Review Time! Reading Eggs.

I recently discovered the opportunity to review a website in exchange for getting a 3-month free subscription. It is an exciting website called Reading Eggs. I came across this opportunity on a website entitled "The Homeschool Lounge," which I absolutely love. But this review is not about that. I'll save that for a separate post.

Reading Eggs is an online "teach your kids to read" site for children ages 3-13. I was excited to be able to try this since I have three kids in that age category. I was especially excited for Noah, my 3-year-old, to try it. And try it he did. He loves the site and wants to do it for hours every day. And I have to say that I love the site, too. In the month he has been using it, he has (honestly) learned how to read. The site really works!

To be honest, he was close to reading before we tried Reading Eggs. He has known his letter names and sounds since before he turned 3. I haven't had the time to sit down with him to help him to learn how to sound out words, though, and since he is so young, I wasn't in a hurry to. The great thing about Reading Eggs is that it has a placement test for the child to do before being assigned a level to start. Noah started at map 1, the first level, but quickly flew through the lessons.

Reading Eggs works so well because not only is it educational, it is also fun. The child earns "eggs" by doing the lessons and reading the books at the end of the lesson. The eggs can be cashed in to play fun games, add fun accessories to the child's avatar, or to purchase furniture for the avatar's "house." When Noah runs out of eggs to do the "fun" stuff, he says, "Oh, I betta do mo' lessons so I can get mo' eggs!" This keeps him motivated to do the more educated parts of the website.

I also love the fact that this website uses a phonics-based method of teaching to read, which I personally think is very important.

My two older children love this site, too. Thane is 7 and Adrianna is 6, and both are good readers. The second level of the site, called "Reading Express," has more advanced lessons which involve spelling, grammar, and reading comprehension. It also has more advanced books for the children to read to earn their eggs. My older kids enjoy both the Reading Eggs and Reading Express sections of the site, and I love that they are practicing and improving their reading skills.

Another great thing about the site is that they do progress reports to show the parents what the child has accomplished. It also shows the child's "reading age" and "comprehension age" based on the lessons they complete. Noah, so far, is at a 4.75 reading age and has learned 37 phonic skills. And he knows 4 sight words. He has learned to sound out the "at" words (cat, sat, hat, fat, etc.), "am" words (Sam, am, ham) and can recognize which word is which in simple sentences. At he is only 3.

Overall, I think this is fun, educational, and worthwhile website. I am particular about what my children spend time online doing, and this site is one I don't mind them spending time on. There is a fee for purchasing a subscription, but it is pretty reasonable. Definitely worth it if you are able to spend money on a preschool reading curriculum. One word of caution, though: for those parents who are strict about the beat of music they are comfortable with, there may be a few songs that have a bit of a "rock and roll" feel to them. Other than that, this is a site that I highly recommend to help your children learn to read and improve their reading skills.