Headsprout Early Reading
Ratings Summary:
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Category
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Average
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| Effectiveness |
5 |
2 |
| Usability |
5 |
2 |
| Price/Value |
5 |
2 |
| Overall Average |
5 |
2 |
Headsprout Early Reading helps children master basic academic skills with fun, interactive, online learning programs. These early reading programs are designed to teach kids, aged 4-7 (or older struggling readers), critical skills and strategies that are essential for reading success. The Headsprout program is research-based, includes automatic progress reports, and a free 30-day free trial period is available.
http://www.headsprout.com
User Reviews
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| Reviewed by RhyahF |
All reviews by this user
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Created at
10:12 AM EDT on
August 13, 2008
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Category
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Score
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| Effectiveness |
5 |
| Usability |
5 |
| Price/Value |
5 |
| Overall Average |
5 |
We used Headsprout episodes 1-40 during 1st grade and absolutely loved it. My son and I had hit a wall when it came to reading instruction. He was struggling and I was frustrated, so reading time was neither pleasant nor fruitful. I ran across an advertisement for Headsprout and tried the three sample lessons. After the first lesson, he was hooked. Headsprout uses a variety of engaging animations, songs, and character to captivate and motivate students. Being fairly new homeschoolers at the time, the cost of a little over $100.00 seemed quite high to me. But after experiencing the product and seeing results, I believe Headsprout is a wise investment.
Headsprout starts out by sending you a package with six readers, a progress map, and stickers. You can post the map on your fridge or wall and let your child mark off their progress with the stickers. Looking at the map, you can see that Headsprout is divided into sections. The first section is outer space, then dino world, and then water world. As your child progresses through Headsprout, the scenes and graphics change to represent the world pictured on the map. My son really enjoyed working towards a new world on the map, because it brought new learning games, songs, and adventures.
Headsprout episodes 1-40 work on phonemic awareness, phonics, sound blending, and basic reading skills. After every 5th or 6th episode, your child reads a book related to the words and stories they’ve been working on. Headsprout even offers extra printable books on their site for added practice. There are also printable flash cards for sight word review. Each episode focuses on certain sounds and uses repetition for reinforcement. For example, your child might work on /fl/ and /pl/ in one episode. All reading practice has words and stories that use the /fl/ and /pl/ sounds.
At the end of a lesson, you can view your child’s progress report. This report gives you the overall percentage correct, the overall time spent in the program, and a breakdown of their progress per episode. I used these progress reports to determine how quickly he could move through the program. If he scored less than a 90% on any episode, he had to repeat it before he could move on. I also supplemented with my own materials, using the areas of Headsprout he may have struggled with on that episode. Headsprout is also a great place for help creating a simple spelling list.
I really don’t have any cons for Headsprout. The price is affordable considering the duration of the program. Your child can go back and review episodes as often as they want. Even two years later, I can still log in and see his progress reports, review episodes, and print out stories and cards. With the trial subscription of three free episodes, the no hassle guarantee, and the free printables for non-subscribers, Headsprout is one of the easiest reading programs to try out without a commitment.
The only warning I would give would be about their say out loud activities. While these do help your child learn, unless you’re sitting with them during these activities, your child may just click on the word without ever saying it. I caught my son doing that a few times, and there’s no way for Headsprout to record whether your child actually says it, so nothing is reflected on the progress report. Since most homeschoolers take a hands-on approach to their child’s education anyway, this is just something to watch for if your child works independently on this program.
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| Reviewed by AprilD |
All reviews by this user
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Created at
8:44 AM EDT on
May 15, 2008
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Category
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Score
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| Effectiveness |
5 |
| Usability |
5 |
| Price/Value |
5 |
| Overall Average |
5 |
By the time we found Headsprout Beginning Reading, we had already tried four other high-quality reading curricula. I have twin girls, and while one of them could have learned to read with any of those programs, the other twin only started making significant progress after we finally tried Headsprout. I can't recommend it highly enough for its amazing production values, sound teaching methodology, great materials, and entertaining storyline.
Headsprout is an Internet-based reading curriculum that consists of a total of 80 linear lessons that take your child from the very basic letter sounds up to about an early 2nd grade level. In addition to the online lessons, Headsprout also ships a materials pack to you that includes a total of 12 full color reader booklets that coordinate with the lessons, plus a giant map with 80 stickers for tracking your progress through each lesson. Finally, there are dozens and dozens of coordinating printable readers for you to print out, color, and practice reading.
The Headsprout methodology was ideal for my struggling reader. The program starts by teaching simple letter sounds. They also move on to practicing various word chunks, like "and" or "ill" or "at" or "ake." The program teaches specific sounding out strategies, and then they eventually memorize the words and chunks through various fun drills to improve fluency. Over time, the program practices reading comprehension in longer and longer stories. The methodology is ingenious. For example, the program takes into account many common mistakes, helping the child to distinguish between similar looking letters, chunks, and words. The developers obviously understood very well the process of learning to read.
The characters and storyline are colorful and entertaining. Variety is the key, as you progress through numerous settings, getting to know many friendly characters. You'll start in outer space and go on to visit dinosaurs, travel under the ocean, go through a jungle, and progress back through all of these locations once again, meeting new and old friends in each location, until completing the series. Many of the episodes have motivational plots, such as planning a birthday party or traveling on a space bus. The plots and pacing of the program help to keep things fresh and interesting to budding readers.
My children grew quite attached to the program and were highly motivated by the map. They were thrilled when I allowed them to each purchase a little souvenir item from the Headsprout Cafe Press store when they "graduated" from the program so that they wouldn't forget all their Headsprout friends. That said, my children are perfectionists who are easily frustrated by some academic activities. I found that I needed to sit with them individually when they worked on the episodes, to provide encouragement and moral support, as well as the occasional helping hand. My struggling reader definitely had to work harder to get through each lesson than her sister, but she quickly began improving from the first week we started using Headsprout.
Every episode of Headsprout is followed up with an optional survey about your child's progress and experience. If you leave comments in the suggestion field, their customer service will quickly email you back with ideas for any difficulties your child may be having. At the suggestion of their customer service, I often split the later lessons in half. The program automatically picks back up at the last activity completed in any lesson. That helped keep the pacing closer to what my daughter needed.
Initially I was concerned about purchasing yet another reading program for my children. I signed up for the free demo lessons and was able to see how the program worked, but of course the beginning lessons were on very basic sounds that my children had already learned. I read about their 30 day money back guarantee, however, and decided that I would give it a try. I knew we could probably get through at least 20 of the first 40 lessons in the that month, and by that time I would know if this could really work for us. I liked that they allowed you to keep the booklets and other materials even if you decided to cancel. At the end of 30 days, I was very pleased with the value we were getting, and we were happy to continue!
My biggest regret with Headsprout is that it doesn't proceed into higher grade levels. I know my children would love to continue it, as they are very nostalgic about the program. Maybe one day they will release a Headsprout Intermediate Reading for 2nd and even 3rd grade!
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