For those that know me, know I homeschool my 9 year old daughter, Sophia. I am also starting that journey with my 3 year old son, however, he`s just being introduced.  For Sophia, though, we use a variety of methods for her homeschooling. We have workbooks, textbooks, and a few different online sites we use. A new one I recently came across is Reading Kingdom. What is Reading Kingdom exactly? Well, read below:

We believe that reading is the single most important skill children need to succeed in school and in life and that every child has the right to learn to read. Shockingly, 2 out of 3 children are failing to reach a proficient level in reading.* And failure in this critical area is the single greatest indicator of serious problems later in life. Our dream is to bring literacy to everyone in the United States and help those abroad who want to learn English by creating easily accessible and highly effective education methods. The Reading Kingdom is a site for children to learn to read and for adults looking to make sure the children in their lives have the best opportunities in life. It`s fun, easy-to-use and best of all, kids can do most of the program on their own with minimal adult supervision. Our online reading program is based on a patented system developed by a world-renowned expert on reading that has helped children to learn to read for over forty years. It`s the only system that customizes itself to your child. Thousands of children, parents, and educators testify to the success of the program. The Reading Kingdom is highly beneficial for children diagnosed with dyslexia. The system has been designed to teach a range of skills vital to reading but omitted from other programs. Many of these skills are precisely the ones that children with dyslexia need to develop. For example, the children often have problems with visual memory so that even when they have seen a word many times, they do not recognize it. The teaching of visual memory is a key part of The Reading Kingdom. Other features of the program address the specific language deficits associated with dyslexia, such as the notable difficulties the children have with the "little" words such as there, who, of, etc. The Reading Kingdom steadily builds the skills children need to become fluent readers and writers.

So I was given a subscription to Reading Kingdom for the year to try out with Sophia. We have been using it roughly about a week now along with her other learning sites and so far, we like it! First of all, it is very simple to use. Sign up and then allow your child to take the assessment. They recommend for best results to have your child use the program 3-4 days out of the week; which we have been doing. We like that that the lessons are short as they do not overload Sophia, but they`re great.The thing that stands out about this site compared to others is the fact that it helps your child learn and get familiar with the keyboard. So they have lessons that start off with them finding the letters and such on the keyboard so they can get comfortable. Then as the lessons go on, they have you type out the letters to spell words. As you can see in my screen shot above, that particular lesson is asking to spell out bugs. So your child would use the computer keyboard to type the word bugs. As they correctly answer questions and complete tasks, they earn reward points. Once you get so many points, you are able to reach a new section of Reading Kingdom, so that gives Sophia something to work towards. What I think helps make this program a hit, is that it`s like playing a game. There are cute colorful and fun characters that keep even my attention. The lessons are short and to the point and pretty easy. Sophia actually complained that it was too easy because she got started on level one. I sort of laughed it off and told her it`s just to help her practice with her typing. What she doesn`t realize is that it is helping her with the basic computer skills (typing) while practicing reading and spelling. Her weakest subject is spelling and vocabulary so for me, this was a great addition. Plus, as the lessons go on, the levels get harder and more appropriate to the skill level your child is on. One thing I particularly love is that they have a parent section that allows you to track your child’s progress. You can choose to receive e-mails detailing their progress as well. I opted to get this and that prompts me to login to check and see how Sophia is doing. There is also a store on their website as well with more materials to purchase if you want- books, worksheets, handwriting and phonics programs. All of this additional material is completely optional, though, but nice to have. Needless to say, we are quite impressed with the program and I look forward to seeing the results of Sophias progress as she continues to work through the various levels. As a homeschooler, this program is a great supplement to have with our curriculum and I highly recommend it! Want to try out this amazing reading program? You can try Reading Kingdom out for free for 30 days if you are curious. After that the pricing it $19.95/month or $199.99/year. To add an additional child, it is half price. It has a unique instruction method that`s incredibly effective. We love it and think you will too. And if you subscribe using our link, we get a free month!