ABC Reading Eggs- A Review

Dominique Thoughts

Last two weeks a friend of mine introduced me to Reading Eggs. This website had a free trial and I signed both the boys up to try.

What is Reading Eggs?

ABC Reading Eggs is an online reading problem which is catered to different reading abilities. There is an online assessment given to the child before they are set on the right reading grade.

In each level you will get to complete a maze where eggs can be earned from the activities completed.  There are games , songs and reading of mini story books in each mini level. At each stage there are certain key words ie : Play , Face etc which are emphasized which the child is made to identify.

What the boys enjoyed about the online game?

Roy enjoyed playing the various games- matching, selecting the chosen words and connecting the words to form the word given.  The boys also like playing the interim games which pop up when the different activities are loading up in the background.

Loading time was short and there were a wide variety of games in the playground for them to play with as a “bonus” after they have completed each level. Roy loved the bowling activity while Ryan tried all the other games using up the remainder of the eggs which they collected.

What the boys didn’t like?

Most of the activities had to be repeated 3 times before they were allowed to go onto the next activity. Roy was rather put off having to repeat the activities and lost interest after having to do it twice.  After some time he only completed the activity once and passed me the mouse to repeat the activity twice so he could quickly move onto the next activity.

ABC Reading Eggs is an interesting program to get young kids interested in reading. It is worth a trial to see if the program is suitable for your child.

Time4Learning- A Review

Dominique Thoughts

Disclosure : I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own and not influence by the trial I had.

A few  months back I chanced upon this offer made by  The Mom’s Blog . I had joined this site a long time ago and was interested in this chance to try out the Time4learning.com online homeschooling site as a supplement to the current learning curriculum which they boys are learning.

I signed up for both boys to let them try out the activities in English, Maths and Science which they offer.

What is Time4Learning?

It is an online PreK – 8th grade curriculum  which  has animated lessons,  interactive activities, unit assessments, and printable worksheets for reinforcement.

Roy tried out  some of the activities the K1 and K2 syllabus while Ryan did the Grade 2-3 as he found the K2 and Grade 1 relatively easy for his standard.

For Roy ( K1- K2)

There was a wide variety of topics from shapes, colours to alphabets for Roy to try out. However he was mostly interested in the maths games and colours which he tried out.  He was also more interested to hit the playground and try out the various games there then do the activities inside.

I sat down with him each time he accessed the program and realized that several of the activities were not as challenging as expected.

Overall, this would be a good “starter” program if your child  is starting out in his learning journey.

For Ryan (Grade 2- Grade 3)

Ryan was initially interested in trying out the activities that this site had to offer but his interest died off faster than Roy’s  due the the limitation of topics in Science. (which is his favourite)  Also even though I have upgraded his learning levels to Grade 2 and 3 ( He is currently in K2 here) most of the reading and comprehension exercises were still too simple for him.

I feel a more comprehensive and varied program would be more suitable for his current ability.

Cons of the program

My main gripe with the program is the excessive long time it took to load up each component of the topic.

By the time each section is loaded up the boys have almost lost interest in waiting to play the game. They ended up clicking on additional window tabs to other external sites to play game while waiting for the lesson to load up.

Also there isn’t much variation in the way the lessons are presented.

Also at $19.99 a month it is not cheap especially if I have to subscribe to the program for both boys to access.

To find out more about this program please visit their website for lesson demos.