MaxScholar: A Schoolhouse Crew Review

Today I get to tell you about a really great company called MaxScholar.

Select members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew received a 12-month subscription to the MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs in exchange for their unbiased, impartial review.

I began home schooling in January of 1992. My qualifications were that I know how to read, write, and do math. I had been teaching my daughter things her entire life, but now that she was 5 years old and we were calling it Kindergarten, I was NOT feeling qualified.

In 1992 there was not a lot available to a home schooling mom, either to borrow or to buy! I headed to my local library and checked out a stack of books to help me learn how to teach my daughter to read.

The book that I ultimately settled on and the method I then used for twenty-plus years for teaching phonics and spelling was the Orton-Gillingham approach to phonics. Before beginning, I had to read, read, and re-read a book teaching me what to do. I made flash cards to use, and day after day my daughter and I sat together for hours working on the phonics in a black and white, boring method... that worked!

I still recommend the same phonics method, but now I can give moms a much easier method that is more fun for their kids! Now I can direct moms to take a look at MaxScholar! MaxScholar uses a combination of the Orton-Gillingham method and the Linda Mood Bell method. They teach the teachers what to do and help the students to develop their reading skills, writing skills and study strategies.

The beauty of this phonics method is you can start at any age. So a struggling 4th grader can jump into the remedial program and, with incredible speed, make amazing progress. In a very short time they begin testing at an age-appropriate level, and stick with it a little longer and they are advanced beyond their peers!

Your student will learn the sounds the letter makes. Your child learns how to write the letter, practices pronouncing the sound, and is given words that start with the phoneme sound. Then your student will learn how to blend phonemes. Your child learns to identify words that start with that sound, and soon learns to read short 3- and 4-letter words. 

Correction and adjustments occur with immediate feedback. The student progresses at his/her own rate, and the parent/teacher has access to reports that keep mom aware of where the student is in the program.

The 

MaxScholar

 website has a wide variety of activities to enhance your student's learning experience:

• The MaxPhonics section introduces the phonemes by sound, word, and how to print;
• The MaxReading section gets the student reading using an incremental approach; 
  
• MaxWords builds vocabulary through a wide variety of means including Greek and Latin roots; 
  
• MaxMusic gives the student the opportunity to select a song by an artist and read the words, sing the words, and play games. 
  
• MaxVocabulary goes into a dictionary mode to increase the student's reading and vocabulary in an interesting way; 
  
• MaxPlaces gives the student the opportunity to learn history and culture of various places around the world; 
  
• and MaxBios allows the student to practice developing reading skills by reading about famous men and women in entertainment, music, sports and more.
  

If this program sounds like it could help you but you are still unsure, go to their website. They offer a free 15-day trial. Their phone number is posted so you can call and ask them questions. Go take a look!

Other members of the Review Crew also reviewed this product. To see other product reviews, please click the button below.

Reading Eggs

Reading

Some children learn how to read as if by magic. For others, learning to read can be a struggle. In some situations, the mom sits with junior and princess every day, patiently and diligently instruction the little angels in phonemic sounds, blends, spelling, word-building; in other situations, life just keeps happening and instruction keeps getting neglected. Sometimes, even though mom is diligent, junior just doesn't get it. Sometimes her efforts work like a charm with princess work, but junior can't get it using the very same methods. Sometimes outside help is needed, a change-up, a game...

In my own situation, when my youngest child was "reading age", sibling issues and extended family issues kept pushing JBoy's time to the back burner. Month after month after month went by, and more and more conflicting events kept occurring.

And my son was not reading. I needed help from an electronic reading program.

I don't know if Reading Eggs was around then, but that son is reading now, thanks to a reading website I was able to let him use.  I have a friend, though, who's life seems to be following a similar road as my life went down.  My friend was similarly finding her youngest son's reading not progressing, and life issues kept pushing his one-on-one time to the back burner. Her son, Paul, was just not learning how to read. And mom was stressed over the fact, and knew something had to change, but didn't know what. Then she and I teamed up our homeschooling (my youngest now fitting the age group of her older two), and I stepped in to offer some phonics instruction. And I did begin, but it was going very, very slowly.

Then  along came Reading Eggs!

 

Reading Eggs is  an on-line program designed to enable emerging readers to learn how to read. It has programs designed for children from age 3 all the way to age 13. I was asked to review Reading Eggs as I am a part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. The Reading Eggs people wanted 150 reviewers, so even though I myself do not have an emerging reader, the Crew Managers permitted me to review the program using my friend's son Paul. And my friend and Paul are so glad!

 

Reading Eggs is like a game. It is fun, bright, challenging, engaging, and Paul loves it. I finally got to hear those words moms like to hear when he came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, can I please play Reading Eggs?"  Paul has worked his way through the first two maps, and his mom happily says that he is now a "reader"! (... but he does still have a ways to go...)

Children love Reading Eggs because of its songs, games, hatching eggs that they earn, and a map that they work their way through. Non-readers start at the beginning, like Paul did. Partial readers take an assessment test so the program knows where to start them. The program is an incremental program, and offers individual, one-on-one lessons that allow children to progress at their own rate. You can learn more about Reading Eggs by clicking here: About Reading Eggs

So, basically, the student works through lessons in sets of ten. Ten lessons completed successfully results in the child completing a "map" and being awarded a certificate. Paul has so far earned two certificates.

Pricing:
To start, you can learn more about Reading Eggs by taking advantage of the 14-day free trial!

A 12-month online Reading Eggs subscription costs US $75.00, and will give your child access to all parts of the growing Reading Eggs website for 1 year – that's only $1.40 per week!

A 6-month Reading Eggs subscription costs $49.95. You can even take advantage of our special 50% family discount, with any full price 6 or 12 month subscription purchase.

Add a second or third child at the same time and receive 50% off their subscription price.

A monthly subscription costs $9.95/month. (Be sure to read the cancellation policy.)

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The company I know as Reading Eggs is also known as Study Island, and they are a leading provider of affordable, easy-to-use, web-based standards mastery products.

Their various products are:

• Reading Eggs, First Steps - for pre-readers, approximately ages 3-4;
• Reading Eggs, Ready for School - for those that are right at that ready-to-read age, often age 5;
• Reading Eggs, Fun Practice Makes Perfect - for those who have some background reading, they take a placement test and get placed right where they need to start, often about ages 6-7;
• Reading Eggspress, to help the child continue to develop his or her reading skills.

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I received a two-month subscription of Reading Eggs for free in exchange for my review.

This has been a TOS Homeschool Crew Review.  I received these materials for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

 

To see more reviews of this product, go to the TOS Crew Review page.Throw me a bone! Leave me a comment! I love comments!

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