I have been asked by BrillKids to review their Little Reader program. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while already knows that I love this program!
Of course K loves it too!
Little Reader is a computer based program which is intended for kids from around 3 to 6 months & up Little Reader Basic starts at $149. This program allows a parent to customize a play list of words & images to suit the needs or interests of their child. We have been using this program with their print function to make wonderful, clear, concise flashcards as well as by using the computer program since a little after K's first birthday. With this program you are able to flash the words quickly. Before we found out about BrillKids, we were fast flashing anyways, so it is nice to carry on with that as we have had so much success with it. Words & pictures are flashed on the screen & the word is spoken at the same time. You can choose between available pictures or add your own. Fonts can be changed or set to display randomly. You can even record your own voice if you wish. Little Reader has a set curriculum, or you can choose between thousands of files that are available. We are now using Little Reader as a computer program as it is intended, but in the past, I printed out & laminated many files to make wonderful, high quality flashcards.
This is a picture of K reading a small selection of her Little Reader flashcards that we used when she was about 2 years old.
We are currently working on stories, various science, geography & other subjects, while doing several sets of phonics/word families each week as well. The focus on phonics is really paying off as I am noticing that K is finding it easier & easier to decode new words. I am so impressed with the versatility of this program!
Besides teaching our daughter to read, we have noticed a number of other wonderful benefits as well!
We have found Little Reader to be excellent for working on speech. Because a word is spoken each time a picture of word is flashed, K also speaks the word. Recently, we have been recording more of our own words. I have been having K do this herself & she loves to hear herself speaking on the computer! The more I am able to get my daughter talking, the better! This is in addition to the proven benefits of teaching sight words to help strong visual learners like K learn to speak.
Although I got the Little Reader program for K, her eight year old sister, KJ is also benefiting from it. She is not using it for reading practice as she has been reading chapter books for quite a while now, but this summer, KJ expressed interest in learning a little french. For the past month or so, she has been using little reader too. The wonderful thing is that, although I do speak the limited amount of french that I learned in high school, I do not speak with the accent of a native speaker & the wonderful french files I found at BrillKids are really helping me to teach her. We are both very excited about her progress so far!
I have even used Little Reader for my oldest two daughters on occasion! They are avid, actually advanced readers for their ages, but I have occasionally found some files, often science related that were relevant to what they were doing in school. We have viewed them on the computer as well as printed them off to take to school for everyone to enjoy.
I could talk all day about this program! The biggest benefit to me is again, the versatility. This is the only program that has been able to keep up with K as she progressed from learning a few words, to last night, being able to pick up a 3rd grade reader that KJ brought home & read it with ease. I can happily credit BrillKids credit for a huge part of my daughter's reading success.
Click on this link for lots of information, links & details on how to sign up for the Little Reader free 14 day trial: Little Reader
BrillKids has a wonderful forum: BrillKids Forum
BrillKids also has a blog which you can find here: BrillKids Blog
This review was written in exchange for a free copy of Little Reader's first semester, which all of you, my fabulous readers can enter in a draw to win! I was not paid for this review, nor was I required to write a positive review. This is my honest, unbiased opinion on this product.
If you are interested in entering the draw to win a free copy of Brillkids Little Reader program, stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post for details on how to enter.
This is amazing. My boy is 3 and no where near reading, however we haven't really focused on that either. This is very inspiring! Thank You for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi! I have a daughter that is 17, she is at a first grade reading level. Do you think this product would be beneficial to her? It sounds like it, if your older daughters are also using it. I am thinking it would be good to put into her classroom curriculum.
ReplyDeletethanks!
lynn
I have been SO encouraged by your blog, during my pregnancy already. Inspired by your blog, I would like to start my little girl early on reading, even though she is only 5 months old. I like your post on reasons why it's good for K to be able to read. I can imagine it will make her proud to know that she can do something other kids can't do.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing all this with us!
would love this for my son, I hope we win
ReplyDeleteI went to the Brill Kids link and was wondering if everything you posted about here was available from purchasing the basic program thats $149? Right now the $350 program is out of my budget. I have made my own power point using the words from our signing time videos but think this might grab my daughters attention a little more.
ReplyDelete