Interactive Reading Games
It should come as no surprise that kids like doing the activities that they find fun and engaging to do. And what seems like commonsense has the weight of research backing it as well: Educators and researchers have found that a student’s enjoyment of learning directly relates to their desire and willingness to learn. The more enjoyable and interactive learning is, the more likely that a student will engage in that activity. Mary Poppins was right: “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job’s a game!”
Interactive reading games make learning to read a fun and enjoyable activity. But it’s easy to question why it is so important for kids to enjoy learning. After all, isn’t it more important what a child is learning, rather than how they are learning? Interestingly, educators and researchers have found that it very much matters how a child learns, for the more interactive learning is, the more enjoyable, and therefore the more motivation students have to continue engaging in that activity. And here’s why it matters: the more time a student spends on a certain task, the more the student learns.
This is certainly the case for reading and its relation to interactive reading games. Reading success is directly related to the amount of time a student spends on the activity of reading. And the most effective interactive reading games for kids are enjoyable for students to engage with from the start, as well as perfectly matched with their level of ability, both of which increases their motivation to continue completing and succeeding the reading activities.
Interactive reading games can be wonderfully fun, and these reading games can help kids develop the reading and literacy skills essential for learning in all areas of schooling and life. However, it is not just by engaging in any interactive reading games that kids gain literacy skills, they must be matched to the child’s level of reading ability.
But how can any parent or teacher know exactly which interactive reading games are the right ones for the children in their care? In order for any instruction to be truly effective and for children to learn the most that they can possibly learn, educators have found that children learn best when lessons are pitched right at a child’s level of ability. If a lesson is matched to a child’s level of ability, chances are the lesson is also pitched perfectly at their level of interest as well.
Interactive reading games are no different. While it may be tempting to urge a child on to harder levels within the Reading Eggs programme, it is much better for a child to learn at their own level, regardless of what that level is. It is only by learning how to read fluently at their own level that a child can best learn how to read and progress on to further levels of reading.
The Reading Eggs programme is firmly committed to children reading at their level. With Reading Eggs, lessons are tailored to suit any child’s reading level. From children with no literacy skills, to older readers who already know how to read, Reading Eggs has lessons to suit.
The Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress programmes offer kids the opportunity to engage in a research-based reading programme that is also fun. The programmes use a variety of interactive reading games, that are, in fact, the means of instruction. The Reading Eggs programme helps kids develop the reading skills needed to become strong readers. These reading skills include:
Phonemic awareness
Phonics skills
Fluency in reading
Vocabulary building
Text comprehension
The Reading Eggs programme combines all of these reading skills into an engaging and child-friendly learning world which kids enjoy interacting with. From the first moment that a child uses Reading Eggs, they are immersed in a learning environment that is fun and enjoyable to use.
The very first lessons for pre-readers and very early readers take place in a child-friendly, child-safe virtual world, moving the kids from a zoo, to a playground to a theme park. Kids love following the maps in this virtual world, and moving their character along the ‘path’ which is easily seen on the screen, and looks not unlike a board from a board game.
Kids enjoy the journey that their character takes in these three worlds, the zoo, the playground, and the theme park, and parents and teachers love the fact that each world is packed with 40 lessons of fantastic research-based content.
But the lessons, which are reading games for kids, aren’t the only fun element of the programme. The Reading Eggs programmes encourages kids to complete learning activities and continue working through the programme by increasing their motivations to do so through providing age-appropriate reward systems. These reward systems are high-interest, compelling and child-centred, and are activated each time a child completes a learning activity or a lesson.
When kids complete each Reading Eggs activity, they are rewarded with Golden Eggs. These eggs get deposited into their personal Eggy Banks for them to “spend” later on games, clothes for their Reading Eggs character, and furnishings for their characters online home. This is a rich, multi-dimensional reward system that encourages a high level of interest and participation from kids. As students watch the Golden Eggs land in their Eggy Banks, and watch the eggs grow in number, they can see the clear link between their rewards and their work in the Reading Eggs programme.
The game-like activities are integral to the Reading Eggs programme, and help kids develop motivation to learn. The activities encourage kids to play as they learn, and, when kids succeed (which the programme ensures that they do experience consistent success—which also motivates them to keep engaging with the programme), they are rewarded with prizes.
The playful elements of the programme are integrated into every lesson and suit the learning style of children, who learn best through play. Reading Eggs and Reading Eggspress use a wide range of short, highly motivational, interactive reading games that offer consistent rewards, which encourages even the most reluctant readers to actively participate.
Testimonials
Our students love this site. It is bright, entertaining, engaging and educationally sound. What a fun way to learn to read! They can’t get enough of it and ask regularly “is it our turn on Reading Eggs today?”
- Katrina Kruger, Elliot Heads State School
AMAZING! We continue to be surprised by how quickly and how enthusiastically all of our children are taking to reading, all thanks to Reading Eggs – we are telling everyone we know about it!!!
- Fiona
