Teaching Reading

Screen shot from Headsprout

I have been searching and searching for a good curriculum to teach Erin how to read. She is already pretty advanced for her age (toot! toot! toot!) so I didn't want to bore her and wanted to be able to give her the challenges she is asking for. (This is one of the MAIN reasons I chose to homeschool by the way. I didn't want my kids to have to be held back by other kids in their classes. I want them to learn what they want to learn when they are ready to learn it!) Erin is very visual/hands on. She loves to watch tv, movies, and play video games (all in moderation of course). So when someone recommended Headsprout to me I thought we would check it out. We tried the trail version and Erin LOVED it! So, we decided to purchase the curriculum. The first for us to actually take the jump and spend our hard earned money on! She has already done the first 3 lessons in 24 hrs ( I keep trying to tell her we need to do one lesson a day but the first few lessons are more of a review for her anyway) She had so much fun with it yesterday she said "If I go take a long, good nap right now can I do more learning to read lessons after I wake up??". She was so excited to learn! Now THAT is something I can get behind and support! She loves that she is playing on the computer and learning at the same time. The episodes are really colorful and interactive and she has already been spotting the sounds she has learned in her everyday enviornment.  Although we just started this curriculum I think it will be a keeper! In addition to the online courses, they also send you reading materials, progress charts, and completion certificates in the mail. I highly recommend beginning readers to look into Headsprout!!