Creating Successful Readers: A Review of Reading Kingdom

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

I am excited to review Reading Kingdom with our son for a second time. We first reviewed Reading Kingdom, an online reading program that customizes to your child, in 2018. (You can read that review here: Reviewing Reading Kingdom.) Even though our second grader is quite a skilled reader, he still struggles with spelling which I think is due to the fact that he picked up reading naturally. I also think he skips over words if he is unsure of the meaning on occasion. My hope is that, by using Reading Kingdom with him, he will bring all the skills that go into being a fluent and proficient reader together – that he will bring together comprehension and recalling his favorite stories.

What is Reading Kingdom?

This online reading program uses an innovative reading system so that your child can learn to read and write successfully. It is designed for ages 4-10 (with the option for parents to change the artwork to be more appropriate for older children). There are six key reading and writing skills that are taught together so that children will become successful readers. The "Six Skill Integrated Method," developed by Dr. Marion Blank, focuses upon the following:

• Sequencing 
• Writing 
• Sounds 
• Meaning 
• Grammar
• Comprehension 

Throughout the activities (which are fun and educational), children will use the words they are learning in context. Sentences are provided in which words are used and then illustrations follow which reinforce the words being taught. 

There are five reading levels that are further divided into books. These books are then divided to teach each of the words that will be used in the book (the final lesson for that section). As your child works through the lessons, they will have the opportunity to skip lessons for words. This is the adaptive nature of Reading Kingdom. It changes to fit your child's skills and abilities. In order to ensure that your child understands each word before they reach the story to read, they will use the "Intensive Word Teaching Method" which uses four formats to teach a single word's:

1. Spelling
2. Pronunciation
3. Meaning 
4. Usage in context

I really love this graphic that Reading Kingdom provides. It shows four of the ways children learn words.

How Did We Use Reading Kingdom?

As our son had previously used Reading Kingdom, I had him pick up with where we left off. Even though it has been about two years, I knew that the program would adapt to where our son was in regards to reading and writing. As he progresses through the level, he is skipping more and more words as the program continues to adapt. For example, in the current section he has skipped two words and probably would have skipped 'hop' if he remembered how to spell 'hopping.'

I required our son to complete a lesson on Reading Kingdom at least once a day so that he maintains using it for over five days a week. (It is recommended that a child uses Reading Kingdom at least four days a week – with using it five days being better.)

Your children will be listed here on the Dashboard. You can see when it was last used and for how many days per week.

After clicking through the dashboard, your child will be on the start page where they make a few decisions. If you have gotten subscriptions to other programs, they can use those instead of Reading Kingdom or they can use the Extra Games which are useful for reinforcing typing and memory skills.

When our son clicks to start, he is asked by the program to spell that lesson's word or to recognize it in a sentence. From there the program adapts to his skills and he progresses through as many as 21 screens depending upon his skills.

Here are some of the activities that our son completed during his lessons.

Each lesson offers similar activities ranging from having to pick out the word in sentences to spelling the word when only a few letters are provided in the word. Finally, to close the lesson, he has to type an entire sentence using the word.

For this activity, our son had to type in the words, spaces, and punctuation as the computer read the sentence.

Reading Kingdom has been his primary language arts lesson provider during the course of the review time. While we have continued with his spelling lessons, I have incorporated the words from Reading Kingdom into his spelling program so he can reinforce his knowledge of the words elsewhere. And since the lessons do not take a long time to complete, it has been very easy to even have him complete a lesson during the weekend.

What Do We Think?

I really like Reading Kingdom. I think it offers a variety of activities and educational games to reinforce the learning of each word. I think that, because each lesson follows a similar pattern, it will be of great benefit for some children as they like to know what is going to happen next.

Reflecting upon our previous review, I find that the biggest problem we had was the program not loading properly. I do not recall us having any similar problems (with the audio starting before the screen appeared or needed to reload or refresh the page) during our review period this time. Everything with Reading Kingdom is going very smoothly.

Our son does complain about having to complete his Reading Kingdom lessons. I really do think this is because the program is stretching his abilities. He still struggles with finding all the letters on the keyboard (even with using the games on Reading Kingdom available to help with typing). I think he allows this to influence his view of Reading Kingdom. Personally, I think the program is really helping him.

His favorite part is the Passport Feature which changes as he gets points. He is very eagerly awaiting the next level to see what the sun does next in the Passport.

When you click the Passport, the sun clock inside spins and has your child's name listed. 

What Else Do They Offer?

If you are looking for something to help your child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, there is ASD Reading available. This online program focuses on reading, writing, and comprehending. No prerequisite skills are required - meaning all children (even those who are non-verbal) are able to use the program which will adapt to the child's skills and needs. There are several members of the Homeschool Review Crew who reviewed ASD Reading so please be sure to check out their reviews.

And don't forget to check out the other reviews of Reading Kingdom from the Homeschool Review Crew!

Do You Want to Learn More?

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Book Club: Book Review of The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Our first grader loves to read. So, whenever we get the chance to review books, we jump at the opportunity. I was very excited to receive The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set because I had no experience with the Boxcar Children series prior to reading these four books. I am always on the lookout for new books to introduce to our children. So, we appreciate finding ones that are appropriate and free of questionable content. These books, written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, published by Albert Whitman & Company were a fantastic addition to our homeschooling day. 

General Information About the Books 

The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set contains the first four books in Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children series adapted for early readers. The Boxcar Children series tells the story of Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny who were orphaned and in the first book (published in 1924 but re-issued in 1964 by Albert Whitman & Company) find themselves living in a boxcar in the forest. 

The books included in this set are: 

The Boxcar Children 
Surprise Island 
The Yellow House Mystery 
Mystery Ranch 

In the first book we meet the four children and learn that they were hiding from their grandfather because they thought he was mean and didn't want to live with him after the death of their parents. Surprise Island starts with the beginning of summer – the perfect time to go on an adventure! The entire book details the children's experiences living on the island without their grandfather. They meet up with Joe who joins them on their adventures and teaches the children many new things including teaching Violet to play the violin. The children learn of Bill who lived in the yellow house in the third book. They explore the yellow house and discover a clue to the mystery of what happens to Bill the previous resident. And finally in Mystery Ranch, the children visit their great aunt's ranch and try to cheer her up. All the while, they explore a mystery of rocks and a secret campsite. 

These four books are part of the Time to Read™ series which is an early reader program. Early reader programs are created to provide reading success to children regardless of their age or grade. This particular series has three levels which helps parents pick the books that fit the reading abilities of their children. 

The three levels are: 

1. Beginning to Read 
2. Reading with Help 
3. Reading Independently 

The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set is Level 2: Reading with Help. I think this is a perfect placement as our four-year-old could read some of the story with my help and our first grader was able to read them by himself (he has been reading independently for a while now). So, I think they are perfect for a five-year-old! 

How Did We Use The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set in our Homeschool?

I gave all four books to our first grader to read on his own when they first arrived. As he loves reading, I knew that he would read them at his leisure. He actually read them all by himself before we were able to read them together.

I chose to read them during the review period as bedtime read-alouds. The first night I read one, our first grader wanted me to read another and then another. (I only read two that night.) He wasn't trying to stall bedtime. He really enjoyed the stories.

Our four-year-old then decided one afternoon she wanted to read Mystery Ranch to me. So we sat down together and she went through the first several pages with a little bit of help with the names of the characters and words like exciting and passenger. But unlike some other learning-to-read books, she did not seem to be discouraged by the few words she did not know. She was also able to follow the story as she was reading the book. And she was very excited to see what the rocks were that were found on Aunt Jane's ranch.

What Did We Think?

I really liked the books. I found them easy to read aloud to our two young children. They are just the right length. The illustrations are bright and colorful. And another great bonus is that the text is large and easy to read – no crazy font or colors. I appreciate books that are easy on the eyes as a parent.

The fact that the children wanted to live in a boxcar is really cool. So many children dream of living on their own in a treehouse, tent, or cave. So the idea is likely to connect with children who love adventure. I also think the way they became orphans and living on their own was handled in a very good manner. Nothing super sad or scary.

Our son's favorite book was Surprise Island. He really liked the museum that the children created while collecting items (like shells) as they were walking up and down the beach. In the story, Joe helps the children identify the objects with books he brings over. (I can see our children creating their own museum much like the Alden children did in the book.)

When I asked our son to tell me what he liked about The Yellow House Mystery, he grabbed the book and sat there laughing as he re-read when Joe's canoe tipped over. He then read some of it out loud to us, which caused his sister to want to see the book, too. He liked the fact that Bill was able to make a new start at the end of the book. A good lesson to be learned about the ability to start over.

After reading Mystery Ranch to our four-year-old, I asked her what she liked about the book. She proceeded to flip through the book and explain what she likes about each part or illustration. She concluded this with: "It's the best book that I love."

Personally, I can't wait to check out more in the series including the ones that aren't adapted for early readers. I think they will be a good fit for our homeschooling journey. As our teen fondly remembered The Boxcar Children series from his younger years, we are sure his siblings will continue to find them as fascinating as he said he did.

Do You Want To Learn More?

Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew read The Boxcar Children Early Reader Set, too! Please be sure to check out their reviews to see how they used the books in their homeschool. And why not take a look at all the other great books from Albert Whitman & Company.

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Learning to Read: Review of the PRIDE Reading Program

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

Learning to read is such an important skill to acquire. Sometimes our children need a little bit of help in mastering the skills necessary to read. That is where reading programs like PRIDE Reading Program can step in to help parents and schools. It is a structured literacy Orton-Gillingham curriculum that is suitable for children of all ages. PRIDE Reading Program "uses engaging, multi-sensory methods to teach reading, writing, spelling and comprehension." Before ordering our Program Kit to review, our daughter took the Placement Assessment to determine which of the eight programs to select. We ended up with the very first one: PRIDE Beginning Consonants Program Kit.

Shortly after ordering and signing up, I received a welcome email demonstrating where to find the PRIDE Reading Program Training Course that needs to be completed before instruction begins with a child. I have been able to work my way through the training course unit by unit, one or two at a time, depending upon how much time I have available. At the end of the units, there are questions to ensure that you understand the videos and text presented. And while I understand this is a general training course, I wish I didn’t have to watch all the videos that didn’t pertain to me as we are using the Beginning Consonants workbook. 

This is one of the training videos that didn't seem to apply to the Beginning Consonants level.
But the information presented could prove useful.

In some respects, I almost wish I had gone with the next level of the reading program (PRIDE Yellow Book Program Kit - Level 1) as our four-year-old daughter already knows her consonants and can read age-appropriate books but when taking the placement test she struggled with writing the letters and – even though she read them all – she got frustrated and started making mistakes. So, if I had this all over to do again, I would use the PRIDE Scope and Sequence to help me pick the appropriate level rather than the placement test.

What is the PRIDE Reading Program?

The PRIDE Reading Program uses a step-by-step method where students must master each concept before progressing onto the next one. Instructors, in this case homeschooling parents, follow the script and allow their children to move at their own pace. With the PRIDE Reading Program, learning to read should be fun and rewarding and learning should not be stressful or a struggle.

The program uses the Orton-Gillingham method which will work with all students but is designed with students who are dyslexic or have reading struggles specifically in mind. If you wish to read more about the Orton-Gillingham method, you can find more information on the PRIDE Reading Program site but in general it is a reading and spelling teaching method composed of the following components:

• Structured 
• Sequential 
• Cumulative 
• Explicit 
• Multi-sensory 
• Systematic phonics 

Because the program is scripted, you can easily follow this method in your homeschool. And if your children thrive on routines in their homeschooling journey and prefer to know exactly what will happen next, this will be a valuable resource in teaching your children to read. It also takes a multi-sensory approach incorporating auditory, tactile, and visual teaching methods to help your children.

What is Part of the PRIDE Beginning Consonants Program Kit? 

The very first part of the reading program contains three pieces: 

• PRIDE Beginning Consonants Workbook - 2nd Edition 
• PRIDE Beginning Consonants Online Teaching Guide - 2nd Edition 
• PRIDE Sound Cards 

The Beginning Consonants Program Kit focuses upon the following letters: b, c, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z, and d. Each letter has three pages in the workbook which include a page with a picture of animal or item that starts with the letter, a page for your child to practice writing the lowercase letter, and a sounds page that looks at pictures and works that contain beginning sounds, ending sounds, mixed sounds, practice sounds, and reinforcement sounds. Finally, there is a page for sound dictation. 

The workbook is black and white while the back of the Sound Cards are colorful (the letters themselves are printed in black). On occasion, our daughter wanted to color in the pictures. She has wanted to color in the jellyfish, child jumping, and koala.

The online teaching guide is organized by steps with the instructions for each step placed in separate boxes. It is very easy to read the directions and move through each step. Each letter in the Beginning Consonants has three units and as you complete each one you hit 'mark as completed' to move on to the next unit.

You can very easily see where you are within the program by looking at the course progress page where you can access all the lessons, too. I appreciate having a visual to see just how far our daughter has come using the PRIDE Reading Program and what will be coming up in our homeschool in future weeks for us.

We also received a poster of a sound chart which we hung up on the wall in our dining room. It is good to review the sounds while waiting for dinner to start or anytime our daughter walks through the room.

How Did We Use the PRIDE Reading Program in Our Homeschool? 

Before you can start using the program you need to complete a training course which uses a combination of text and short video presentation to demonstrate how to use the program. It was quite easy to access the training lessons and work through them. There were questions at the end to make sure you understood the concepts being taught that you had to answer correctly before you moved onto the next training lesson.

After I completed the training course, our daughter and I started with the first lesson in the Beginning Consonants Level. The very first sound and letter worked upon is b. We spent time reviewing what the lowercase letter b looks like, the sound that it makes, how to write the lowercase letter b, and reviewing the sound at the beginning, end, and middle of words. We then continued this pattern for the letters c, f, g, h, j, k, and l so far.

Each lesson using the Beginning Consonants materials takes anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending upon how much redirection is necessary with our daughter. She definitely enjoys the parts of the lessons where she is able to get up, move around, and be active.

During the the middle of the review period, I asked our daughter what she thought of it so far. She said she loves learning about the letters. She specifically flipped to the letter h pages and talked about "H being a great letter."

Her favorite activity so far has been writing out the letters using chocolate chips (which was one of the extension activities). I created index cards and slipped them into a plastic bag so she could fill in the letters with the chips.

She also loves the parts of the lessons where we take turn thinking of different words that start with the sound we are currently studying. She enjoys taking turns and trying to come up with different words. She gets very excited when I get a word correct.

Each lesson only takes us about 10 to 20 minutes depending upon how active our daughter is during the lesson. Due to the short nature of the lessons, they fit quite well into our homeschooling day. If there is an extra learning activity, the lessons can take a bit longer if our daughter is having fun with the activity.

Things to Be Aware Of

In the Beginning Consonants workbook, there are several illustrations and word choices that some may have trouble with including: ghost, witch, and reindeer (it is drawn in a way that I think resembles Rudolph). Personally, our family has no problem with reading about or using these words in our homeschool lessons but I know some families would rather stay clear of images associated with Halloween or the secularization of Christmas.

You can see the ghost image here on the page where our daughter is
pointing out the different images and words for the letter g.

What Do We Think? 

Unfortunately for our family, I do not think that the scripted structure of the lessons is a fit in our homeschool. While our daughter loves knowing what comes next and anticipating the next step in a lesson, she also tries to jump ahead while I am going through the script. She also has a tendency to try to do things her own way which makes it hard to stick to a script.

I asked our four-year-old preschooler to share what her favorite parts of the program were during the review period. She liked the letter b because she liked the pictures for the sounds page such as baby, bus, and baboon. She also enjoyed tracing and writing the letter c. She told me her favorite activity is the sounds page and looking for the letter to circle in each box. Our daughter really enjoyed repeating the actions that went along with each letter sound because she loves moving while she is doing her homeschooling. She wanted to do this step each day – even when it was not part of the script.

I like the idea of the program and I think it would work really well for some families whose children are struggling reading. I think our daughter has pleasantly surprised me with how quickly she has absorbed the information being presented and we could probably skip through some of the steps if I wasn't following a scripted program. As I said earlier, I think a later program in the PRIDE Reading Program would fit our daughter's learning even better.

Even though the PRIDE Reading Program was not a perfect fit for our homeschooling family, I would recommend it for families who are looking for a scripted program that will help their children become successful readers.

Do You Want To Learn More?

Don't forget to see learn more about the other levels of the PRIDE Reading Program by checking out the Homeschool Review Crew!

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Teach Your Child to Read: A Review of Learning Dynamics

Complementary Product Received 

Our four-year-old daughter has been wanting to read just like her older brother for quite a while. When I tried to help her learn the way her brother learned, she was not taking to it. But with Learning Dynamics, everything seemed to start clicking for her. While using the Learning Dynamics Reading Program three to five days a week, we have seen great progress in her reading.

What is the Learning Dynamics Reading Program? 

With the full program you will receive a lesson manual, 50+ full color books, a CD with 30+ songs that relate directly to the lessons, an activity book/student workbook, letter rewards, and flash cards. And one of the nice features is that only the student workbook is consumable, so you could use the entire program with more than one of your homeschooling children. The entire program arrives packaged in a beautiful box that sits very nicely on your bookshelf or table. (I really love the fact that everything goes back into the box so easily.)

Children will learn phonetic awareness and they will be able to apply exactly what they have learned through the reading of the new books in their library. "Learning Dynamics is the only program that provides books that contain only the material they have learned up to that point." 

Using the Learning Dynamics Reading Program 

Our daughter was very excited when the box arrived from Learning Dynamics. She took everything out and laid it all around her on the floor. (And her brother was very excited to look through all the materials, too.)

Even several weeks later, she is still excited to pull books out of the box to read them or look at the pictures in the stories. And she is very eager to work on the lessons each day.

Before we officially started, I read through the Lesson Manual and then punched out all the letter rewards and looked through the flash cards and books. Everything is very easily explained. Anyone can use Learning Dynamics Reading Program with their children for just 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week.

The flash cards and reward letters when we first opened the box.

Most weeks we used Learning Dynamics more than 3 times a week because our daughter was very eager and excited to work on her homeschooling with her very own workbook. The lessons are a good length for us. It doesn't take us very long to work through the material.

Through Learning Dynamics children will gain a firm foundation in phonics with a multi-sensory approach to learning how to read. With the songs children are able to memorize the alphabet and the sounds of the letters in a fun way. They can flip through the flash cards or their workbook.

There are also a variety of optional activities in the lesson manual—from finding items that start with the letter 'L' (and giving your child a lollipop to lick as a reward) to finding items that start with the letter 'D' and using the dinosaur detector. We did this activity with the dinosaur reward card instead of the dinosaur detector in the book because I didn't want to cut it out and lose the lesson information on the reverse side.

One of the fun optional activities. 

Lesson Set-Up 

Each lesson is set up in a very similar manner. It is recommended to read the entire lesson prior to starting it with your children. This will make it easier when teaching your child to read. Positive reinforcement is a big part of the lessons. It is important to have fun while teaching your child to read and be consistent in reading each day—even if it is only for a short time period.

At the beginning there is a reminder to read through the lesson, a pronunciation of the letter, what you need to prepare beforehand, and what letters you should review with your child. The lesson itself starts with an introduction and pronunciation of the letter using the blue letter card, a story featuring the letter, listening to the appropriate letter song, completion of the worksheet in the child's workbook, listening to the letter song a second time, a final check of the letter, sometimes an optional activity, and a blending activity.

How I Approached the Lessons 

We started each lesson with reviewing the letters using the flash cards and reward letters (our daughter did not want to keep these separate from the entire program so they stayed in a bag in the box when we weren't working on Learning Dynamics).  After reviewing the letters, we listened to the alphabet song that went through the sounds of each of the 26 letters.

We then varied how we approached the rest of the lesson. If our daughter was sitting on my lap to listen to the first song, we listened to the appropriate letter song next before moving onto any of the activities in the lesson manual. She loved pointing to the pictures of the objects mentioned in the song while singing along. (Her six-year-old brother would even join in singing sometimes.)

These are four of the things mentioned in the letter 'J' song.

After the songs, I would read through the story in the Lesson Manual, emphasizing the sounds of that lesson's letter while using the reward letter to tell the story. Most of the stories are silly: "Val and Vanessa are excited. They are going on a vacation in their van to the village in the valley to visit Aunt Vickie." And the story continues for the letter v to include vegetables, vacuum, violin, and vanilla.

After I have finished reading through the story and we have listened to the songs, our daughter then completes the page in the workbook. Sometimes the page focuses upon one letter and other times it reviews multiple letters.

A review page

I also added some activities to help our daughter because she was eager to practice what she was learning. We used our small white board to write out words from the early books and lesson manual. I also created alphabet stickers for her to spell out the new words in her notebook.

The lessons and the workbook pages include more complicated ideas like identifying vowels (short and long) and—in Lesson Manual 2—blends are worked upon, including r blends, s blends, l blends, and more.

Books 

I like that the books list the new words and the sight words in the beginning of each book. We can go over them together with our daughter to make sure she knows what words will be in the story. The images are bright and colorful and add to the narration of the story. The print is easy to read in clear letters. There are also questions at the end of the story to review reading comprehension.

Our Thoughts 

Our daughter loves her workbook and the books. She enjoys listening to and singing along with the songs. By lesson 6, she was singing along with the Alphabet Song.  She really likes reading the books. I asked her what her favorite things was: "Pam!" The books have been a big hit with her.

Our six-year-old son has read through most of the books (on his own). Our son really likes the alphabet songs as well as reading the books by himself.

I really like how everything is kept in one box. The size of the lesson manual, workbook, and books is a nice bonus. It makes it easy to store on our bookshelf when not in use. The use of the different colors for the books is also great to tell them apart based on level. I like that it comes with flash cards so I do not need to make my own.

If you are struggling with figuring out how to present a lesson, Learning Dynamics has several videos on their website and on YouTube that can help you as the homeschooling parent figure it all out to help your child learn to read.

Would you like to learn more about Learning Dynamics? 

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Be sure to check out the other reviews from the Crew to see how they used the Learning Dynamics Reading Program in their homeschool to help their child learn to read.

Improving Children's Reading via Online Programs: A Review of Dyslexia Gold

Our three children have been using the various programs available through Dyslexia Gold for the past several weeks. Dyslexia Gold offers several different options for schools and families. We were provided with a family license and a lifetime subscription to Dyslexia Gold Full Bundle for this review so all three of our children have been able to work on specific areas to improve their reading.

What is Dyslexia Gold? 

Dyslexia Gold helps children who are struggling with reading—whether or not they have Dyslexia. There are several programs that are designed to improve your child's reading. According to Dyslexia Gold there are four skills needed for reading:

1. Eye control
2. Phonological awareness
3. Phonics
4. Spelling

Two of the programs focus upon building these skills. Because children who are poor readers and/or are dyslexic often have trouble focusing both eyes on the same point and tracking across the page, Engaging Eyes was designed with 8 easy games. Tracking is not something that is tested at a regular vision test so it can often be missed. By regularly playing vision games, children can build their eye muscles and work on not skipping letters, words, or lines and more. 

In order to work on phonological awareness, Dyslexia Gold offers Fluency Builder which helps recognize that words have more than one sound. The example provided on the Dyslexia Gold site is that of the word 'goat.' It has three sounds 'g-oa-t' but often struggling readers do not recognize this fact. So in Fluency Builder, children practice sounding out words in numerous ways to build these skills. (Please see the screenshots below.) 

In spelling the words, each sound is on its own card. After the correct cards are placed, the sound is repeated out loud
by the program. When the whole word is spelled correctly, the word is said out loud.

The third online program is Spelling Tutor which improves spelling of 1,000 of the most common words. Spelling Tutor requires students to have a pencil and paper to write down sentences dictated to them. They then work on writing and rewriting the words they have spelled wrong. It is completely tailored to your child as they correct the words they have spelled wrong. For example, our six-year-old has used Spelling Tutor and has had trouble spelling 'phone,' 'called,' and other words. He has written them on numerous days and the spelling of the words are repeated on a set schedule. Once he has correctly spelled the word 7 times in a row over 21 days, he is deemed to be able to spell it correctly. 

Here our son is asked to write the word "would" as this is one of the words he previously spelled incorrectly.

The fourth program is Times Table Tutor. It teaches up to 12 x 12 at your child's own pace without timing or competition. The multiplication table is taught in three ways: concrete, pictorial, and abstract. Each session is rather long as it reviews the entire times table multiple times requesting that the child work faster and faster.

Note: Dyslexia Gold is a British-based company, so be aware that there are different spelling versions available (UK and American) as well as different pronunciations (English, American, Scottish, and Australian). 

How Did We Use Dyslexia Gold? 

Our three children were each instructed to work on different parts based upon their needs and age. Our teen primarily worked on Engaging Eyes, our four-year-old (the program is recommended ages 5+) worked on Fluency Builder, and our six-year-old primarily focused upon Fluency Builder but has also spent time working on Spelling Tutor and Times Table Tutor. Both of our younger children have spent time using Engaging Eyes.

Our Teen 

Our teen suffered a concussion in November 2017 during an ice hockey game and as part of clearing him to rejoin his hockey team, we needed to see a  vision therapist/optometrist for a special vision test. Through some of the vision tests, we were told he was having trouble tracking while reading. The doctor recommended more reading (30 minute sustained reading) or additional (and very expensive) visits. I saw the opportunity to review Dyslexia Gold, specifically Engaging Eyes, as a perfect way for our teen to work on tracking.

When our teen first started using Engaging Eyes, I frequently checked in with him to make sure Engaging Eyes was not causing headaches or vision problems. He never seemed to have any headaches from doing the vision training. The only problem he has run across is that sometimes when looking away from the screen during Target Practice, he finds his eyes would lose focus and he had trouble being able to hit the targets. This has happened less and less as time as progressed.

I also asked him if he felt there was any improvement in his vision. Without a trip to a vision therapist we can't know for sure but he does feel that there is an improvement. It is hard to quantify but things are a bit easier for him than before starting Engaging Eyes. He finds reading to be an easier task.

This is the Engaging Eyes report children see at the end of the day's activity. 

Our Six-Year-Old 

In reviewing Dyslexia Gold, I wished our six-year-old son to work on improving his reading as well introduce him to spelling and multiplication (mostly because he wanted to see what the Times Table Tutor was like after his older brother checked it out). He did spend the majority of the review period working on the lessons in Fluency Builder with several spelling lessons and multiplication lessons spread throughout the time. 

I find that Fluency Builder has greatly helped our younger son read more fluently out loud. Part of the lessons for him have been reading a non-fiction story aloud twice for fluency and timing for words per minute. I have noticed, sitting with him, that he is reading more clearly. 

We focused upon Fluency Builder with our younger son because the first spelling lesson with Spelling Tutor left him frustrated and in tears, so we took a break from it. I had no problems taking a break since this was his first experience with trying to spell words all by himself. We have now worked through several more lessons and he understands what is expected of him and can work pretty much independently. 

In addition to writing the sentences and words on paper, our son also typed the words on the computer.

I am really happy that what he is learning is being retained. The information our son read during Fluency Builder also stuck with him. For example, while we were talking about galaxies and space during lunch, he shared what he learned about reading about Astronauts on Fluency Builder.

At the end of reading the passage twice, our son answered three multiple choice questions.

There has been an improvement in reading speed for our younger son. He went from 110 words per minute in mid-April to 174 words per minute in late May. He will be tested again in mid-July.

Our six-year-old has had trouble completing the Target Practice with Engaging Eyes. He has trouble focusing upon the targets and has seemed to stall and not made much more progress. He has worked on using Whack an Alien just like his sister. We will revisit Engaging Eyes again in the near future with both of them.

Using the 3D glasses for the Target Practice in Engaging Eyes.

Our Daughter 

Even though our four-year-old is just one year shy of the recommended age, I saw her using Fluency Builder as the perfect opportunity to teach her reading. She has been wanting to learn how to read for almost a year but as her style of learning is very different than her brother's, I thought perhaps this program would help her build strong skills. 

During Fluency Builder she works through several different types of activities: 

• Hearing sounds
• Building words
• Sorting by sound

Sometimes words would be sorted by sound and sometimes by spelling.

• Finding words
• Swapping letters
• Reading speed (as our daughter only knows letters, she is not tested on this each lesson) 

Our daughter is reading words and sentences now. Even before we moved beyond some of the early lessons on Fluency Builder, she was recognizing and reading words. She is currently on level 37 of 50 of the easy level. As she completes more and more of the recaps, she seems to have an even better grasp of the words and sounds. 

My Thoughts 

Overall, I have been very happy with how the programs offered by Dyslexia Gold have fit into our homeschool. I feel that all three of our children will be stronger readers for having used the online programs. However I do have a few thoughts based upon some things that we have come across since April.

As Dyslexia Gold is an online program from the United Kingdom, we did have some problems with pronunciation of words and images used that confused our children (chips aka French fries, football aka soccer ball, torch aka flashlight, rugby player). Even with changing the pronunciation to American there were times that things were hard to understand based upon it being a computer program reading the words and saying sounds aloud.

We also had trouble with one of the Fluency Builder activities because we could not always understand the two words being said. In this activity, two words would be said (such as dad and did) and you would be asked which sound (first, second, or third) changed. In some of instances, the words said were difficult to hear (to make out the distinct differences). Fortunately, this activity was not part of every lesson.

Our younger children do not always like repeating exercises a second time during Fluency Builder. For example, when completing finding words, they are asked to complete each set twice. While I understand the importance of repeating the exercise, this often elicited groans from them.

Finding the words was one of the activities that was often repeated twice.

Sometimes during this activity, words would not disappear even if they had already been found and clicked.
This led to confusion for both of our younger children at times.

I do wish there was a bit more information in the reports and that I could find all of my children's information together rather than having to log in for each one separately. I could also see the reports presented at the end of each lesson as being discouraging for some children.

There were some days when our son or daughter would finish with very low percentages.
For some children, I could see them reacting negatively to this information.

Even though we have had few hiccups and difficulties with Dyslexia Gold, our family will continue to use the programs for each child that work best for them. We will probably hold off on using Times Table Tutor for a while for our two younger children but we will continue to work with Fluency Builder with both younger children. And our teen will continue to use the Engaging Eyes program as part of his regular homeschooling regime.

I would recommend you check out Dyslexia Gold if you have a struggling reader in your home. 

Want to Learn More about Dyslexia Gold? 

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Would you like to see how other members of the Crew used Dyslexia Gold in their homeschool? Please be sure to visit to read their reviews.