Kids in Japan

Go Aily Go!

Posted by kidsinjapan on June 22nd, 2008

My daughter Aily loves to swing and lately she can stay on the thing for quite some time. I used to have to push her all the time, but now she can get going pretty well on her own. Funny enough she had to start out standing and then would sit down to get the momentum going. This is a shot taken last August in Nagano Japan at a nearby park. I captured a little motion by panning a bit.

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ClickN READ Phonics is awesome!

Posted by kidsinjapan on June 22nd, 2008

For about a month now my daughter Aily has been working through the online program called ClickN Read from ClicknKids. She really likes the program and thinks it is a lot of fun. We tried two other programs called “Time4learning” and “Headsprout”, but they simply did not teach her anything practical. We read a lot of books together during the day and found that the ClicknRead program really did a fabulous job of giving her practice with common words used in both phonics and popular sight reading programs. I googled ClicknRead on the internet and managed to find a discount coupon, so I recommend doing that before buying. I think I saved like 10 bucks on the lifetime program which is a great deal I might add. The program also teaches spelling and typing letters on the keyboard. I bought Aily a “Hello Kitty” keyboard and she was just thrilled. Learning English on the computer has been a great experience for Aily and I am so glad she likes the computer and is interested in typing. ClicknRead comes highly recommended.

Time4learning didn’t work out because we experienced several audio quality problems and we felt there was too much talking in the program. More student interaction is needed and I felt Time4learning didn’t do enough to build on their program and work with children. The instructions to some lessons were exhausting and long winded as well. Half of her study time was taken with showing her how to do something trivial. I don’t know how long the Time4learning program has been around, but it certainly felt like it needed an upgrade. I can say that their communication and customer service was stellar! I was able to get my initial monthly payment refunded no questions asked. I wish more companies were like this…cough “ETC Online”. I do recommend giving Time4learning a try as it did have some good activities. I was looking for more reading oriented material and it really didn’t do well with that in my humble opinion.

Headsprout was hilarious and my daughter loved it. However, that is not always a good sign. I sat with her the entire time during the three trial episode and noticed some interesting things. First, Headsprout teaches words in the beginning that are well….not words. Definitely sounds maybe, but not words. This confused me and I didn’t want my daughter to have to unlearn that. Second, I checked out the PDF readers and boy were they easy. I didn’t want to spend the 80 lessons on learning stuff that could take her a lot faster in other programs. Perhaps I am just expecting more. Finally, Headsprout is simply too expensive. You get 80 lessons for 200 bucks. The following programs are better in my opinion with regards to content and they are WAY WAY below the 200 dollar mark. Check out ETC Online for $60, Starfall.com is free, and you can get ClicknRead for $50 or thereabouts. In fact you can get all three programs combined for less than Headsprout. Having fun is extremely important, but I’d also like my daughter to learn more than one word “see” in the first three episodes. With that said, perhaps others will have a better experience. Everyone is different I know.

In any event, do check out ClickN Read if you get the chance. It’s a great supplement to help kids learn English on the computer including the chance to spell and type at the same time. Fantastic!!