TOS Review: Reading Kingdom

Today's review is Reading Kingdom.  It is an online reading program geared towards children 4-10 years of age that teaches them how to read and write through a third grade level.  Sarah used Reading Kingdom on regular basis in our home.  The site recommends at least one session for at least four days a week.  Sessions usually lasted no more than 15 minutes for Sarah.  She then had the option to do another session or finish for the day.  


When first starting out, your child begins with a skills survey.  Your child will take an assessment to find out where they need to begin.    Listed below are the three components of the skills survey.

Skills Component: Keyboarding

The Reading Kingdom uses the keyboard for many activities such as spelling and writing. To see if a child already has the required keyboarding skills, the Skills Survey asks a child to type letters and words that appear on the screen (as shown below).

If a child’s responses show that he or she needs to develop better keyboarding skills, the first teaching format he or she will work on will be Letter Land.

Skills Component: Sequencing

The next skill in the survey involves visual sequencing. It’s the skill that allows us to see a set of identical letters, like this

w o n

as forming totally different words just because their sequence is different.

now

won

own

(Years of experience make all this “obvious” to an adult. However, for a child, word recognition is the first time that the sequence of visual objects can completely change the meaning.)

To survey a child’s sequencing skills, the program asks the child to match a sample sequence in activities such as these where he or she has to select, in left to right order, the symbols in the bottom row that are the same as those in the top row :

If the skills survey shows that a child needs either the keyboarding or the sequencing programs, the Skills Survey ends.

If a child already has both keyboarding and sequencing skills, the Skills Survey continues by asking a child to read and write words and sentences.

Skills Component: Reading and Writing

Here is a sample of a reading activity where the child hears “kid” and is asked to select it from the choices at the top:

And here is a sample of a writing activity where the child hears the word ‘to’ and is asked to type it:

The Teaching

After the Skills Survey is completed, the teaching can begin. Based on the Skills Survey, it begins at a point that is best for a child’s abilities.

It might be a lesson that asks a child to select the letter in the row of keys that matches the letter at the top of the screen:

Or it might be a lesson where, starting with short sequences of only two symbols, a child begins the process of learning left to right sequencing:

Or it might be a lesson teaching a word using one of the many formats used to teach words in the Reading Kingdom program.

In this example, a child hears the word “walk” and is asked to select which of the choices can be made into that word:

Or it might be an activity where the child first hears a word such as “bird” and has to pick the correct picture:

 Following that, the next step is to type the word:

Or it might be a lesson involving an easy book:

Or it might be a more advanced book:

Some of the books are designed to get the children more actively involved by having them fill in some of the words:

And by the second half of the program, a child begins to work on story comprehension – as shown here:

Monitoring Progress

The Reading Kingdom handles this important issue by having each child, at regular points in the program, take a Progress Check. If the Progress Check shows that a child is doing well, in the next session he or she moves on to new material.

On the other hand, if the Progress Check shows some weaknesses in the learning, then in the next session, the child starts a set of review lessons that enable him or her to get past any difficulties. The review process may take one to two weeks to complete. Once it is completed, the child returns to learning new material.

Surprisingly, Sarah started at the very beginning which was Letter Land.  I really thought she would have done better and started further along.  I must tell you, that part of the lessons seemed SO LONG for me.  She never complained once and enjoyed every minute of it.  Often, she would do more than one session per day.  I, however, grew extremely frustrated with the repetitiveness of this portion.    Honestly, it nearly drove me crazy to let her keep doing the same thing over and over and over everyday!  Why, I don't know!!!  Because she loved it!  Finally, she passed that portion and entered into 1 of the 5 levels of the reading and writing skills.  This portion was more of what I was hoping for out of the program with the sample screen shots of some of the levels shown above.  Reading Kingdom is something she asks to do daily so she really enjoys it. 


The cost of Reading Kingdom is $19.99 per month (with no minimum) or $199.99 per year.  You may also sign up for a 30 day trial period to try it out for yourself!  They also have scholarship programs available.


Would our family add Reading Kingdom to our curriculum?  I would say no from what I have seen so far.  It just does not fit our family for what I wanted it to do. I think it would be a great supplement for reading but definitely not a complete curriculum in my opinion.  We will, however continue to use the program and if my opinion changes I will be sure to let you know!  Sarah, on the other hand, would like for it to be known that she would love Reading Kingdom added to her daily studies :).

Don't forget to check out what my fellow crewmates thought of Reading Kingdom.


**Disclaimer:  I received a free subscription of Reading Kingdom in exchange for my review.  The opinions here are my honest and true evaluation!