Review: Reading Eggs

Recently, I was offered an opportunity to review the Reading Eggs Website.  Reading Eggs is an online learn to read program.  By agreeing to review the site I was given a 90 access for free.  I figured since Little Miss and I were starting to work on recognizing letters it might be something worth checking out.  

“Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities.”

Reading Eggs suggest that children ages 3 to 4 start in the playroom.  Kaitlyn and I went to the playroom and it was not the easiest to know what we were doing.  It was not clear what we were clicking on.  After we clicked on a few we realized it was different areas like you would find in a preschool classroom.  It was difficult for Kaitlyn to manipulate the site because of the type of computer we use.  Had we been using a touch screen app - like on an ipad (that we don’t have) it might have been easier for her.  This is a dexterity thing, not an issue with the site itself.  I could move things around just fine.  I had her point to and tell me what she wanted to do.  This kept her interest, but not for a long period of time.  She did enjoy playing on it, but never asked to do it like she does with others.

Although it was beyond where she is right now, we checked out some of the lessons.  For a 2 year old they were too long.  However, they are designed for older children and I think the lengths of each lesson are a great length.  Some are short, others are a little longer.  The site does give positive feedback when you get it right.  It says things like, “Great work” or “Yes”.  If you are wrong it will say “No, it’s this one.” or “That’s not the “s” sound.”  I liked that it started with phonetic sounds, then moved on to simple words.

If Kaitlyn were 5 or 6 this would have been a great site for her.  At 2 she is too young.  I would even question it until she was at least 3 ½ or closer to 4.

This is just one mom’s opinion.  You can get a free trial of Reading Eggs at their website.