Reading Kingdom is an online program that will help your child learn to read up to a 3rd grade level. We’ve been given a year’s subscription to Reading Kingdom Online. Read on to find out more about this program.
Reading Kingdom is aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 10, from preschool to third grade. It’s all online (though there are a couple of worksheets and many other hands-on games to play that you can find in their ‘Resources’ tab.
Reading Kingdom teaches children to read with six areas of focus:
- Phonics
- Sequencing
- Writing
- Meaning
- Grammar
- Comprehension
Learning with just any one of these areas will leave a child short of knowledge. By working on all areas, they’ll be able to learn new words more fluidly.
It’s recommended that you use this program with Chrome, and it should work on all PCs, Macs and tablets. If you’re like me and have an Android tablet that is out of date, just send an email to them and they’ll walk you through how to change the settings so it will work for you.
If you use a tablet, set the program to use the on-screen keyboard. We live in the UK, and our physical keyboards here slightly different from the North American ones, which was causing us a little trouble. However, a quick message to Reading Kingdom and they suggested my children use the on-screen keyboard at all times to avoid this problem.
It’s recommended that children do Reading Kingdom 4-5 days a week with 1-2 lessons per day. If you start from the beginning, it will take 12-15 months to complete, but can take as little as 3-6 months if you’re further ahead in the program. Each lesson takes about 10-15 minutes to complete.
The first thing that my children did was take an evaluation so that the program would know where to place them. Tristan started with Letterland which is getting familiar with the keyboard, then he continued on to Level 1. I wasn’t so happy with this (and neither was he) as he can read 300+ page novels with very little trouble. I believe that part of the reason for being put into this category was the (lack of) speed with which he used the keyboard, so it thought he didn’t know the words when really it’s just his keyboard speed. He’s now working on the final review of this level and he’s come up with excellent for all but 1 word on the parent report. I could ask to have him moved ahead, but it never hurts to go through and become more confident by doing well with what you already know.
Kallista began with ‘Seeing Sequences’ and Letter Land and is now only a couple of days behind where Tristan is. Kallista is still a beginning reader, so she’s doing well. This photo was from when she first began. She’d completed two lessons and she didn’t want to stop! When I asked her why, she said, “I didn’t get my passport open. I want to keep going today.”
There’s a ‘passport’ that opens upon so many points. As you move up, there will be different coloured passports with different animations inside. When Kallista gets frustrated with a lesson and wants to stop, she still continues because she wants to get to the next part of the passport.
It’s pretty easy for Tristan at the moment, and when I asked him what his opinion was, he replied, “You have fun, you learn and you read all at the same time!”
There’s a parent’s report that you can download in excel spreadsheet format. It will tell you where your child is currently within the program. It lets you know which words they’ve learned, and how well they’ve done: needs attention, good, very good, excellent, or not required. Reading Kingdom adapts to what your child knows and won’t have them spend time on words they already know.
My children have both had good and bad days using Reading Kingdom…but that’s just a day in the life of learning. If they need a day off, then that’s okay. And I always tell them I’m happy if they only do 1 lesson, but 90% of the time they continue on to do 2 lessons.
Although Tristan is a great reader, he isn’t always very confident with spelling. I do believe using this program has given him more confidence as he doesn’t ask how to spell certain words anymore, and he’s even volunteering to compose his own notes, only having me look over them before they’re sent.
Kallista is still at the stage where she desperately wants to be able to read everything, but she doesn’t want to stop and think about what the words are first. The multiple ways in which Reading Kingdom teaches should help her to learn to slow down and think about the words, and not just in context.
The children will continue to use Reading Kingdom to help them improve their skills, and by the time next year’s summer reading challenge event happens at the library, they’ll both be flying through the pages.
To read more reviews about Reading Kingdom by the Schoolhouse Review Crew, click on the graphic below and follow the instructions. You will find 80 honest reviews by the Crew. If you’d like to know more or would like to follow Reading Kingdom, you can connect with them through their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
