Reading Eggs (TOS Review)

Reading Eggs is a online game for 3 to 7 year olds that provides 120 reading games and activities and 96 spelling activities at 12 levels. Reading eggs teaches both phonics and sight words.

I had Emily play on the program for a while to test it out. First, she took a placement test and the program started her at the “appropriate point.” I’m not sure about the assessment level, however. She missed only one question (from carelessness) and was placed at age 5.5, reading 3 letter words. The assessment should have placed her out of the program, I would think. I’m sure it’s more accurate for beginning readers, though.

We found that there are many different reading activities that must be done sequentially. She could go backward at any time to do easier activities, but new activities had to be completed in sequence. Activities included such things as blending sounds, identifying spoken words, forming sentences from word cards, and identifying beginning and ending sounds. All of the activities were colorful and fun. I think this is something that she would have very much enjoyed while she was learning to read.

Reading Eggpress is a portion of the site for better readers, up to age 12. There are books to read (with comprehension quizzes), and grammar, dictionary and  spelling games to play. I think this could be useful for a young child or one who is not very motivated to read because the activities are fun and interactive.

The book selection in the “library” consisted of short colorful books that I assume were written for Reading Eggpress and public domain books, such as fairy tales, The Railway Children, Five Children and It, and some Shakespeare adaptations by Edith Nesbitt. I thought that the older, public domain books were great selections with nice formatting and would like to see more of them. The newer books included both fiction and non-fiction in various genres.  Emily enjoyed them, though, and enjoyed having a library of books at her fingertips to read

One problem we had with the library selections was that since Emily could choose anything she wanted to read, she was choosing picture books, thereby eliminating any educational value to the activity. I told her that she had to choose from books for 9-12 year olds, but I wish that I could have preset the level, so that anything she chose would have been of educational value. I did like that there were “real books” to choose from, though, instead of just short paragraphs like some other reading comprehension computer programs have.

The “Gym” teaches dictionary skills, figurative language, words in context and other reading comprehension activities. Much more fun than a workbook!

A subscription to Reading Eggs costs $9.95 (monthly) to $75 (12 months).  Free trials are available, too! To read more reviews of Reading Eggs, please visit the Crew Blog.

I give Reading Eggs 5 stars and Reading Eggspress 4 stars.

As a member of the TOS Crew, I received a free membership to Reading Eggs in order to write this review.