Reading Kingdom Review
When you are teaching young ones to read it seems like you are always on the lookout for a program that excites them and makes learning easy for them. So, I was happy to get to review Reading Kingdom. This is a completely online program for teaching reading.
First of all, I had planned to have Gabe (4) use it also, but unfortunately it just didn’t click with him and he couldn’t understand what he was supposed to do with it. I do plan on trying again with him in a few months and see if he gets it then.
Jake (7) understood how to do it right off the bat. He actually did quite excellent at it. He started with typing words on an onscreen keyboard on our tablet. You can also use your desktop for this which would give keyboarding practice. They would pop a word up on the screen and letters at the bottom and you had to type the letters you saw. This was to help solidify the word in their mind. There were pictures of the word displayed to help reiterate the word. It also repeated the word multiple times out loud. Then you went on to type 2 or more words together. Again, Jake did very well at this. It has sound effects and fun parts like shooting rockets at the letters. Jake honestly wasn’t crazy about the whole thing though and I had to strongly encourage him to do it several days a week. He was particularly aggravated that they worked on the word “girls” for so long, lol. I tried to explain that that was just part of the program but he was convinced that they thought he was a girl, because why else would he need to learn to spell that. I had a big laugh over that (7 year old boys…sigh…).
It has a progress chart for each of your children and displays “started, completed, ect…” It also lets you know if they did an excellent job or if that part needs more work. This program is supposed to be for ages 4-10 and teaches them to read and write on a 3rd grade level.
Your child can take a placement test at the beginning or you can put them where you think they should be which is really handy! This would be especially good if they are struggling with something but you aren’t sure exactly what the problem is. I should mention this program is for neurotypical learners. They also have a program for children on the autism spectrum or with other learning difficulties.
The program for learning difficulties is called ASD Reading. Though I didn’t personally review this one, I did look at the program. According to their website “It requires no prerequisite skills – all children can use the program-even those who are non-verbal. It uses graphics, audio and animation extensively to reinforce meaning. It links written and spoken language so that one mirrors and reinforces the other. It provides customized instruction that adapts to each child’s specific skills and needs. It systematically assesses a child’s skills and overcomes error patterns and difficulties.”
Right now, its not a super good fit for us, however I plan on having Jake do 1-3 days a week during the summer as a learning boost and I do plan on trying Gabe on it again. Hopefully it will click this time!
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