Has anyone used this program with their child? The first 3 episodes are free and so we have been doing those, but to buy more is pretty expensive. It is 200 dollars for the whole thing and 100 for the first half. It is supposed to take the child up to a middle 2nd grade level in 80 episodes. My son loves the trial episodes and is actually picking up how to blend words. He is 4 1/2.
Anyone use this and have success? Do you think it is worth the money?
Melanie
We LOVE Headsprout. I started using it with my son shortly after he turned five. It REALLY jump started his reading. I would say its worth the money. I think the customer service is amazing. I emailed them to set my son’s program back five lessons because I felt he needed more practice and they did it for me in a timely matter.
I also wrote 2 reviews (with a third on its way in 4 lessons)
http://domanandaba.blogspot.com/2010/09/headsprout-review-and-coupon-codes.html
and
http://domanandaba.blogspot.com/2010/09/headsprout-review-2-episodes-12-23.html
I would also recommend spending the extra $20 and buy the 80 book set. Those have been invaluable in my son’s reading progress.
thank you so much. I looked at your blog briefly and noticed that you are also doing reading eggs. We started that about 6 weeks ago. My son just started the 2nd map. It has taken him that much review to get where we are. We do about 5 lessons a week on there. Anyway, headsprout finally got him to the point where he could read the words. Up until then, he knew the sounds, but every word on headsprout was hard for him to remember. I think that Headsprout’s method of teaching the blendinig made sense for him.
My daughter is 3 and is further along than my son. She is on map 3 of reading eggs. We have not needed to review much, but she doesn’t do a full lesson every day. She loses interest after a few minutes. I just signed her up for a trial of headsprout and she does a few minutes, but then asks for a break. So, I set a timer for 3 minutes and then we get back to work, but she doesn’t always want to return to headsprout. She chooses reading eggs over them. Or, she would rather review sight words or something like that.
We also did the Pre-K kit from HOP. My son isn’t all the way through level 2, but now he wants to be on the computer rather than doing the workbook. My daughter is in the kindergarten book, but it has taken two months to get through the first 3 lessons. She has trouble remembering to look at the endinig sound of words so she misreads cap to be cat or can. Because of that, she has no confidence and says that the book is too hard. Right now, we just review one page from lesson 3 and then move on to something else. I am using magnetic letters and having her practice saying the words and spelling them to help her focus on all of the sounds. It is a gradual process, but seems to be helping.
My son has ADHD so his attention span is a huge issue. My daughter is just 3 - I don’t think that she has ADHD.
So far, my son has repeated episode 3 of Headsprout about 10 times because he keeps asking for it and I haven’t bought more episodes. I contacted Headsprout and they told me to watch facebook for a specail, but I am not sure that I want to wait very much longer.
How do Headsprout, HOP, and reading eggs compliment each other?
I visit their page and read your reviews waterdreamer and definitely it seems to be a very good product. If you have a 2nd child do you need to buy another set? is it because of a workbook or what? Can you just apply the same method?
Yes you do. Its a lifetime license per child.
I think they can all compliment each other. I have done all three at once. But to be honest at first I was thrilled with Reading Eggs, but after a while I did find we got the same great results as we did with Headsprout. I’m really glad we only got a 6month subscription. However I’m glad I bought their complete book box set, workbooks and flashcard. I got them half off when I renewed my subscription. But in the end I don’t think we will renew our Reading Eggs Subscription when it expires,
I had an older version of HOP, and I found that I had to modify it a lot to work with my son. However I bought the DVDs from the new kits used and it has really added a lot to our program.
Another think I would look into is iamsam.com These books are wonderful. They move up much slower then HOP so your daughter may be less discouraged.
Good Luck!
Thanks.
We bought a one year subscription to reading eggs.
For the Iamsam.com, when I type that in, I get a message sayng that the site is under construction. Are you sure this is the correct web address?
I was able to find a set of phonics chapter books from scholastic with that name. Is it the same thing?
are the pictures in black and white or color?
Most of the Headsprout books and all the iseesam books are black and white to help the child focus more on the words
Hi, we’ve used Headsprout. I used it with my third daughter who was 6 at the time. She was having a tough time with reading and we gave the Headsprout a try. It got her up and reading and she loved it. They do have a payment plan ( at least I think they still do) where its $33 a month. Definitely well worth it. Now I can say my daughter wasn’t reading at a 2nd grade level though. She was reading at maybe about a 1st grade level. But I think it may have been that we didn’t get a chance to read the last couple of books.
If your child grasps learning reading phonetically I think Headsprout is worth it.
The program includes the online computer program. They send books that are colorful, they are to be read after so many lessons as an assessment. You also have access to the online story books that you can print out, and the books they send you can be printed online too. The books online are black and white and they can stay that way or your child can color in the pictures like a coloring book.
It was a great fit for my 3rd daughter. Now my 4th daughter is having trouble learning to read phonetically so we are using the Your Baby Can Read and will hit phonics when she’s ready for it.
I just purchased the first 40 episodes since it is the same price if you buy 40 and 40 as if you buy all of them. I bought for both my son and my daughter. I did the payment plan. We will see if the interest continues. In the meantime, my son is now able to read the “at” words in the HOP kit. This is an improvement for him.
I checked out the I See Sam books and found a few online to print for free. I will test these with my kids to see if they like them. If they do, I may get those as well.