The Reading Game

We recently received a reading game, named, appropriately enough The Reading Game from Wordly Wise author, Kenneth Hodkinson. :)

The contents of The Reading Game include 6 illustrated story books, six decks of matching playing cards, and a Teacher and Parent's Guide.

The "Game" aspect comes into play with the cards. There are 6 "Sets" of cards that coordinate with each book. Each "set" contains 2 cards each of 5 words, with which a "memory" game is played (180 "words in total).

The basic concept is that as the words are seen over and over in the course of playing the memory game that the words will be "hardwired" into your child's brain.You play with only 5 different words at a time, in order to keep the number of words being memorized to a reasonable number. After all 6 sets of cards have been successfully learned, your child is ready to read the accompanying story.

All About Spelling ~ Beehive Reader**

You all may remember that the TOS Crew reviewed the All About Spelling program and the All About Homophones ebook last year.

This year Marie Rippel sent the TOS Crew her new Beehive Reader (hardcover $19.95).

Now, I don't currently have a beginning reader, so I can't say anything about how it works for my family, but I can give you my opinion. :)

Marie has used the the Beehive Reader to complement AAS Volume 1. There are 10 stories, and they correlate as follows:

• Story 1, “At the Pond,” can be read after Step 15
• Story 2, “The Nap,” can be read after Step 17
• Story 3, “At Camp,” can be read after Step 18
• Story 4, “The Pet Duck,” can be read after Step 19
• Story 5, “The Bat and King Sam,” can be read after Step 20
• Story 6, “Frank Shrank!” can be read after Step 21
• Story 7, “Cobweb the Cat,” can be read after Step 22
• Story 8, “Ten Wishes,” can be read after Step 23
• Story 9, “Fast Fun,” can be read after Step 24
• Story 10, “Off We Go!” can be read after Step 24

I really like that the reader can be used as a goal to reach toward as the child(ren) work through the first volume... kind of like a reward.... :), although it can also be used as a stand-alone reader.

General comments on a few of the stories:
"The Nap" is very sweet, as is "The Bat and King Sam", "Frank Shrank" is a gentle introduction to "Alice in Wonderland" sorts of adventure, and "Fast Fun" is a series of VERY short tongue Twisters.

The stories are short and sweet, with beautiful pencil drawn pictures and backgrounds. Even when the text is somewhat stilted and the story line is a little "jerky" (Only "At The Pond", which uses the fewest words, struck me this way), or uses labels that some would like to avoid ( In "The Pet Duck", the duck is labeled as "bad" because of his behavior), the illustrations are very rich and leave a lot of room to discuss what is going on.

Again, the illustrations are just lovely, and I LOVE gorgeous illustrations. I will look forward to using this book with my youngest in a few years, when he begins reading.

For any of my local friends~ let me know if you would like to see this in person, and I'll be happy to bring it along to a meeting for you to check out (Or we can make other arrangements~ :) )

If you are interested in other TOS Crew Member opinions, please check out the TOS CREW blog. As always, I am hoping these reviews will help you make the best decisions for YOUR family, and how to spend your homeschooling budget.

Blessings~


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this item/service for free as part of the TOS Crew Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."