The Reading Game caught my attention after seeing an online post. I then contacted the company to inquire about reviewing it as I would be hosting a reading workshop at our state homeschool conference in the spring. I received The Reading Game and an extra one to give away at the workshop. I have 3 children that I tried it with that are at differing stages of their reading journey. One is an older child that I like to review with, one a beginner reader and one newbie. First, I will explain exactly what The Reading Game is and how to use it. Second, I will tell you how we used the tool and what I thought of it from a parent’s perspective. Third, I will give you my children’s observations of it.
The Reading Game was developed by the author of the renowned Wordly Wise, Kenneth Hodkinson. The game consists of 6 card decks and 6 soft covered illustrated books. Each card deck and corresponding book is color coded to easily pick which two go together. There is a simple instruction sheet and a link given to access pre and post tests online. The pre and post tests are given to identify what sight words the child already recognizes before the card game is played and afterwards. To play the game is easily caught since it follows the lines of Memory. Five different sight words are placed face down scrambled. The players take turns turning over 2 cards to find a match. As they are turned over the words are being said each time and when a match is found then the word is looked at and repeated three times. The person with the most matches win. Keep playing the game until the student can easily recognize the five sight words in that set. Then there is an assessment sentence to see if the child still recognizes the words in a sentence. If so, then you can go on to the next 5 sight words. This routine continues until all 30 thirty sight words can be readily named by the student. The reward is getting to read the corresponding book. The first in the series is entitled Skunk. Both the cards and the book are color coded red. This continues until all six books have been read. Once all the books have been read then the student has mastered 180 of the most used sight words.
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Are you looking for something sweet and memorable to do with Fathers and Daughters? Here are some ideas that we have used at our Father/Daughter Valentine Banquet, but you can alter them to fit whatever occasion that you are hosting. Too many Father/Daughter Banquets end up with the dads in one section talking and the daughters in another area playing or chatting. We wanted something that would truly bring the Fathers and Daughters together in as many ways as possible. I personally searched the internet in the beginning looking for ideas and could find none, thus my reason for including this on our blog. I started gathering ideas from my memories of growing up and events that were special. Our Father/Daughter Banquet is for our homeschool group and includes all daughters from toddlers up to graduates. Whatever activity planned has to accommodate such a vast age difference. I will list the activities that we do and explain a bit about each one.