Reading Eggs is an online reading program designed for 4-8 year olds. It was developed by teachers, educational writers, animators, and web developers. Currently, it has the ability to take a child from being a non-reader to reading on a 1st grade level, and more lessons are in the works. There is also a companion site, Reading Eggspress, for children ages 7–13 years old. It features more than 700 books in the library, 200 big comprehension lessons, 100-level quest-style game and a stadium with real-time contests against players from around the country and around the world.
When you first sign your child up, you can chose to either start at the beginning or take an assessment (for children with some reading skills already)-seen below.
After that, your child begins on their own map. Each dot is a lesson that covers a particular sound (phonogram), or sound combination.
Within each lesson, an animated character like Sam the Ant (below) models the concept for them and then guide the student through activities to ensure they understand. A student must get 7 correct answers before moving on. After that, there is a connect the dot activity for the letter or sound, and then upper and lower case letter recognition. Then the student does some vocabulary based activities that prepares them for the biggest component-reading an e-book. The books have audio support, and are also available in print form so you can use them when you are not “plugged in”.
The final part of each lesson is the cracking open of an egg which reveals a critter for their collection. For example, Catty Cake is the Reading Eggs critter for the letter Cc and everything about her reinforces the letter that was worked on. In the “My Critters” section of the website, a matching card shows that Catty Cake lives on a cosy cushion, is friends with a cow and a camel, eats corn and carrots, and loves to cook cakes.
Students can repeat lessons whenever they want. They also earn spendable eggs as they play, and can use them for items to decorate their own house or buy clothes for their avatar. For fun, they can play games at the Arcade, or visit Puzzle Park, or the Playroom, or once they unlock them, several other activities like Driving Test. All these “fun” things also reinforce the learning they have done up to that point.
Like Reading Eggs has it’s own virtual setting, Reading Eggspress takes place on a floating island.
When you begin, you take an assessment to see where you are at in terms of reading level and comprehension.
After that, you begin playing. Each person has an avatar, although these are more “real” looking people than the Reading Eggs ones. Again, you can customize the look of your avatar and decorate your living space with the money you earn in-game by completing reading tasks. Below is a screenshot of the Comprehension Gym.
