If you are looking for a fun, no fuss way, to improve your kids reading skills, then you might want to check out Reading Eggs and their award winning online reading program.
Reading Eggs is used by over 10 million kids worldwide. That is quite an accomplishment for a reading program. They have also achieved numerous awards and can be found in many homes and schools. We were recently asked to review a six month subscription to Reading Eggs which also includes Reading Eggs JR and Reading Eggspress. We were also given a subscription to Math Seeds. You can get your very own 4 Week Free Trial and see if Reading Eggs is a good fit for your family.
Reading Eggs
Online Subscription
Reading Eggs Jr. for Ages 2-4
Reading Eggs Ages for 3-7
Reading Eggspress for Ages 7-13
24/7/365 Access
Reading Eggs Special Features
Reading Eggs is an online reading program available for either a 6 month or 1 year subscription.
Reading Eggs contains 120 animated reading lessons (plus additional lessons in Reading Eggs Jr. and Reading Eggspress). Each lesson involves around 12+ tasks or mini-lessons. Some of the other special features of Reading Eggs includes:
- Student Dashboard for independent student navigation (and motivation) of lessons, spelling, games, books read, etc.
- Phonics
- Phonemic Awareness
- Letters
- Sight Words
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Reading Comprehension
- Fluency
- Songs
- Games
- Kids earn spending “eggs” they earned for completing lessons and quizzes that can be used in the arcade, designing their avatar, spend in the store, etc.
- Printables: Worksheets, Awards for completing Lesson Maps and Quizzes
- Over 2,500 Online Books To Read each with a Comprehension Quiz (of 5 to 10 questions each).
- Spelling Quizzes / Driving Tests
- Parent Dashboard: track lessons and quizzes completed, scores, and books read.
- Parent Emails (also keep you updated of student progress)
- Homeschool Guide (Grades K-2)
- Additional Supplemental Books Available
How Does It Work?
Reading Eggs helps kids succeed in their reading abilities by focusing on mastering skills and strategies which are essential for reading success. The Reading Eggs developers are an experienced team of teachers, educational writers, animators, and website and app developers. Reading Eggs is beneficial for kids just learning to read as well as kids with strong reading skills. It is also beneficial for kids with learning difficulties, struggling readers, and English As A Second Language (ESL).
There are 3 Levels to Reading Eggs and in all it covers kids from ages 2 to 13. No prior knowledge is needed to start the program at the lowest level, Reading Eggs Jr, however those in Kindergarten (and some Preschoolers too) should be able to begin at the Reading Eggs level.
Reading Eggs will actually teach the kids to read through a series of progressive lessons that takes them from not yet able to read to master a second grade reading level. Students with stronger reading skills will progress quicker than beginners. Reading Eggspress is the next level in the program and covers skills from first through sixth grades. This level offers lots of reading comprehension challenges, books, and more learning games.
There is a comprehensive 35 page User Guide available to help parents learn to use the programs.
The basic motivation for kids is to make progress is earning golden eggs they can store up and spend like cash within the program by doing tasks like lessons, quizzes, books, etc. In the Reading Eggs program there are 12 Maps with 10 lessons on each map to master (120 lessons). At the end of each Lesson Map is a quiz for kids to take before they can move forward to the next Map.
Lessons also contain printable black and white activity worksheets as well as colourful activity pages to complete.
The worksheet printables also include lesson plans for each lesson. There are 120 Lesson Plans to help the parent understand the big picture of what the child is learning and how the online lesson and worksheets go together and additional suggestions to enhance the learning skills.
The links for the downloadable printable worksheets that include lesson plans, and more colorful activity pages for each lesson are found in the “bonus” section of the parent dashboard for additional practice.
After completing about five (5) lessons in Reading Eggs, kids will have earned enough eggs to begin using the Games section. At Games, they can choose a game they want to play. The more eggs they earn, the more they can spend, and the more games they can play. Kids love playing games, and games become a reward for the efforts they make, and it motivates them to want to do more.
Reading Eggs now offers a Homeschool Guide for parents for kids in grades K-2. There is a schedule for each grade and it integrates reading, math, science, and social studies and offers a suggested schedule of lessons, activity pages to complete, spelling, books to read, and learning themes. The Homeschool Guide can also be found in the “bonus” section.
Videos:
Watch this video to learn more about Reading Eggs (Math Seeds is now a separate subscription):
Watch this video to learn more about Reading Eggspress (ages 7-13):
Requirements:
Reading Eggs online programs can be accessed on a Computer with high speed internet service and an operating system of Windows 7 (or higher), or Mac 10 (or higher), iPad, and is available on some Smart Phones (Apple, Android, etc). It is currently not supported on some devices (Dell Venue 7, Kindle Fire Tablets, Pendo Pad, Thompson Tablet, or Tesco Hudl Tablets).
Our Experience:
My kids love using Reading Eggs. Reading Eggs is colorful and engaging. This fun program has helped my kids practice reading, spelling, and grammar skills in a fun interactive way.
For the purpose of this review, I will focus on the Reading Eggs level of the program and share with you some of our experience using this program with my 5 year old son who is new to Reading Eggs, and my 10 year old daughter who has some previous experience.
Though it is a “no-fuss” learning program (meaning the kids are not frustrated and resisting to use it), instead it is just the opposite and my kids do fuss if I they don’t get to use it. The kids are very motivated to get on the computer and practice their reading skills each day.
I have my own dashboard when logged in as the parent. I can see my kids progress in each program we are subscribed to. I also receive an email after my kids complete quizzes describing their reading progress and what skills and concepts they learned.
A special feature that I like is the option to choose starting my kids off at a specific lesson (there are about 120 different lessons), or letting them start at default mode which is at the beginning lesson on Map 1, or I can have the kids take the placement test. The placement test includes 60 questions. The test stops when the kids miss 3 questions and places them at the level where the missed questions corresponds to their skills. A parent can choose for the kids to continue where the placement test says they should be, or have them “Redo Placement Test”, or you can just adjust the lesson they are on within any level without retaking the test.
My kids also have their own dashboard when logged in as the student.
Even the youngest of kids are able to learn how to navigate their dashboard after a few times of using it because of the colorful pictures.
From the kids dashboard they can navigate around Reading Eggs. They can read stories, do spelling, quizzes, games, shop, etc. To get to their Lesson Map, they choose the “My Program” link and it takes them to their books and lesson options. Then they can choose the Lesson link and it brings them to their Lesson Map.
Here is my 5 year old son pointing to his avatar when it was on lesson 9 on Map 1.
Another fun feature for Kids is to design their own avatar for their dashboard. There are unlimited options in the design.
When they have unlocked more of the program based on their lessons, more options show up on their “Program” page. In this picture below, you can see how my daughter’s page differs from her younger brother’s page. She had master 106 lessons and was ready to start lesson 107.
After they choose “Lesson”, it takes them to the Lessons Map and hers opens up to lesson 107 on Map 11.
Another favorite feature for my kids is the driving test. Each of my kids are different, but my daughter especially enjoys doing these.
Math Seeds
We were also given a complimentary subscription to Math Seeds and I wanted to briefly mention it here. It is an online math program that operates in a similar way to Reading Eggs.
Math Seeds was created by the same team that created Reading Eggs and shares the same dashboard with Reading Eggs if you have subscribed to both programs. However, you have the option to only subscribe to Math Seeds or only to Reading Eggs if you wish.
In Math Seeds, my kids collected golden acorns to spend instead of eggs. Math Seeds involves 180 lessons with numbers and math skills for kids ages 3 to 9 years old. They have recently expanded the program to cover some skills at the third grade level (including times tables fractions, angles, subtraction with regrouping, etc).
Math Seeds Video
Here you can see the parent dashboard that shows one of my kids Math Seeds progress. We haven’t spent a lot of time in Math Seeds yet as we mainly focused on Reading Eggs during this review.
Final Thoughts
Pros:
- Access 24/7/365 (use it anytime on your schedule)
- Kids love it.
- Kids can complete online lessons independently or you can expand learning with parents and additional lesson printables and suggested reading that reinforce the learning.
- Proven reading improvement.
- Affordable ($49 for 6 months and $59 for 1 year).
- Keeps parents/teachers informed of progress (emails and dashboard reports).
- Parents can tweak program by moving child ahead or back in lessons, and can have child repeat placement test if desired.
- Printables
- Homeschool Guide
Cons:
- Non-Christian Worldview. May or may not be a good fit for everyone.
This “con” won’t pertain to everyone, but some religious objections may arise to the non-Christian worldview and undertones of some lessons and book options within the program. Some families choose to homeschool rather than send their kids to public school for religious reasons. This program is used in state sponsored public schools in the USA, and other countries and corresponds to common core education and also has many non-Christian themes that some families do not wish their kids to participate in.
Thankfully, parents can tweak the lessons if they see themes they might object to by skipping a specific lesson and moving the child up to the next lesson, or choosing not to read a specific book. Another way to use the program is avoid using the books that you object too, but still have the kids take the lessons and read other books, and then use what was in the lesson as a teaching point of discussion about your faith with your kids, and this is the way we handled it. You have some flexibility to make these adjustments through the parent dashboard.
Overall, kids of all ages like the Reading Eggs programs. With all of it’s colorful interactive games and ability to earn spendable eggs and awards for achievements, it is easy understand why it is so successful in teaching and motivating kids to read.
If you would like to try before you buy, be sure to try out the free lesson on their website, or sign up to get your 4 Week Free Trial subscription.
Social Media
Keep up with all the lasted news, product updates, free offers, and special sales at the social media links for Reading Eggs:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/readingeggsUSCA/
• Instagram (handle): readingeggs
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/readingeggs @readingeggs
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/readingeggs/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCReadingEggs
Homeschool Review Crew
Be sure to check out what others on the Homeschool Review Crew had to say about using Reading Eggs in their home.
