Fostering a love of reading
I remember sitting down in the entry way to our house when I was in Kindergarten and reading an entire book to my mom. I’m not sure if it was reading the entire book that surprised her or that I was reading at all, but it’s a very distinct memory. I remember loving books at an early age and even elementary school.
It’s important to us that our girls love to read, too. And, love being read to. But there have definitely been some bumps along the way. Even though our daughter could read and time and time again showed us that she did, she got caught up in labeling it and said “I can’t read…I just can’t do it!”
While we’ve mostly overcome that obstacle, she needs a lot of encouragement and activities that she can do and do well. With thanks to the nice people at Reader Bee, we’ve been testing out the Reader Bee iPad apps and they have helped a ton. Reader Bee is a set of two iPad apps, the first being award winning Reader Bee and the Story Tree and the second is Reader Bee’s First Story Maker. Each build off each other and have similar characteristics.
Reader Bee and the Story Tree was where she had the most fun. It includes building off the the different daisies. You spell words, trace letters, read stories with emphasized words and more.
Her favorite is the one with the daisy where you race to see how many words you can spell with a given set of letters.
Reader Bee’s First Story Maker is great for those kids that are reading and learning to write stories and spell. She is a great storyteller and really enjoys writers workshop everyday school. She can use pictures for words as well as type words out.
When she uses a picture in the place of a word, she can later tap the picture and it will cover to the text of the word. If she types a word that is in the image dictionary, it will show the picture!
Both apps have you download a special keyboard that in in the shape of a honeycomb. Each letter has a picture to help you decipher the letter for kids that can be confused or have a hard time recognizing letters. The keyboard was a little frustrating for my daughter and she actually preferred the standard iPad keyboard as it is easier to find the letter and also a little larger. However, having the pictures definitely helps with letter recognition and confusing letters like b and d.
Our 6 year old has asked every day since downloading the app. We don’t use the iPad or tablets often at all, but when we do, I like to make sure they are doing something education and fun and the Reader Bee apps are definitely it.
These look like great apps. Kay is learning how to read now and she loves working on her skills. And I always feel like if they’re going to be on the iPad, it should be doing something educational, not Angry Birds or something!
I remember the entryway read very clearly. I surely can hear N saying “I can’t do it” I know she can too. She has read things to me before. All these new gadgets for kids are great.
That sounds like an awesome app. Red is starting to use phonics and sounds, but can always read and spell his name and “STOP.”