It is reviewed by both me and my two kids who used the program!
How does it help your child?
a) Phonics/Reading
b) Writing
c) Comprehension
d) Motor Skills
e) Typing
In this day and age of technology, learning all of these is super important. Kids will soon need to type their reports out and will need to be able to know how to manage the key board. Like so many public schools have taken handwriting and cursive out of the program, they have done the same for typing. It is a fundamental skill. And this provides it in a fun way. You can have it part of your home school lessons or use it to compliment what your child is learning at school!
You go in and create an account and log in for each of your kids. They have some awesome printable pages to go along with what you can teach them online.
5 Awesome things to know in Creating a Log In for your child:
A) You can limit when they can log in, by day or hour. So I can say that Via can only log in Mondays and Fridays from 10-11am if I wanted to. Or allow her to log in at any time.
B) She has her own log in and password separate from me or her brother.
C) You can set the percentage you are okay with for pass level. This means if you want to say that your kid only needs 70% to pass or if they are more capable and you want to put 80% or even 90% to pass you can. I will be doing 80%.
D) ESL? You can put what your primary language is. And they have quite the range. From Farsi to Spanish.
E) You can change difficulty level.
Other Pros!
+ Do you have more than one kid and only one spot? Or three kids and two spots? After one child is done with the program, you can archive the student and start your new student.
+ It doesn't slow down my computer when working like some programs do
+ Kids LOVE this and don't see it as school at all
Any Cons?
- I at first was surprised because it did not seem super high tech in the appeal of it but honestly my kids and I both did not care. I was hoping it wouldn't matter and it did not.
- I don't have the best vision (hence me needing glasses) and this was small print for the sign up. It wasn't as intuitive as I would have thought to begin but once you sing up it is easy breezy.
- I had a hard time pulling my kids away from this because they were enjoying it so much. It definitely gets all stars in the book from my kids and I!
I have seen my son's phonics skills grow which compliments other work I am doing with him to help him get to the point that he can read more.
What about the non-ESL English reader? How can it benefit those kids that read already? My daughter reads chapter books and knows her phonics. So though it does go over that, she is learning typing skills in a kid friendly way. I really appreciate that it covers both. Soon she will be able to type faster so she can start typing out her reports and such as time goes on.
I think the best age for this is 4-10 based on your kids reading ability, typing skills and let's face it, you put anything in game format, even the older kids will want to do it (like mine).
Via's Review:
"It is a great game for kids who are not where they need to be in school. And Talking Fingers brings them to where they need to be in writing and in words. And I think there is no need for improvements. The game makes words and writing fun. And it is a game that kids will love."
~ Via, 8 years old, written by her
Kai Review:
"It was so fun. It funs my heart. I learned... about the game. I do it all the time on it and then I go back." ~ Kai, 5 years old, said by him, translated into writing by mum
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