Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in
exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.

 

Reading Unlocked

Homeschool Review Crew

 

Do you have a child who needs to learn to read?  Perhaps they struggle with learning to read or have dyslexia?  Reading Unlocked could be the key to unlocking the challenge of reading for them.  Through the Homeschool Review Crew, my daughter has been using this program.  You can take a peek at the Reading Unlocked program by clicking HERE.  We received a 12-month subscription to this program. 

My daughter using the program is nine years old and still struggles with letter recognition, reading, and writing.  I have tried many different curriculums and approaches with her to try to break through and help her learn to read.  Unfortunately, none have worked for her yet. 

About the Program

Reading Unlocked is different than other reading programs.  This is an online program that takes 10-15 minutes a day.  With this program, your child will be shown a letter and told it’s sound.  

This program is defined as a simplified phonics program.  More emphasis is put upon learning the sound and then the letter.  With learning the sounds words can be read even if the letter cannot be identified by its name yet. 

The simplified phonics program teaches your child sounds and then how to blend those sounds into words.  We started at a very basic beginner level and were still having a word read by the end of the first lesson. 

When reading words you start out with short words that have three letters or sounds like dog or nap.  And then they move up to four letters etc.  Each letter only has one sound to start with instead of teaching that a says more than one sound we just stick with the sound in pat or nap to avoid confusion. 

Another part of the program is the poems.  At the end of each lesson, the last thing you do is read a poem.  As the parent, you read the majority of the poem but your child chimes in with one of the words that they have learned in their lesson.  So that word will be in a different color for them to say when you’re reading along.  This really made my daughter feel like she had accomplished something!

The Journey

First, you get the letter you’re going to work on that day.  They tell you what it says and you go on to the next page. 

The second page is where you hear the sound and then get to choose which word starts with that sound.  You get three different pictures to choose from and they tell you the name so you don’t have to guess on your own. 

 

 

Next, write the letter.  You see the letter and hear the sound and are asked to write the letter.  

 

 

Now it’s time to say the letter!  First, you start with the sound you’re learning today.  Then you go over the sounds you’ve already learned to refresh the memory. 

 

For the end of the sounds piece, you get to mark which sounds your child remembered. 

 

 

From that you click next and go to reading words.  When reading words they say each sound and it “lights up” and then the whole word is said.  The further into the program you are the more words you read.  These are over the letter you’re sounding out but also other letters you’ve done. 

 

 

Next step has you hearing a word and needing to click on the word that they are saying.  As you can see from the picture they are words that sound very close and you have to listen closely.  This is an area my daughter has trouble with as she’s not the best listener. 

 

 

For the next step, words are spelled.  Your child is going to drag letters to spell the word.

 

 

To follow that, they write the word that they are spelling on paper instead of spelling it on the computer.  (this is a step we have trouble with).

Have fun!  This is probably my daughters favorite part. Here you choose which word goes with which picture.  She loves matching them. 

 

 

Now let’s mix it up!  They start with one word and then are told to change it to another word using the letter sounds that have been learned. 

 

 

The last fun thing is the poem of course!

 

 

 

Our Thoughts

All in all, my daughter has been enjoying this program.  She likes the pictures that come on the screen.  The voice is on she can understand.  When we first started the program she giggled a lot over the voice (it has a British accent) and would tell me it sounded like our cousin.  Once she got over the voice she liked doing the program. 

I chose to have her start at the basic beginner level.  She really does not remember her letters or sounds right now.  This is despite us having done lots of different curriculums plus just flashcard type letter activities.  I’ve never tried to just teach her the sounds before so I wanted to see how this program does. 

Both my daughter and I love this program!  While we are going very slowly I do see her making progress and that is wonderful!  With her age, most children are reading chapter books and she’s still struggling with letters.  I know that has to be difficult for her so I am so glad we’ve found a program that at least is helping her make progress. 

The one problem we’ve had with this program is the writing.  My child struggles with writing as well and so we’ve had to take a lot longer to do the sessions than I would like.  In fact, we’ve had to delay doing new sessions until she has mastered the letters.  This is because the program quickly builds upon itself so you’re going to need to master the sounds and letters before you move onto the next lesson. 

I know I could just simply skip the writing but she wants to do it.  And she wants her letters to look like their letters.  To help with that we are doing tracing and then writing.  This takes longer of course, but it seems to help her feel accomplished while also fulfilling the requirement she’s hearing on the screen. 

Learn More

You can learn more about what other reviewers thought of the Reading Unlocked program but reading all of the reviews which are linked up on the Main Blog Post on the Homeschool Review Crew website.  Reading Unlocked can also be found on Facebook.