Our Review of Essential Reading Skills for Kindergarten by Reading Eggs

OUR REVIEW

Sometimes a little one, especially in kindergarten, can be a little reluctant to learn. They are full of energy and curiosity but if they aren't ready to learn, it can be a challenge. This was the case with my grandchild who is almost five years old. That was, up until we had the opportunity to receive and review 240 Essential Reading Skills for Kindergarten by Reading Eggs. Reading Eggs offers many reading skills and math skills workbooks across various grades. The 250-page plus certificates workbook is compiled in a manner that allows for great ease of use by having a content page at the front which provides each lesson and the corresponding page number as well as an explanation on how to use the workbook. For our review, since it's self-paced, we used the workbook four times a week and at least a page a day.

Background on the 240 Essential Reading Skills for Kindergarten Workbook:

• It is built on the five pillars of reading success: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
• The 240 Essential Reading Skills for Kindergarten workbook covers the first 60 lessons of the Reading Eggs program for Kindergarten.
• Each lesson provides four pages that reinforce learning. This was a key feature that really helped him to retain what he learned. At the end of the majority of each lesson is a lesson check that ensured he was learning and retaining everything. 
• There is also the online program that can be used along side the workbook to really reinforce the learning activities. 
• There is a year planner that provides the entire book in sections called Maps. Each of the six maps are indexed by lesson, lesson focus, pages and more to help guide teaching the curriculum.

Interesting Fact:

"Reading Eggs is a multi-award winning #1 learn-to-read site trusted by 12,000 schools, and 10 million children!"

The lessons were short enough at approximately 15 minutes a day so he stayed interested with 1-2 pages completed a day yet enough for him to retain the information. He was very eager to do his school work and felt just like his big sister and his aunts who are also homeschooled. It's logical as it set him up to learn sight words such as in lesson 3, the sight word "am" was used and he was able to remember it. It really helped him with his fine motor skills by working on his handwriting and coloring skills. He loved the pictures and graphics and thought many were "cute!"  In the short amount of time we reviewed the workbook, the sound and identification of letters really clicked with him. His writing has even improved. Another feature that was nice was the open and go concept as there was nothing else needed to teach.

An example from Lesson 1 compared to the short time to Lesson 4 and the letters are better such as "M."

Looking ahead, the lessons become robust such as reading and word families and fun activities like hidden pictures and connect the dots.

One of the later quizzes.

Completion certificate.

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This pretty much sums up our review of Reading Eggs' 240 Essential Reading Skills for Kindergarten. It was a hit, he loved completing the assignments and is learning so much!

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Special Offer

Reading Eggs has a wonderful online program too. We didn't utilize it for this review but have in the past for our other children. It's a program designed by experts that provide self-paced and one-on-one lessons that are geared towards each child. From my memory, it has adorable graphics, fun songs and engaging activities to keep them busy that they don't realize they are learning. There are other levels from Reading Eggs Junior (ages 2-4), to Reading Eggs (ages 3-7), Reading Eggpress (ages 7-13), and Math Seeds (ages 3-9). Reading Eggs is providing 4 FREE weeks of Reading Eggs by clicking this Reading Eggs 4 FREE weeks link.

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Math Essentials' Math Refresher for Adults Review

When I thought of having the responsibility of teaching math to my children, I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated as math was never my forte. If you are like me and need to brush up on your math skills, check out Math Essentials' Math Refresher for Adults. Each lesson contains a corresponding video taught by a math teacher, Richard W. Fisher, winner of Intel Innovations in Teaching Award. This book is perfect for ensuring one understands the foundations before tackling the harder topics and for me, that was perfect. I started at the very beginning as although I clearly remembered how to complete those initial problems in whole numbers, I did need a refresher in fractions and beyond. 

Math Refresher for Adults allows the user to start where they need to based on the table of contents. It's broken down in logical order for General Math starting with:

• Whole numbers
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Percents
• Geometry
• Integers
• Charts and Graphs
• Word Problems

It's then broken up for Pre-Algebra and Algebra with subtopics to include practice problems, solutions and a glossary.

Every lesson includes Helpful Hints to ensure the student understands the best way to complete a problem. For example, upon reaching a Geometry section, it reminds the student to remember the particular formulas when completing each question. The pages do look busy with a lot of questions and help contained on one page but for myself, it's okay. I used A LOT of scrap paper to answer most questions.

The video lessons that supplement the lessons are very helpful. The author, Mr. Fisher, is easy to understand and presents the lessons in an easy format. He starts out really basic which is good for a regular student utilizing this material for the first time or even a refresher. They are broken into sections so one can skip to the section(s) they need. The online whiteboard helps to visualize as well versus a piece of paper and watching him write each problem. Upon completing the lessons and the videos, I'm going to order Book Two for Middle/High School for my middle child.

This is definitely an excellent course for those that need a refresher for personal or business reasons. It's self-paced and logical in order of presentation. The supplemental video lessons really help in areas that might seem a little foggy as Mr. Fisher does an excellent job presenting the material and encouraging the student along. Since it's self-paced, it also eliminates some of the pressure that a scheduled course might present itself with. I am much more confident in my math skills now and know that my future does not have to be limited by my lack of knowledge with math.

Each lesson teaches the foundation skills required to be successful at algebra. The lessons and review reinforces the topic before moving to the next. As the student progresses, each concept will build upon the other and this curriculum teaches it in an ideal manner for success.

To learn more about Math Essentials, check them out on Facebook. Math Refresher for Adults is only one product available as they also have curriculum for younger students.

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