Filling the Gap in Reading Programs

May 24, 2013

reading-programs
Parents that look for reading programs rarely find one that accommodates all of their needs. Fortunately, more parents are discovering that Reading Kingdom is the go-to source for building the strong foundation in literacy that all children need. Hillary is the latest mom to introduce her son to Lingo and company and here’s what she has to say:

“There are many options when it comes to reading programs online. What sets Reading Kingdom apart from the others is their philosophy. Reading Kingdom does not focus on phonics or whole words — at least not exclusively. They incorporate so much more. There are more skills used in reading, so a thorough program should address those as well. Reading Kingdom does just that…The nice thing with Reading Kingdom is the ability for the parent to see where the learner is in the program and what progress they are making. I get an e-mail and/or I can view a report on-line. I can also adjust the response time for him. That has helped quite a bit. He often knows the answer, but has to work a bit to get it entered soon enough. Now he has more time and his knowledge (rather than speed) is being reflected. He has gone from a green star (good performance) to a sunshine (excellent performance) with that simple change.

As much as my son thinks this is a game he plays on the computer (you can access it anywhere with an internet connection — even at Grandma’s), I know he is learning. The time spent is fun for him. There are no distracting ads or obnoxious music…I like that the Reading Kingdom approach teaches more than decoding skills. The program can teach your child to read and write at a third grade level. Yes, writing, too! For those that prefer to have paper in hand (like me!), Reading Kingdom also offers physical books, sold in sets of six to coordinate with the levels of the program, a handwriting component, and more. They even offer a paper and pencil version (Phonics Plus Five kit) of their program.” — Hillary Moore

If you want to see how our approach teaches kids the full spectrum of literacy skills needed to learn to read and write, click here to sign up for a free 30 day trial of our online reading program. You’ll be just as happy as Hillary when you see the full range of features Reading Kingdom can bring to your home or classroom. We hope to see you soon!

Kristen Butler

Kristen is part of the marketing team at the Reading Kingdom and a regular contributor to the Reading Kingdom Blog. She has a background in journalism and is a new mom who looks forward to sharing the love of literacy with her daughter! Her favorite books as a child were the Collections of Peter Rabbit and Friends.

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Stories for Kids with Pictures: Frankie: The Untold Story of an Itsy Bitsy Spider

May 23, 2013

Frankie: The Untold Story of an Itsy Bitsy Spider by Carey Mills Federspiel is one of Reading Kingdom’s recommended stories for kids with pictures. Melissa Young explains why:

“What You Need to Know:

• Frankie: The Untold Story of an Itsy Bitsy Spider is the charming backstory of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, as imagined by author Carey Mills Federspiel.

• This book is currently available as an iPad, iPhone, or iTouch App.

• Little Nursery Rhyme fans will delight in this imagined prequel.

• This is a perfect choice for parents looking for quality apps for their pre-schoolers.

Summary:

This is a new thing for Sweet on Books: we are reviewing an app! While we are huge supporters of books, books and more books (as you already know), we do keep a realistic eye on the future. We are also parents who have young children with access to our iPads, iPhones, and literally, iEverything. Therefore, we are always looking for quality things to download. Enter Frankie: The Untold Story of an Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Frankie is the brainchild of Carey Mills Federspiel: author, parent and artist. She has taken these 3 talents and created a charming and creative prequel to the celebrated Itsy Bitsy Spider nursery rhyme. Frankie, it turns out, is quite the curious little spider. He can’t help but wonder what that cave is (rain gutter) and why it is always dripping; so he decides to explore. I won’t spoil the story for you, because you should really download it yourself to experience it, but suffice it to say Frankie is quite the surfer!

The app is set up like a traditional picture book with illustrations and text on each “page”. The benefits of the book being in app form include narration and a little movement and/or sound effects on each page. But don’t misunderstand; this is not a video game. Think of it as a book with benefits. I especially like the fact that young readers can tap on the text and have it read to them while they follow along. This is a wonderfully helpful tool for emerging readers. Federspiel’s gorgeous watercolor illustrations are soothing, as is the narrator’s voice. Frankie is also pretty darn cute.

So, do we think that an app should replace a book? In our sweet opinion, no. Which is why we do hope a companion print edition of this lovely story is forthcoming. Until then, enjoy Frankie on your devices. It is especially nice to have something on my iPhone that I can hand over to my little one without an ounce of guilt! Try it while on a long grocery line or waiting at the doctor’s office, you won’t be disappointed and neither will your little reader.”

Have your children read Frankie: The Untold Story of an Itsy Bitsy Spider? What did they think of the book?

The Reading Kingdom is great for teaching your child to read all types of books for kids. The Reading Kingdom is our award-winning, fun, easy-to-use online program that teaches children 4-10 years old how to read and write to a third grade level.You can sign up for a 30 day free trial, risk free!

Sweet on Books

Melissa Gaynor and Melissa Young live in a small town outside of New York City and have five children between their two families. Their children and a shared passion for children’s books brought them together as friends and business partners. Voracious readers with dreams of opening a children’s bookstore, they parlayed their passions into creating Sweet on Books and establishing themselves as two of the leading children’s book reviewers on the web.

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Great apps for kids: BASHO and Friends

May 22, 2013

Basho and Friends is one of Reading Kingdom’s recommended great apps for kids. Tim Donovan from YogiPlay explains why:

“At YogiPlay, speaking multiple languages in our office is as common as the average person grabbing a cup of coffee from Starbucks as they head into work; on any given day, you’ll hear French, Spanish, Hindi, Hebrew, Mandarin or Farsi being spoken in conference rooms, hallways and lunchrooms.

These languages reflect the true diversity of our engineers, product managers, developer relations, marketing or business development executives who come to YogiPlay from many wonderful countries and cultures around the world. We can tell you from experience that having multiple native language speakers on our team has been invaluable for partnership discussions and developing new business relationships with leading international mobile learning app developers.

One neat thing we’ve noticed is that the children of our international team members (who we lovingly refer to as “Yogi-kids”) all speak multiple languages, and several of the Yogi-kids can actually go in and out of conversations using up to 3 languages at a time.

Imagine what their language skills will be like when our Yogi-kids are ready to go to university!

Because we really understand the value and appreciate the benefits of being multilingual, we thought it might be nice to recommend a great learning app called BASHO & Friends Language Fun, which teaches young children basic multilingual skills.

With BASHO & Friends, children will experience an interactive, musically-themed edu-game that encourages them to explore new languages and cultures by visiting a fun virtual neighborhood.

Parents, please note that mom or dad should help kids select a game language (language to learn) and then the instructional language (native language to help with instruction) before children begin playing with the app.

Once the app is launched, children can select from any number of BASHO & Friends language activities, including:

★ Dress-up: Children get to dress up BASHO’s main character, Croco, to get him ready for a trip through the virtual neighborhood. This activity contains a learning mode that lets children hear different language words for clothing items and specific colors.

★ Wheel of Animals: Children listen to the sounds of eight animals (horse, bee, dog, chicken, cow, pigs, cat, duck), followed by the pronunciation of animal names in multiple languages. They’ll also see corresponding written words to help with learning reinforcement.

★ Music Videos: Kids will have fun watching a variety of music-themed videos based on popular songs that introduce the ABCs in English, Spanish and Mandarin.

According to BASHO & Friends, the number of languages available and the number of city locations kids can visit will expand greatly with future releases.

If you’re a parent who would like to give your child the gift of language, try BASHO & Friends today! You might be surprised how quickly your child picks up words from new languages.”
When looking for the best apps for kids available, visit us for app reviews and free educational resources. And sign up for our free 30 day trial to see our award winning approach to teaching reading and writing that has thousands of parents and teachers raving!

YogiPlay

YogiPlay is the first personalized mobile learning apps recommendation engine designed specifically for children from ages 3 to 8. YogiPlay provides parents with valuable insight into their child’s learning and play patterns, along with meaningful personalized app recommendations tailor-made to meet each child’s specific learning needs. YogiPlay is available on Apple devices, Android tablets and smart-phones, so look for YogiPlay-boosted apps in your preferred app marketplace.

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How to Find Educational Apps for Kids

May 21, 2013

apps-for-kids
With new apps emerging daily, finding the right ones for your kids can be a task as you sort through thousands of already available apps on the market. Julie Laviolette shares some of her favorite places to find educational apps for kids:

“Parents looking for educational apps have to do their homework. With more than 700,000 apps on iTunes alone, searching for quality apps can be overwhelming. But independent app review sites, often run by parents or teachers, can offer much-needed guidance.

“Finding great educational and fun apps for kids can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, unless you have a few trusted and unbiased review sites to rely on,” said Carisa Kluver, a mom and founder of Digital-Storytime.com.

The biggest challenge that educational app shoppers face is that app stores lump apps together in huge categories.

“Shoppers are surrounded by a world of people whose best interest it is to sell them an app with very few clear, knowledgeable voices saying the things we do,” said Ron Engel, who runs SmartAppsForKids.com.

Here are six sites that can help:

Digital-Storytime

With more than 600 reviews of iPad book apps for readers 2-12, Digital Storytime rates apps on educational value, originality, animation and interactivity. Users can sort by category, language, age group and price. The site also has top 10 lists, news of free and discounted apps, and “The Digital Media Diet” blog about digital publishing and parenting in the digital age.

EdApps4Sale

Run by Digital Storytime, this site is a good resource for the bargain shopper. It lists price drops and free apps in the book app, educational apps and game app categories.

SmartAppsForKids

With 1.2 million visits in 2012, this is the kids’ app site with the most traffic. “We give bad reviews and publish them. There are almost no kids’ app review sites that do that,” owner Ron Engel said. “But I think if you truly want to serve your readers, you want to be a resource that they can rely on for honesty and as much info as possible.” The site reviews kids’ educational apps, games and books. There is a “Top 100 Free Apps” list and a “Good Free App of the Day” feature.

AppyMall

AppyMall, a marketplace for educational apps, was launched by Technology in Education, a popular review site, to help teachers and parents find quality children’s apps. AppyMall allows users to search for educational apps by grade level and learning skill, such as math, language arts, or reading. Apps are divided into anchor stores that organize book, game and educational apps into categories such as preschool, elementary school, middle school, speech and language, special needs and apps with lesson plans.

TeachersWithApps

Co-founded by educators Jayne Clare and Anne Rachel, this site offers reviews based on extensive field-testing by parents, teachers and children. “Our site is a top notch, reliable resource for truly educational apps,” Rachel said. “We are currently in the process of developing an App Certification Program. Apps will have to meet certain criteria to earn this honor.”

TheiMums

The iMums are a group of four moms who met online while searching for and reviewing apps for their own children. The iMums are founder Amanda Powell of Australia, Alison Hirst of the U.S., Grace Shirley Chong of Singapore and Mary Mahon, a United Kingdom native now living in the U.S. Collectively, the group has 11 children ages 1 to 18.

“We are all part of one global community of parents, teachers, therapists and developers from around the world who come together to talk about the best children’s apps, and how to make them even better,” Mahon said. “It is amazing to work with the other iMums from around the globe. We have a common goal of ensuring that our children get the best learning opportunities from these devices and are protected from inappropriate content.”

(*Note: Check out two more of our favorite sites that have great apps for kids, Kindertown and YogiPlay!)

If you’re looking for even more great apps for kids, complete with thorough reviews and much more, visit the Reading Kingdom. You can also sign up for our free 30 day trial to see how our award winning approach helps children learn to read and write up to a third grade level.

Julie Laviolette

Julie Landry Laviolette is a mom of two, parenting journalist and founder of Story Bayou, which creates interactive book apps for kids 8-12. Her first book app, Brush of Truth, was named 2012 Media of the Year in Interactive Books by Creative Child Magazine, and has been recognized nationally for its appeal to reluctant readers.

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Activities for kids, apps for kids, Education, Kids Learning Websites

Meal Ideas for Kids: Sticky Stacky Sandwiches

May 20, 2013

Children need a lot of energy during the day to help them learn to read, write, spell and do the rest of their schoolwork. It’s important for them to nourish their bodies with wholesome foods.

To help keep your little ones going throughout the day, we’re happy to feed more than just their minds with healthy meal ideas for kids. Children can even help create these recipes with you!

Today’s great meal idea for kids: Sticky Stacky Sandwiches!

meal-idea-for-kids

“The kids love it when we make the same old boring sandwiches, with a new presentation! Skewering your sandwich ingredients is fast, fun, and for kids who normally don’t eat tomatoes on their sandwiches, they just might when it’s on a stick!

We’ve got some:

• Whole Wheat bread meal-ideas-kids
• Cheese (cut with cookie cutters)
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Turkey
• More cheese
• and another piece of whole wheat bread.

You can get creative and stack any type of sandwiches this way. The key to making a sandwich healthy for your little ones is to make sure:

• You are using 100% whole grain bread!
• You include a protein (if using lunch meat, watch for sodium content, or cut your own from a home cooked turkey)
o good proteins include peanut butter or other nut butters, meat, a bean spread like hummus, etc.)
• Include fruits or vegetables!
o Vegetables are a great combo with any bean spread or lunch meat. Fruit is great to slice on nut butters.
Stick your finished Sticky Stacky Sandwiches in Styrofoam, put in a flower pot, and use as a centerpiece. Your kids will have fun pulling one out for their mid day meal!”

After your children have finished this tasty meal and helped clean up, talk with them about what they learned. Chances are, they really enjoyed helping to prepare it and didn’t even realize that they were learning during the process!

The best way to help your children learn to read recipes is to sign up for a free 30 day trial of Reading Kingdom. Our online reading program has taught children all over the world to learn how to read, write, and spell up to a third grade level, including struggling readers.

Super Healthy Kids

Feeding your kids healthy food can be a challenge, but so rewarding! Amy and Natalie are both nutrition educators who want to make it easier to feed your kids better, in less time, and with less complaint! We believe focusing on fruits and vegetables is key.

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