Looney Tunes Phonics?

[MelanieM]

HSBC is offering Looney Tunes Phonics this month, and I'm intrigued. My son did the sample lesson and enjoyed it; I'm thinking it might be a good fit for him.

 

Has anyone had experience with this, or with the non-Looney Tunes version? Did you find it to be a complete phonics program, or was it only suitable as a supplement?

[wtrmlnlabs]

Ha, I was just on there looking at all the things they have deals on, I was wondering about this too!! Watching for reviews too!

[Paige]

We have the non-Looney Tunes version from HSBC and I think it is worth it for that price. I think it is an excellent supplement. I'm not sure what your idea of a complete phonics program is, but I don't consider it enough. My kids still need lots of oral reading practice and they have some phonics included in their other language arts, and they went through Alphaphonics first. My youngest hasn't completed Alphahonics and I wonder about her with it. She can do most of the early lessons without help and get a good score, but with Alphaphonics she still gives me blank stares after about lesson 3- which is extremely basic! I'm not sure if she's just not interested with me and not trying or if she really doesn't know and what she's doing on click n kids is guessing well, her memorizing sight words, or what. She's a new 4, so it's not a big deal with her. My older ones doing it are reading at about a mid- 2nd grade level, maybe 3rd, right now. I use it as practice and reinforcement for them and I like it. I looked at the Looney Tunes one and I think it is very expensive compared to the other one. I haven't seen the sample, but it would need to be much more than just replacing the normal characters with Bugs Bunny and some songs before I would think the price increase is worth it.

[Plink]

It is the new version of Click-n-kids, which I am sure you can find reviews for. Personally, I'm not terribly impressed. It is just okay. There are lots of grammar mistakes that bug me, and there are minor programming glitches that frustrate the kids. For example, one day they needed to type the letter f, but it would not recognize the f key on my computer.

 

ETA: In my opinion it is a supplement, not a complete phonics program.

Edited October 6, 2011 by LibertyH

[TeachingTwins]

:iagree:

 

We use the original Click N Kids as a supplement, and it's good review and reinforcement, but I wouldn't use it as a complete phonics program.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Both of my younger sons have used the non-Looney version. (I won't do commercial characters in educational products. Blech.) ClickNKids is wonderful! I like it much better than the other online phonics programs. It provides more practice, more diverse practice, more systematic practice. It is adjustable and thorough. It's not a series of random games but has a narrator that walks the child through it. It doesn't squeak "you're fabulous!" every time a child does the right thing, but just says, "okay," to let them know they got it right.

 

By the time I was teaching my stubborn second-to-youngest child to read, I was SO done with sitting through hours and hours of "sss...aaa...ttt...sat?" It was really nice to have someone else do it for me, someone with an endlessly smiling face. ClickNKids was all I that boy needed, all that consistently got done anyway, and it taught him to read.

[MelanieM]

Thank you all for the feedback! I didn't even realize that HSBC has the non LT version... the lifetime subscription price is the same as a 6 mos sub for the LT! I don't think my kid cares as much about the LT characters (nostalgia for me, perhaps? ;)) so maybe we'll just go with that.

 

Thanks again!