Jeremiah 29:11 Mom: Reading Kingdom

Product:

The Reading Kingdom is a fun online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level. Before the child begins the program, he/she is evaluated and placed in the appropriate level in the program. "This means that the program works for almost all children in this age range including early readers, accelerated readers ,and struggling readers." Since the program is able to be customized to the level of the individual child, Reading Kingdom is an ideal program for teaching children at all levels.The time it takes for a child to complete the program varies on his/her skills. It will take about 12-15 months for the student to complete the entire set of components. This is assuming the child will be completing 4 to 5 sessions a week. Many children may move quicker if some of the skills have already been acquired. Reading Kingdom teaches six skills Sequencing, Motor Skills, Sounds, Meaning, Grammar, and Comprehension.

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Reading Kingdom offers a free 30 day trial. Once you subscribe to the program the cost will be $19.99/month (with no monthly minimum), or $199.99 per year (20% off). If there are additional children in your account you will receive 50% off ($9.99/month or $99.99/year).

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My Experience:

One of the options that I appreciated about the program was the different levels the on-line program offers. I also appreciated being able to have my daughter assessed with The Progress Check at the end of each of the levels of reading/writing. This information showed if she had mastered that particular level. This was very beneficial for me because I was able to use the information for her annual review. Something that I also found beneficial was how Reading Kingdom would provide a set of review activities to bring my daughter to the level needed for continued progress when she would misspell a word. The activities enabled her to overcome any errors she had committed. The problem with the activities were that she found them to be a bit boring. She would complained that there were to many of them. I do understand what the program was trying to achieve by having the student complete different activities using the same word that was misspelled. Something that she did enjoy about the program was earning points per activity she would complete correctly. Once she would acquire a certain amount of points for finishing the activity, she would be able to open her Reading Kingdom Passport Book. Once she opened it there would be a virtual stamp on the page of the book. Even though at first earning the points was motivating to her, later on she did not want to complete the assignments. She complained about the amount of points needed to be acquired to "open" the Passport. Having to wait so long to be able to earn a certain number of points to open the book was a bit discouraging to her. I appreciated that the program was structured to allow my daughter to skip words she already knew how to read and write. After a very short time she was able to use the program on her own. I appreciated being able to log into my account and view a report of my daughter's progress. The reports were also emailed to me. Reading Kingdom is complete for its purpose and I would recommend it.

Overall Thoughts:

One of my favorite options of this program were the reports. I'm a certified teacher and seeing results is very important to me. Having the options for the student to acquire points was also a bit motivating to my daughter. The review activities were long and this would discourage her from wanting to complete them. The initial evaluation was also important to me. Even though the activities were a bit boring to her (because she already knew many of the assignments), I appreciated having the opportunity to make sure she would be placed in the proper level. Reading Kingdom also provided the opportunity for my daughter to complete the activity on her own which gave me the possibility of taking care of other things.This was definitely a mixed review. I appreciated many aspects of the program but my daughter really gave me a hard time to finish the activities.