Esse Quam Videri Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 DD4 is about done with the free trial. She loves it and will play as long as I let her, but I'm just not sure it's worth $50. Anyone regret the subscription? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwlKnits Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 It wasn't for us. I like Starfall.com much better or Funnix Reading if she's actually interested in learning to read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 My 6.5 year old is LOVING it. Obsessed with it. We're about halfway through our free trial (68 days, woot!) and I'll probably subscribe for her if I get another email w/ a discount. My 4 yr. old likes it, but doesn't have the stamina to play some of the games. She loses interest quickly and wants my help. I'll not bother getting her an acct....maybe later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esse Quam Videri Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 My 6.5 year old is LOVING it. Obsessed with it. We're about halfway through our free trial (68 days, woot!) and I'll probably subscribe for her if I get another email w/ a discount. My 4 yr. old likes it, but doesn't have the stamina to play some of the games. She loses interest quickly and wants my help. I'll not bother getting her an acct....maybe later... 68 days?? Ours was 2 weeks. What am I missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esse Quam Videri Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 It wasn't for us. I like Starfall.com much better or Funnix Reading if she's actually interested in learning to read. We've tried Starfall but she doesn't seem to enjoy it as much. I will look at Funnix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 68 days?? Ours was 2 weeks. What am I missing? :D Try these, starting with the longest first. Reading Eggs will allow you to use 2 extension codes per child. 5ABCSHOP : 5 weeks ABC1034 : 4 weeks ABC4Eggs : 4 weeks ABC88EGG : 4 weeks ABCSHOP5 : 3 weeks UKJ23TVW : 3 weeks UKJ23HAW : 3 weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 We've tried Starfall but she doesn't seem to enjoy it as much. I will look at Funnix. My girls love Starfall, too. I definitely think the $35 year-long subscription is worth it for extra content. There are tons of math games and shape puzzles and a "talking library." My youngest enjoys this a lot (we liked it well enough when it was free, but my kids seem to use the subscription "site" more frequently.) It still has the free content all there, just adds more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esse Quam Videri Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 :DTry these, starting with the longest first. Reading Eggs will allow you to use 2 extension codes per child. 5ABCSHOP : 5 weeks ABC1034 : 4 weeks ABC4Eggs : 4 weeks ABC88EGG : 4 weeks ABCSHOP5 : 3 weeks UKJ23TVW : 3 weeks UKJ23HAW : 3 weeks SWEET!!! Thank you! This solves my problem for now :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aja Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 We have used Reading Eggs, Headsprout and Clicknread (as well as several free programs). I think Reading Eggs is worth trying out if you can get a coupon code. By the end of a trial you should have an idea if it's going to work for your student. One of my kids did wonderfully with it but the other did not. I think Headsprout was not worth it even at half off. One of mine has been using Clicknread for a couple weeks now and it' been great. I love that it is a one time cost and not a monthly subscription. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Texican Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 I'm happy with it. My son is a great reader. You just have to make sure they do the lessons regularly. Your subscription will run out before you know it if you don't make time to do the lessons. Also, if they're having a hard time do them a favor, help them out, give them a hint, even tell them the answer. It won't hurt anything. I almost thought they have to struggle with the hard parts to really learn it or it wouldn't count. Luckily I changed my mind at the very begining or he would have been frusterated and probably not done. It is learning. You are teaching them. They don't have to learn the answers by themselves for it to work. Just think of it like you're still the one teaching them, just with less work and a lot of help. Don't expect them to do it by themselves, even though they can and will do a lot of it by themselves. Best bribe: We're after schoolers now so I can't do this anymore, but I used to tell my son, "It's bedtime, but if you want to stay up late studying you can." Would you believe reading eggs lessons that he wanted nothing to do with earlier in the day got done cheerfully just past bedtime. Same goes for reading books, handwriting, and math lectures on youtube. Timing is everything. On to Reading Eggs itself. This is my second year subscribing. He learned to read well the first year. This year he is learning spelling and typing. His lessons have gone from the point and click in the reading lessons, to copying simple words like "thud" and "gap" using the letters on the keyboard. The latest lessons show the word and say the word then the word dissapears and you're expected to type it. He also has the traditional mark out the mispelled words where three versions are written, two are a misspelling and one is the correct spelling. We're also using the story factory. If you haven't used it yet you need to try it before your subscription expires. Your kid chooses pictures and arrainges them in the order they want. They make up a story and you type it. The stories get better with practice. This years stories are much better than last years. I even put my kid in nanowrimo this year and we're using the story factory as a daily writing prompt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommyX8 Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 I liked it until my kids started saying words and sounds in an accent. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 I liked it until my kids started saying words and sounds in an accent. :001_smile: LOL, there is that female cat character that talks with a southern drawl. I have had a few :confused: moments with the content. For example, there is one game where the child is asked to find "uh" and your choices are like: a, m, t. Turns out, it's asking for the word "a" as in "uh cat or uh dog". Weird. Other than that little quibble, my daughter loves it. We also like ClickNRead, but it's a bit more boring (but way affordable). What DD loves about Reading Eggs is that she can earn golden eggs with each lesson, then she goes to the "store" and "buys" clothes for her avatar or furniture for her "house." :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachmejoy Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 My daughter loves it and it's the one thing we have really kept with. I got a discount on the subscription through http://www.homeschoolbuyerscoop.com and I don't regret it a bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidbits of Learning Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 I think it is great for a kindergarten child to really go through and do daily. I wouldn't do it for a young 4 year old and expect them to learn to read from it. My ds did it for a year and I loved it. The only downside is if you are wanting to finish to lesson 120 and you fall short in a year. They no longer offer monthly subscriptions. They want you to get a 6 month subscription even if you only have 20 lessons left and only need one more month b/c they now have Reading Eggspress which I do not like at all. We used it for phonics, handwriting, and all last year. I printed all the activity sheets and ds does well on lots of things that I didn't realize he was picking up b/c of writing a lot with those sheets. He is doing really well with spelling. I would also recommend getting eggy 100 on your smartphone or tablet for sight word reinforcement. I do know of a 1st grader who totally bombed his dibels test b/c of the u sound that he picked up from it. He was using it totally independent last year and picked it up as yu not uh. So I will say the accent can throw kids and they will pick it up. It is worth it if it is your main program. I don't think I would want to spend the money if I was using it as a supplement to another phonics/reading/handwriting program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 The extreme repetition was the downfall for us. It bored my dd to tears when we tried it years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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