Reading Lesson Review and GIVEAWAY!!

I received The Reading Lesson Big Package to review for this post.  No other compensation has been made or promised to me by Mountcastle Company.

I am so excited to host my first giveaway and even more excited that I get to share a product that I truly love!  The Reading Lesson is an award winning reading program - it has won the Discovery Education Award and is an Amazon Best Seller - it is also the program I used to teach C to read!  She has been reading since she was tiny, thanks to The Reading Lesson!

 When we lived in Dallas, I happened to see The Reading Lesson at the local library and decided to try it out with C.  C was only 2 1/2 at the time, but she knew all her letters and their sounds, loved books and the program looked so simple that I thought it was worth a shot!

She caught on quickly thanks to the simplicity of the program and was reading cvc, cvcc and a good amount of sight words before she was three.  In The Reading Lesson, they introduce only 3-5 letters/sounds each lesson and organize the sounds by how often they are used in the English language.  They recommend 1-3 pages a day depending on the age of your child.  This simplicity is what makes it an excellent program for young kids - or older kids that are struggling with other progams!

Here is a video of C reading a page from the Reading Lesson shortly after we started the program at age 2.  The video quality isn't that great, it was taken on an old cell phone.

We used the library copy for awhile, but it was so popular that we kept having to return it - request it and then wait to get it back.  C was enjoying it and doing great so we finally just purchased our own copy.  We decided to only purchase the lesson book because we didn't have money for the whole program.  C enjoyed learning to read so we did well with just the lesson book.  After seeing all that they have to offer though, she definitely would have enjoyed having the whole program more!

I have no complaints about the lesson book at all!  The pictures are black and white but that didn't bother us at all.  You could even let your child color the page after completing the lesson! :)

Today, C reads at about a second grade level - according to a couple of simple assessments we have done.  I took a couple videos of her reading today so you can see for yourself!  My goal for her reading right now is for her to slow down - she did a pretty good job of slowing down for the video.  However, you can hear in the 2nd video how she flips words from time to time ( so ever slightly instead of ever so slightly).  I think the culprit there is that she just reads too fast.  When I do get her to slow down, she doesn't have that problem as much. 

In the first video, she is reading a simple book from Calvert.  In the second video, she is reading a page from a Disney Fairy chapter book she got from the library. 

I was sent a full package to review and I was excited to see all of the other products that Mountcastle offers!  The full package includes:

The Reading Lesson with cd-rom

The Writing Lesson (on disc)

The Storybook (cd-rom)

The Sounds of Letters DVD

Big Words for Little Kids

The Verbal Math Lesson 1 & 2

Giggle Bunny

T-shirt

Even though C has completed The Reading Lesson, she loved the cd-rom!  There are activities to go along with each lesson and she loved the silly things Giggle Bunny does.  I definitely wish we would have had the cd-rom when we were originally going through the lesson book.  It is a simple program, which makes it great for younger users.  I did think it could use a some "click here" buttons from time to time but we were able to figure everything out pretty easily.  When they are introducing the words- click OFF the word to move on to the next.  Another note I  had about the cd-rom program is that it isn't full screen, C was interested in the program and we didn't have any trouble with her clicking on anything outside of the program.  All in all I think it does add interactive fun to the reading program.  Should you get it? I say yes!

 

The Writing Lesson comes on a disc with over 400 pages of writing practice in primary, script and cursive font.   I plan on incorporating this into our school time for letters C needs a little practice on.  We will also use this when we start cursive in another year or two.  I was excited to see that there are pages with full color copies of pictures from The Reading Lesson with space for C to either make up her own story or copy the story from the book for handwriting practice.  Since we have finished The Reading Lesson, we will probably use these pages for writing her own story, but these would be great to include handwriting practice with your reading time!

The Storybook cd-rom is another great option to enrich your reading time.  There are stories that go along with the lessons and a cute Giggle Bunny Photo Album.  You can print each story if you like and there are extra handwriting pages that go with each story too! 

 

The Sounds of Letters DVD would be great for those of you wanting to try The Reading Lesson with younger kids (like I did with C).  It is a great review for letter sounds - it actually held C's attention even though she has known her letter sounds for years now!

  I did notice that on the dvd and on the reading lesson cd-rom, there are some letters that have an "uh" sound at the end ( "tuh" ) instead of just the isolated letter sound.  I was a little disappointed with that because I try to use the isolated sound with C.  I e-mailed the folks at The Reading Lesson to give them fair warning of my complaint before I posted the review.  They directed me to an article on their blog explaining this very issue.  If you, like me, are concerned about pronouncing the letters correctly check out the article here.

 

 I was very eager to dig into Big Words for Little Kids with C.  It is recommended for kids 8-11 and I don't think C (age 5)  is ready to just plow through the book like any other curriculum just yet.  I do think it is written in a way that she can understand and so far, she has enjoyed looking through it for fun.  I think for now we will use it to gain better understanding when she says, "What does .... mean?"  

Here is an excerpt from the book that explains how it is set up: 

"Each section of the book has a root, prefix or suffix accompanied by four to five examples, a tidbit, exercises and challenging words."

I love the "Confusion Alert" where they warn you of a similar root/prefix/suffix that often gets confused with the one you are studying.  C enjoyed the jokes that feature one or more of the new words. 

 I have mentioned before that C isn't very fond of math.  She does a good job usually but she just doesn't enjoy it most of the time.  I was excited to try The Verbal Math Lesson with her and was surprised when she didn't enjoy it at first.  I think using this curriculum as suggested is an excellent option for linguistic (verbal) learners, which I used to think C was.  She seems to remember everything she hears - except when it comes to math.....For math she seems to be a hands on learner.  So we are using this book with the modification that the first - sometimes even second or third time we go through the lesson she can use manipulatives.  This is working well for us!

The Giggle Bunny and t-shirt are adorable and C was ecstatic when she saw them!  She enjoyed snuggling up with Giggle Bunny to watch The Sound of Letters dvd.

Now, on to what you've all been waiting for - the GIVEAWAY!

The wonderful people at The Reading Lesson are going to give one of you The Reading Lesson Big Package! This package costs $180 regularly! I am so excited to be a part of blessing one of you with this great program!  Just fill out the rafflecopter below to enter and I will announce a winner on 10/28/13!

U.S. entries only please! :)

 ~Angela

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