Little Homeschool on the Prairie: Reading Eggs a Homeschool Review Crew

The last time I used Reading Eggs my daughter was in 3^rd grade and was struggling badly with her phonics and reading. Let’s just say that the years before 3^rd grade brought daily tears to her and to this mamma. My daughter has many learning disabilities. During 3^rd grade things changed and I seen my daughter start to understand her phonemes and have a desire to want to learn how to read-thanks to Reading Eggs making it fun for her. My son who was in Kindergarten at the time begged to do Reading Eggs also. I was pleased with the results with both of my kids. Right now you can receive a Free 4 Week Trial but, the offer will expire November 30, 2017.

My son is in 6^th and my daughter is in 9^th grade this year. I was delight to review Reading Eggs when the opportunity came up with my 2 students. I received a Six Month Subscription to Reading Eggs and with it I have access to Reading Eggs Junior-ages 2-4, Reading Eggs-ages 3-7, and Reading Eggspress-ages 7-13 grades 1-6, and Mathseeds-ages 3-9.

Reading Eggs is an online interactive program. It can be used with a PC or with tablets. You can see if your device meets the requirement here.

On the main page you have tabs to navigate the website.

Family Dashboard -displays your students and gives you the option to switch from to Reading Eggs Junior, Reading Eggs, and Reading Eggspress, and Mathseeds.

Bonus Material-tab has Activity Sheets, Parent User Guide, Homeschool, and The Eggsperts. I’m going to focus on the Homeschool tab as it has something brand new for the homeschoolers.

This section has a full colored resource that gives you a week by week overview. It’s a detailed chart that lets you track each lesson in detail. There are 36 weeks teaching and learning sequence for language arts, math, science, and social studies for children in K-2^nd grade. You can see the details of each of the online lessons, books, and quizzes. It is broken down by lessons so it’s easy to follow if your child doesn’t start on lesson 1.

One of the printable Activity Sheets

You don’t have to have a child who is reading to start Reading Eggs as the program is designed to help non-readers develop the necessary skills to read. This online reading program will make them fall in love with reading. They have many reading games that make it so fun.

Reading Eggs is a phonics based program that teaches the phonemic awareness along with teaching your child sight words. Vocabulary is emphasized and comprehension to understand what they are reading is a high priority. They are asked multiply choice questions to see if the comprehension is there with each step. It is so much more than reading and comprehension.

I’m going to first briefly talk about the Reading Eggs ages 3-7.

Before you start you can take an assessment test to determine where you start on the map or you can just start at the beginning. Your child works their way around this map that looks like a game board. Each step on the game board is a lesson which will teach the phonemes. Each lesson builds upon one another. They have animated characters to guide and teach you. Everything is colorful, fun, and engaging with songs, games, and worksheets that are full color. Eventually you will be introduced to books to read. The books in this stage have an audio button that you can press to have the book read to you.

Your kids will see a dashboard that keeps track of their level and their golden eggs which allows your child to purchase items for their virtual world. You can also create your own avatar and purchase items with your golden eggs. They earn awards throughout this online reading program.

Reading Eggspress

My children have been using the Reading Eggspress. Both Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress are similar in many ways but are geared toward the attended ages. While Reading Eggs is great for learning to read or to hone those skills Reading Eggpress focuses on comprehension and many concepts needed to be successful to become a fluent reader. You will also be learning vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and other concepts.

You also have the same option to take a placement test or you can just start at the beginning of the map.

As a parent I can adjust their level at anytime and I also receive progress reports on each child by email.

Each time you open the program you see a progress report it will give you a progress report at the bottom half of the page on each of the sections. You can also adjust your students’ levels or have them redo the placement test.

Reading Eggspress as my daughter will explain it to you has a floating rotating island in the sky that focuses on different skills that is divided into sections. That is how she describes the Reading Eggspress world!

Let’s talk about those sections. The topic half is the area is what I’m going to call the learning center of the program to earn golden eggs.

My Lessons -takes you to your map. You will see the number that you are on the map. This has an assigned book tied to each lesson. You will go through several concepts like spelling, vocabulary, reading, grammar, comprehension, and other concepts.

You earn the golden egg as an incentive when you complete activities. The golden eggs can be used to buy pets, clothes, and accessories for your house. Another incentive is collecting trading cards. In the lessons that my kids have done you have to read books and answer the questions. For you to move to the next level you have multi choice questions that you need to answer correction. The questions include grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension questions from the books. You to have a certain percentage to advance or you’ll have to redo it to move on.

English Skills- has been just spelling for the lessons my kids have done.

The Stadium- works on specific skills like spelling, grammar, vocabulary, and even sentence structures. There are four games Spelling, Grammar, Vocabulary, and Usage. Each game you can choose the level easy or difficult. You can either compete with others who are playing online or what they call World Practice. You answer multiply questions to win against your component.

The Library -is just that and filled with a plethora of non-fiction and fiction online books. There is a variety of books for everyone. I’m sure your child will not have an issue finding a topic that they enjoy. The books do not have an audio button at this age range to have the book read out loud.

Targets - shows your achievements within the program. It reminds me of goals you have to meet like completing 50 Reading Lessons, or get a pet.

The bottom half is where you can see hold your achievements and use those well earned golden eggs.

The Mall- is where you use those golden eggs to buy different things from clothes, pets, and a variety of fun things to use in your virtual world. My daughter calls this section, “The Reward Area”.

The Apartment- is where you can personalize your avatar, view your earned trading cards & trophies, or decorate your apartment. It also has a game called Quote Quest. You can earn more golden eggs if you can find quotes from books. Your pet/pets are also in your apartment.

Trophy Room-is where you display all your trophies along with your stats.

Arcade-has 11 different learning games that require golden eggs to play them.

In the top left corner on the student page they can see their progress. It displays what lesson you are on, English Spelling Skills, how many Targets you have met, how many trading cards have earned, and how many golden eggs you received for the current week and all time eggs earned.

Mathseeds is laid out in the same as Reading Eggs using a map to navigate the different levels. Just like the online reading you can start at the beginning or take a placement test. You can build a virtual world by earning golden acorns. All your basic math concepts are taught and they build upon one another. It’s for ages 3-9. My kids are beyond the age range in their skill level so we haven’t used this portion.

How Did I use Reading Eggs in my Homeschool?

Both of my kid’s grades 6^th and my special needs daughter 9^th grade have been using the Reading Eggspress.

Both of the kids took the placement test. My son started at Level 105 and my daughter at Level 1. We typically work 3 lessons a week or more.

My daughter absolutely loves Reading Eggs. I have to make sure that she does all of her other school work first. She can literally spend an hour or more learning and playing. My rule for her to play is that she always has to start with her map first and complete one lesson before she can venture into the other parts of the program. She loves challenging herself to get as many golden eggs as possible so she can add items into her virtual world. This is my daughters learning style and she thrives with this style of online reading. She still struggles with reading. My goodness we have came a long way to get where she is today.

My son on the other hand spends 20-30 minutes on each lesson. He likes to earn the golden eggs to make his virtual world as silly as possible. My son’s favorite part it the playing in the Stadium. He likes competing with other players.

Reading Egg is a wonderful program. It’s fun, interactive, and you are learning at the same time.

Other members from the Homeschool Review Crew have been reviewing Reading Eggs also so stop by their blogs and see what they have to say.