced over by proper English accented people. Although, you might need some good speakers as I've noticed there are a couple words they have said that can be confusing to American English speaking children. It does remind me of how awful I pronounce some words, being raised in the South....
As the child goes through the lessons and completes sections, they are awards Eggs. These Eggs can be used to purchase items for their "home" and avatar as well as games they can play at the Arcade.
The avatar can be personalized to whatever they want it to be with the many things they offer. After completing so many sections, they are awarded "pets" that live in the garden next to their home.
When we first signed up, I had them using my laptop hooked up to our TV. Then my husband pulled out an older computer for them to use.
There are many other things they can do besides the lessons.
 Start with this, then you can go to the Lessons, to a Playroom with music and exploration options, the Music CafĂ© that has songs from the lessons and games they play, and so much more! It really does give them hours of learning fun.

So if you want to check it out and see more about them, check out their website. Look it over closely. They have even been emailing me offers for 16-50% off to sign up for the service after my trial ends. Pricing is for 6 or 12 month subscriptions that have various options.
Its really great if you need help as a home schooling parent or even if your child just needs an extra boost like they would have with tutoring. They have also added the ability to take it on the go with apps for the iPhone and iPad! They have various apps that are free and some that you can purchase. I've been putting them on my kids iPad for those trips where they get bored.

The only issue I had with them, was that at times, it wouldn't load. Mostly the Math Seeds. After I contacted them, I found out that they work better with Google Chrome or an updated version of Windows. My boys computer hasn't been updated yet, so that was something they had to do on my laptop. The help desk sent an email that was detailed with instructions on how to fix the problem:
Please note that there are currently some known issues with Mathseeds working on a few web browsers.  Although this is a temporary situation (our tech team is hard at work making sure the program is fully compatible across all browsers), we understand that you would like to use the program immediately.  Please see below (and please read each step in succession) for a list of web browsers and possible solutions towards your problem(s):
 
I.  Please make sure that you are using  the latest version of your respective browser available for your operating system (Windows Vista and higher or MAC OSX 10.6 and higher)

a.  If you are using the latest version of your browser and it is still not functioning properly, we recommend downloading and installing Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome)
II.  If you are using Internet Explorer Version 6, 7, 8, or 9, and can’t upgrade, don’t want to upgrade, or don’t want to change your browser, please download and install Google Chrome Frame which can be located here (http://www.google.com/chromeframe?prefersystemlevel=true).  This is just a plug in that will make your browser compatible.
III.  If you are using Safari Browser or Mozilla Firefox and still experiencing problems, please note that at this time, the best solution is to download and install Google Chrome as instructed above.
IV.  If you are using the latest version of Google Chrome and still having problems, please see below:
Open a Private browsing session in Chrome (ctrl+shift+n) and try the program >> If that works then clear your cache and try again in a non-private session>> If the problem persists, try disabling your extensions: 
a.  Click the Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
b.  Select Tools.
c.  Select Extensions.
d.  disable everything
If this works, then you'll need to turn them on, one by one to see which one is affecting the program.
 
V.  If you have exhausted ALL options provided above and still experience technical problems, please click here, enter your name & email address and press “Send Details.”  This will provide us with a brief look at your system information so that we can provide an accurate response. 

You can also find them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Wordpress and on Study Island. Let me know what you think and if you would consider something like this for your child!