Home Grown Hearts Academy Homeschool Blog: Reading Kingdom ~ REVIEW

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Reading Kingdom ~ REVIEW

Two of my daughters were recently blessed with the opportunity to review Reading Kingdom Online from Reading Kingdom. Online reading programs are a big deal in our home, because reading isn't something that has came easy for my girls. We have used many programs in the past and I couldn't be more pleased with this one.

What is Reading Kingdom Online?

The Reading Kingdom is a fun, easy-to-use online reading program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level. Reading Kingdom's system was developed by Dr. Marion Blank, a world renowned expert on literacy and the Director of the Light on Learning Institute at Columbia University. They use a 6 skill model of reading instruction that incorporates elements of phonics and whole language while teaching additional skills required for reading and writing success without requiring kids to learn any complicated rules. The fact that my daughters didn't have to learn a bunch of complicated rules was a huge blessing. The following are the six areas of reading it teaches: Phonics, Sequencing, Writing, Meaning, Grammar, and Comprehension. It is recommended to use the program at least three times per week.

How we used Reading Kingdom Online My daughters love the program so much that they actually use it more than three times per week. One of my daughters, Gracie has an average of 4.3 days a week and she is pretty proud of that. I can't believe how far she has came in the short few weeks we have reviewed the program.

She has always struggled with reading and writing and in these short few weeks she has not only advanced through the program fairly fast, but she has also retained the information she has been learning. That is a huge blessing for her and me as well. We have used programs before that they have done well within the program, but haven't retained the information. This hasn't been the case with Reading Kingdom. She enjoys logging in and completing her lessons and sometimes even asks if she can continue on. Of course, I say yes! A daughter asking to do her reading and writing assignments is incredible. I'm so thankful that we have finally found a program that she enjoys and learns so well with. We will for sure be continuing on with this program in our studies.

One of things that I enjoy about this program is that the students begin with a placement test to determine where to start in Reading Kingdom. This places them in the correct portion of the program that is going to benefit them the best. It was important for me to step back and not help my daughters so that they would be placed in the correct area. My youngest wasn't pleased at first because she had to start from the very beginning, letter land. She felt like she already knew those areas and was able to finish those areas with ease and move up in the program. After she made it to level one she began to appreciate the program a lot better and also enjoyed logging in and completing her lessons. She wasn't as enthusiastic as her sister about completing more than she needed. However, I was just thankful that she does enjoy the program and does get her work completed.

Another thing I enjoy about the program is the fact that I have to ability to download and print student reports. I felt like this was a nice addition to the program and helpful in seeing my daughters progress. There is even a spot to download student diplomas for when the finish the program. They will love having that and I can't wait to be able to print one for both daughters.

Final Thought As you can probably already tell, we loved Reading Kingdom and highly recommend it. It is a program that we will stick with and I can't wait to see how much more my daughters learn with it.