Headsprout Reading Online Program, Final Review

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that Wesley has been doing a computer based program called Headsprout Early Reading. You can read my first review on this program HERE and my second review HERE .

In 80 episodes, your child will go from being a non-reader to reading at a mid-2nd grade level!

During the first half of Headsprout Early Reading, children learn through direct positive experience that letters and sounds go together to make words, words go together to make sentences, and sentences make stories. The basic component skills and strategies necessary for reading, such as phonemic awareness (the sounds within words), print awareness, phonics, sounding out, segmenting and blending, are explicitly mastered in a fun, self-directed manner. The second half of the program focuses more on reading vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, while still teaching more sounds and sight words. Your child will have a fluent knowledge of more than 90 phonetic elements, more than 100 sight words, and a potential reading vocabulary of more than 5,000 words!

Headsprout Early Reading includes:

• Individualized, adaptive instruction matches your child’s needs
• 80 online lessons each average 20 minutes
• 12 full-color Headsprout Readers
• 80 “ready-to-read” printable stories
• Printable sound and word flash cards
• Progress Map, stickers, and Completion Certificate
• Individualized, detailed progress reports

  It took us about 15 months to complete the program. At the beginning we were zooming through, but as the lessons got more difficult, we slowed down a bit, once in a while redoing a few lessons. I even contacted Headsprout and had them back him up a few lessons. I do have to say, this program really did help my son become a more confident reader. No only did it help him learn to read, it also helped him build up his fluency. He went from reading a book with a few words per page to mini chapter books. 
While I don't believe one reading program is the only right way to teach a child to read. And I prefer to use a few good methods together to give my son the best of both worlds. That being said I feel this program was one of the corner stones in our reading program. I believe we are a Headsprout Early Reading success finish the program at the age of 6, with amazing reading skills.
Thank-you to the wonderful people at Headsprout for allowing us to review their product, and a year later we so still so grateful!!