Saturday 22 March 2014

Review: Reading Eggs

An Ordinary Life has been contacted by Reading Eggs recently. They have asked if I would do a review on their product and I agreed.  I only do honest so here's how it went...
 
My girls have LOVED trying out Reading Eggs over the last few weeks.  They begged for more every time they 'played' it (their words not mine).  I have to tear them away to be able to pop to the shops for food on some days!  You can say it's been a massive hit in our house these last few weeks. 

You might be wondering if it is just another game or is it an effective learning tool? Well read on...
 
I do love one thing about Reading Eggs, that is that it was the tool that taught my Honi how to read.  My Honi, 6 years old now, would not sit still for long (she still struggles most of the time even now) but had a hunger for knowledge. Reading Eggs helped me give her a tool that stopped her from being so frustrated and worked together with the reading I did and still do with her that helped her to develop into a book lover!

I think Honi loved the independence it gave her and now, over the last few weeks, I am finding that it is a tool that is encouraging my Harmonie, who will be four in a couple of months, to learn to read too. 

Harmonie loves it, she spends the whole time she's on Reading Eggs just beaming.  I love the way it turns learning to read into a game.  With friendly funny characters and songs that make them laugh!


Without a doubt Reading Eggs is an amazing tool to help begin a child's journey in learning to read.

Honi also tried it out again and really enjoyed being stretched in a fun way with Reading Eggspress.  She has begged me to purchase Reading Eggs so she can play it more!  Begging to learn, I love that! So thank you Reading Eggs for asking An Ordinary Life if we could do this review, it has been a blessing.
 
As appreciation for featuring this review on An Ordinary Life Reading Eggs have also have kindly offered all my readers some extra free trial time if they use this code: UKB26RET  ~ This will give you 4 weeks rather than the usual 2 weeks.  I received no other payment for writing this review apart from an extended free trial period.  All views in this post are mine and mine alone.  I hope, if you read this review, you found it useful.
 
 

16 comments:

  1. We've not had such positive experiences with Reading Eggs. My 4 yo loved the free trial then lost interest completely.

    My 7 yo is on lesson 96 of 120 on the first level but doesn't really enjoy it.

    We found the eggplant vs aubergine type issues annoying. Endive? That was random when we were thinking lettuce!!

    We've also been waiting 2 months for the pirate area to open.

    1,000 unspent golden eggs as the items to buy are pretty old fashioned.

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  2. Ime it's about the timing. When a child is ready it will all come together pretty rapidly. My eldest ( now 9) learnt 5 years ago now completing the entire Ladybird Peter and Jane scheme in a few short months. She's also an awesome speller which I think suffers using phonics type programs.

    Did you try Teach Your Monster to Read from Usborne? That's a very modern program and is free.

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  3. "Without a doubt Reading Eggs is an amazing tool to help begin a child's journey in learning to read."

    That's exactly E's frustration. He thought if he completed the 120 lessons he'd be reading and he's not!

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    1. Obviously it depends on the child, I had no experiences like yourself. I can understand that this post must have made you feel frustrated, that was not my intention. I am sure you can appreciate to do an honest review I had to write it from my point of view and from my own personal experiences.

      As for the price it is expensive but for my girls after a year they were reading well enough not to NEED it anymore and the fact that they would be on it nearly every day meant to me that per seated session it did not work out so badly I though, my own opinion again I suppose.

      We can only go on our own experiences, thanks for giving a contrast to my own experience here.

      I do believe it's about reading readiness, I have mentioned this in older posts I think, but my girls have all been eager and ready. Sorry to hear you didn't get on so well with it though.

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    2. Hi Lisa,

      Et has now given up on Reading Eggs altogether - If is interest renews it will probably be once our annual subscription has expired!

      I think all of this feedback here will be useful for the folk who work at Reading Eggs - it certainly seems they are selling enough UK subscriptions to justify removing the annoying Americanisms!

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  4. We had the app and my youngest lost interest a few months ago. I think that we will give this free trial a chance and see if its any better. I think he prefers books simply because he sees his older brother reading them.
    It's a great review - I hope we find it as good as your girls have.

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    1. It's better than any of the apps in my opinion, hope it works out for you :)

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  5. We found the same as you and the same as the other reviewers. Initially for the first few world's, he (4 years) was obsessed doing several lessons in a row. So we bought a subscription and, within a week or two, he lost all interest! I think he got frustrated that he had to do things over and over, despite having got it, to progress. Also, he didn't really understand about tests so would often mess around on that bit and then get stuck at the same level. Also, in the apps and the programme, the wrong sound effects are more fun than the right ones so he would get things wrong to hear the funny noises and then not progress. Finally, because it is based on Flash it doesn't work well ( at all) with tablets. So take a free trial but be aware the enthusiasm and progress might not continue.

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    1. World's should be weeks!

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    2. I use reading eggs on our desk top perhaps that has helped us?

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  6. Our first experience with Reading Eggs was over a year ago. Our then 5 year old's turning 6, twin girls trialled it. Enjoyed it, so we bought it. Very soon after they lost interest to the point they really didn't want to do it. Comments including *it's boring* every time I asked if they fancied a go. Just recently (and nearly 7) our girls used Teach Your Monster To Read which is free BTW and completed it. They preferred it to Reading Eggs, so they said. HOWEVER, out of the blue one of our girls asked for Reading Eggs and has been using it again on trial until yesterday when we purchased again. This time around something feels different and I am certain it's all about readiness. Twin Sister has jumped on the band wagon too. I think it's simply they are ready to take the next leap into learning to read. There are other natural signs too happening. I don't think it's that they find it any more exciting than last time but they are keen to progress their skills. There are frustrations with certain games and they refuse to do certain bits so I do those for them to keep up the pace and move forward. Think it could be a little cheaper!

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    1. It would be handy if it was cheaper, it gets to be a struggle when you have more than one child that's for sure. I think you are right about readiness too. I just didn't think about it as I have been lucky enough to always find my girls ready and happy to use it. Thanks for your comment Angela.

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  7. It's been really interesting to read your review, Lisa, and the comments. We've done the trials a few times and my 3yo really enjoys it - although gets really frustrated if she stops just before the end of a stage and then has to start the whole stage from scratch again, which happened a few times. It's pretty expensive, though, so I haven't bought the whole thing yet, although I have been feeling a bit bad about that because she does enjoy it. But having read the rest of the comments, above, I think not subscribing is probably the right decision!

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    1. 3 is very young and an unusual age to be ready to read, perhaps wait a while and see :) Thanks for leaving a comment!

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  8. We use Reading Eggs for our 5 and 7 year old. They both enjoy Reading Eggs and are on their second and third years each. Why so long? The youngest was quite young when he started to use the programme. He would like to use RE every day. The older child is a struggling reader and has needed multiple re-enforcement. Reading Eggs has sat well with her other synthetic phonic programme and she finds this fun.She doesn't use RE every day. I suspect that we won't need a fourth year!
    By the way, did you know that there is a home ed discount of 40%? You need to contact them directly by the contact form or phone.

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    1. Thanks for that SarahElizabeth! That's cool to know :) Lovely to hear it how it's working for your children too! x

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