Have you heard of the book Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons? I’d been reading about this book, and I was considering using it with Alex in the fall. It has 716 reviews and 4.5 stars, which I’d consider a pretty good thing!
Well, the other day on MoneySavingMom’s website, she posted about a Funnix computer software that’s currently available for free. I decided to check it out, and guess what…it’s the COMPUTER VERSION of Teach Your Child To Read! And it’s currently FREE!
I did a quick Google search, found lots of happy reviews from Funnix users…and asked Keith if he’d mind if I downloaded it and used up 2 GB on our aging, slow computer… ;)
I can’t give a review on it yet, as Alex (and Max, who insisted on being included) has only completed one lesson. I will say that, while it’s very basic in terms of fancy stuff and graphics, it held Alex’s attention throughout the entire interactive lesson. (Be prepared – they ask your children to point to things on the computer screen. Max’s little sticky hands made me VERY nervous, and Alex tried to point with the pen in his hand at one point.)
It comes with a .pdf file of the workbook and the teacher’s manual. Alex was even excited to do the worksheet, and he happily completed all ten letter Cs for the handwriting section. (You’re supposed to cross out all the lowercase a’s, but Alex thought his x’s looked bad, so he switched to circling…)
Maybe I’ll post an actual review when we’ve made some progress…or given up on it, although I doubt we will.
Anyway, just wanted to give you all a heads-up that this is available for free at www.funnix.com until February 16th. After that, it will be $38…so, if you think you might use this at any point, download it now & save yourself 40 bucks! ;)
7 comments:
I used (tried to use?)this book with my daughter who is turning 28 and has her own preschooler now. But I have a caution. I loved it...but her big brother had already taught her to read without me and I was too late because she was bored. Now, if I'd known what my son was doing with his own version of phonics I would have ordered an immediate cease and desist. Consequently, my children are avid (that is too weak of a word) readers and crumby spellers. By the way I am an elementary school teacher and I didn't catch on because she wanted me to read to her, I didn't realize until later that she was reading along with me. If only I'd been able to have more children and really put the book to use. I gave it to a younger sis for her 6. I'm going to download it for my daughter so she can start in the fall with her boy after her baby recovers. Maybe she'll have better luck because she is aware of what might happen without phonics. It is a great book. Thanks for the heads up.
THANK YOU for sharing this. If I understand correctly, you're saying it's a good program, but to make sure that my kids understand the PHONICS of it, right?
I'm also a firm believer in giving kids a strong phonics base. Having taught second grade for 9 years, I've seen both sides of the story. In my experience, the elementary kids who have learned primarily through phonics have been better spellers by far!
On the flip side, I am the youngest of five kids. I taught myself to read when I was four years old, before ever setting foot in a classroom. I wanted to keep up with the big kids. While you'll find spelling mistakes on my blog, they are there because I'm in a hurry (with three small kids and one short nap time, ha!) and didn't proofread well enough. I'm a stickler for good spelling, and I think phonics is the best way to encourage that! :)
Downloading thanks friend! :-)
How have you liked Funnix? Did you complete the lessons? We are on lesson 61 with my kindergartner. She had amazing phonics skills going into k5 so she is flying thru Funnix and reading like crazy. I am amazed at how quickly she was actually reading. We didn't start reading in k4 like a lot of HSers, she could've done it though with this pgm. Kind of wish I'd known about it a yr earlier. :-)
Hi Elizabeth,
We enjoyed Funnix, but the novelty wore off for Alex. We continued through the lessons, but only doing 1 - 2 lessons per week, until we started using My Father's World K in August.
Alex definitely learned to sound out CVC words (mop, hat, hen) and even now, he will say each sound and then "say it fast" when sounding out a word. I'm so thankful for those lessons because he has a good foundation for carefully sounding out words! :)
We may come back to the program in late spring/summer for some extra practice once we've completed his MFW K curriculum.
I downloaded the program and my kids have been using it for a month now, but I didn't realize the workbook links would be taken down! Would you be willing to email the math and reading workbook pdfs to me? I am desperate!
Hi Jodi,
I can't contact you through your Blogger profile. Send me an e-mail at monkeymamaof3@gmail.com :)
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