How to Help Kids Build Reading Skills (Reading Kingdom Review)

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I’d heard of Reading Kingdom before, but had never really explored it in-depth because both of my school-age children are strong readers. I didn’t think we needed a program like this. Based on this personal assessment, I was a little surprised to see my name on the list for reviewers of their Reading Kingdom Online program, but I knew that since the Schoolhouse Review Crew is a team, everyone is expected to be a team player and at least try out the programs we’re assigned to review. With that in mind, I signed Munchkin up for the program right away and had him start last month when we started school. I was initially planning to have Seahawk work on the program, too, but then his new spelling program arrived in the mail, and I made the executive decision that he needed to work on his spelling more than his reading, so I let him skip out on Reading Kingdom – at least for the time being.

Reading Kingdom is a program created by Dr. Marion Blank, a top expert on reading and language. The program offers a series of lessons designed to teach children from ages 4-10 to read and write at a third-grade level. When I was asked by the vendor representative how things were going partway through the review period, I was honest and said I was having my son work through the program for the purposes of the review, but hadn’t noticed much because he was already a strong reader before we started. I received in response a very kind and informative message about why Reading Kingdom can be beneficial even for students who already read above their grade level. These include:

  • Writing. Students who write well read well.
  • Phonics and Comprehension. This might seem like a “no-brainer” in regards to reading, but it’s more than just phonics. Reading Kingdom has a special way of presenting a variety of phonemic awareness. This includes working on blends as well as homophones (to/too/two), homonyms (dog’s bark vs tree bark), and heteronyms (ship’s bow vs bow and arrow).
  • Diligence. For maximum benefit from the program, it is recommended that students work on it at least four days per week. This teaches them to keep pushing forward each day; having the diligence to work on the program on a regular basis is one of the fundamental requirements for success with Reading Kingdom.

The first thing we did was to have Munchkin take the assessment test. Because I’d never tried the program out at all, that was an important step. I had him do the assessment test the day before we started school so that on the “Big Day” he could dive right into the program. He was placed into Level 2 (of 5) of Reading and Writing. Because he didn’t start in a lower level, I can’t really tell you about that, but I can describe the kinds of things he did in the program each day.

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First, there’s a “keyword” in each lesson. This word is typed over and over again into a variety of sentences and paragraphs. As the student progresses through the lesson, more and more words are left out of each sentence, but the keyword is always among the missing.

rk 4Eventually, the student gets to a point where the entire sentence is blank and requires typing (but don’t worry – there’s a very pleasant voice that prompts them into typing the correct words).

After this, a complete paragraph is presented. The student’s job is to find the keyword within the paragraph and click on it. There are three of these paragraphs (in the lesson Munchkin did today, anyway).

rk 6Next is a multiple choice activity. There are a series of choices, each one of which is a real word that’s missing letters. The goal is to find the one “that can become” the keyword, click on it, and then type the missing letters.

Finally, one of the paragraphs from earlier in the lesson is repeated, this time with certain words missing letters. The student chooses the correct word from a list at the bottom of the screen and then types the missing letters.

So, what did we (Munchkin and I) think of this program? He says, “There’s a lot of typing. Other than that, it’s very easy.” I think it would be a great program for families with younger or struggling readers. I really like the idea teaching young children to read at an early age. In fact, if Small Fry was a year or two older, I’d definitely use this program with him. But for use with the other boys? I’m not sure it’s the best fit for them. Will we continue to have Munchkin use it now that the review period is over? Maybe for a few more weeks, but if I don’t see a marked improvement to justify its use for an already-strong reader and writer, I’m not going to force him to continue.

Blessings,

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Reading Kingdom has a program for students on the Autism Spectrum, and some of the reviewers of this program tried that with their students. There are also plenty who reviewed the regular program, like I did. For more information on both of these, click the banner below.

Click here to read more reviews

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