A review of the kids' reading program, Reading Head Start!

 

Here at Best Case Parenting, welcome back. In continuation of our examination of Children Learning Reading, we will now examine another reading curriculum that is accessible.

The name of that program is "Reading Head Start."

Reading Head Start: What Is It?

An online reading curriculum called Reading Head Start is designed with parents in mind. This program strives to assist, whether your goal is to help a struggling reader or educate your child to read from start.

They claim on their website that instructors "well researched" and created this reading program.

They claim that children ages 2 to 9 can use the Reading Head Start program.

How much is it going to cost?

As you can see, Reading Head Start has multiple payment options. There are two ways to pay for the service: $37 a month is the monthly fee. As an alternative, you can get lifetime access for $297 or pay $197 annually.

They also offer an extensive money-back guarantee that lets you get a complete return up to a year after the purchase.

This is a really useful tool because it lets you test the service without worrying about losing money.

This is particularly crucial for phonic programs since, until you have had time to review the specifics, it is difficult to predict if you will find the system's style appealing.

And what do you receive?

This reading curriculum includes all the resources and lessons needed to teach any kid the fundamentals of phonics, reading, and comprehension.

Everything is stored on their website. I must admit that I'm quite fond of the way this product is presented; the designers did a fantastic job making it easy to use and explore.

This is the Reading Head Start welcome screen that appears when you first log in.

A 30-second welcome video is available on their website, which should assist any new parent in learning how to utilize the program.

Additionally, all of their other resources are included here in an understandable and convenient manner. These tools include letter formation instructions, reading books, and flashcards.

The lesson plans also incorporate elements from this excellent presentation. They do a fantastic job of including all the resources you need for each lesson right there in the lesson itself, as you can see below. They are only a click away, so there's no need to browse the internet in search of them. ​

Regrettably, their presentation has certain shortcomings, which I hope will be resolved soon.

These are bugs that need to be addressed. The primary one is that only levels one and three appear on the website when I click on the lessons tab (see photo below). The other levels have vanished out of nowhere. This is a really irksome glitch that I was able to replicate on all three of my internet browsers. This will be resolved shortly as I will be speaking with Reading Head Start's developer about it!

Get Down to the Details!

While a reading program's appearance is crucial, it is meaningless if the information is subpar.

Having spent more than ten years teaching phonics, I find the program being presented here to be impressive. Your child will progress from basic syllable recognition to fluent reading with this comprehensive program.

The directions seem to have been written more for instructors than for parents, if that makes any sense at all. It's possible that some of the terminology could be unclear to parents.

That being said, every course has comprehensive instructions, and all the materials you require are conveniently located on one page. You should be okay as long as you read slowly and attentively.

I would advise teaching young children (especially those under six years old) phonics in short, rapid spurts every day. Based on their criteria, I saw that some of the latter lessons could go beyond thirty minutes. To minimize the strain on your child, I would suggest spreading out the lesson over two days, unless your youngster is demonstrably able to concentrate for this extended period of time.

When learning becomes a chore, your youngster will become disinterested very fast.

Especially for the first few classes, I would have preferred to have some video demonstrations of the topics. Some parents might find it easier to see what they need to accomplish visually with this. The amount of reading required for the curriculum may turn off some parents.

How do the other resources compare?

Decodable Readers

Having decodable readers to help your child along their reading journey is a terrific complement to the program. You may also download these readers in PDF format.

My issue with them is that they work really well in the later stages of the program, but not so well in the earlier ones. Although they have beautiful illustrations, the text is all crammed onto one page. They are difficult for beginning readers to follow because of this. Furthermore, because of the text's somewhat complicated beginning, it is best suited for kids who have already mastered all of the phonic sounds.

You can circumvent this by reading the books to your child and asking them to read only the words you know they can. The issue is that it might be challenging for you to make this judgment unless you are a qualified teacher.

Additionally, I would advise you to type down the readers' words once more. Print off paragraph segments, one sentence at a time, by enlarging the text. For beginning readers, this would make these readers much simpler to follow.

Generally speaking, encouraging a child to read is an important aspect of training them to read. This will naturally encourage the child to read their favorite books, which will make it much simpler to teach them to read! It is unlikely that these readers will acquire it, thus in addition to this program, I would advise you to read to your child every day. Invest in a collection of high-quality children's books for your child; they will love them.

I have some articles on my website that offer recommendations for children's books. This one, which lists books that have just been released (as of right now), is a nice place to start.

Additionally, I don't see any instructions within the application on how to use these readers. If you indicated to parents exactly when to use each book within the classes offered, it would be of much greater use to them.

Flashcards

You will find all the flashcards and word cards you probably need by reading Headstart. The plan is to print these out after downloading.

The phonic sound flashcards, which have been exquisitely illustrated in a hand-drawn style akin to the readers above, are my favorite.

Other tools and resources

A pronunciation guide is mentioned in a few of Reading Headstart's sessions. Unfortunately, the website no longer works, and I am unable to locate this guide anyplace.

This guidance would be very helpful to many parents in learning how to pronounce some of the phonic sounds, so I believe it should be put back up as soon as possible. For instance, I have no doubt that many parents are unsure of how to pronounce the phonic sound "ai" or would be uneasy till they did.

Currently, the only way to find the sound is to search for it online.

The Conclusion

I think Reading Headstart has some pretty fantastic features after using it for a while.

You will receive a thorough and complete reading and phonics program to utilize with your child when you purchase this guide.

I appreciate how everything is presented in a contemporary, user-friendly manner.

Unfortunately, there are still a few bugs on the website. When they are fixed, I will update the review to reflect this.

Additionally, some parents may find it difficult to understand the lessons. I hope to see more parent-friendly improvements made to the lessons, such as adding additional video demonstrations.

Having said that, why not give Reading Headstart a try if you have even the slightest interest in what you have read in this review? You feel empowered to accomplish this because of the excellent quality of the assurance that is being provided.

What we enjoy...

• Complete and All-Inclusive Reading Program
• Delivery of User-Friendly Websites
• Adaptable methods for funding the program

The things we dislike.

• Some lessons are overly instructor-focused (instead of parent-focused).
• A few errors and unaccounted for materials
• Early readers should be better included in decodable readers.

If you've used this tool before or have any recommendations of your own, please share them in the comments area below.

To find out more about the Reading Headstart program, simply go check out their official website HERE.