Learn to Read with Reading Eggs

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew

We have been using Reading Eggs with my younger kids for the past couple of years, and when my subscription expired they were pretty bummed out. So it was an absolute no-brainer to request being put onto the review team for them again this year!

Reading Eggs is a very popular online learning program for learning to read. There are three levels of the reading side of the program. Reading Eggs Jr. is where children 2-4 play a series of games that work on prereading activities such as recognizing that the squiggles we call letters actually mean something, as well as things like completing pictures (puzzle style) and colors/counting. Then there’s the meat of the program, Reading Eggs. This is the one I’ll focus on most in my review today. Finally, there’s Reading Eggspress, designed for kids ages 7-13 to practice reading comprehension. In addition to these three levels of Reading Eggs, the subscription also includes Math Seeds, which is a very basic math program for younger kids.

One thing that makes Reading Eggs so easy to use is that there is only one login to remember. Sign up using a parent’s email address and chosen password, and all of your kids are on the same page. They (or you) just need to choose the name of the child using the program at that particular time, and off they go.

Dragonfly is 6 years old and has been using Reading Eggs for two years now. It is one of his favorite activities to do during the day because it feels like a game, even though he’s learning. He’s passed over 100 levels of Reading Eggs, and I’m so impressed with how much he has improved his skills over the past years. Because he’s advanced in the program, his games are different than they were at the beginning. Now he plays things like “Odd One Out,” where he is shown three words and needs to figure out which one is different. Some of the games are the same, though, just with harder words. An example of this would be “Word Family,” where he is shown a series of letters with some letter tiles below. The word he needs to build is said audibly and he chooses the correct beginning from the tiles. There is a picture to help in case he doesn’t understand the computer voice. The hardest game for him, hands down, is “Bookends.” This shows one of the stories that has been read to him previously at the end of a lesson, but with words missing. He needs to read the book and choose the missing word from a list. For a long time, he needed serious help with Bookends, but he is getting much better at it now, and can usually complete an entire lesson on his own.

Bumblebee is 4 and so excited to do his “school.” He asks daily if he can do “Read and Eggs,” and of course, I sit with him and get the lesson done. The problem with him is keeping it down to just one lesson in order to allow his brain time to process what he learned! Bumblebee is on lesson 18 and has so far learned several letter sounds, including two vowels (short A and EE). His favorite letter is S because that’s what his name begins with. Sometimes he will need to be reminded what sound some of the letters make, but never with S. His games include “Letter Grid,” which is kind of like a word search, except he only has to find individual letters, not words, “Frog Hops,” where he has to select the correct word from a choice of three in order to get the frog across the pond, and “Dot to Dot,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Of course, there are many more games that pop up during the course of the lesson; this is just a sampling.

We primarily use the Reading Eggs website these days because my iPad went kaput several months ago. We’ve used the app in the past, and I actually prefer that because it is easier for the kids to use a touchscreen than the computer, but I’m glad to have options. With Dragonfly, he works independently (as I mentioned before). Bumblebee, on the other hand, sits on my lap and points at the correct image while I work the mouse. In order to push the learning aspect since I’m technically doing the clicking, I make him verbalize each thing he’s supposed to be finding (the letter in Letter Grid and the word in Frog Hop, in the examples above). I’m hopeful that this reinforces what he’s supposed to be gleaning from the lessons.

Both of my littlest boys adore Reading Eggs, and I am so glad we have had the opportunity to review it the past few years. It really is the perfect blend of learning and playing. I see us using it multiple times a week for as long as our subscription lasts, and I’m hopeful that by the time it expires they will both be reading strongly enough to let it go without too many tears.

Make sure to click through to the Homeschool Review Crew to read more reviews!

Blessings,