The thought of teaching three small children to read fills me with trepidation. I’ve worked on letter recognition with my youngest daughter (almost 5), but didn’t know how to proceed from there. Luckily, I’ve found a program that works for us.
I found Funnix through one of the hundreds of frugal blogs that I read. In January, they were having a download special, offering their curriculum for free. I decided to give it a try.
We’ve been working with Rachel for a few weeks using this program, and so far, I’ve been impressed. Downloading was simple, and I’ve not had any issue with the program on our Mac.
The program is geared for non-readers ages four to seven, and is designed for you to work with your child 30 minutes per day. In the beginning lessons (we’re only up to Lesson 11), you’ll finish quicker, but the later lessons become more involved. There have been some days when we’ve actually done two lessons, since my daughter was so gung-ho and excited!
Every lesson does a quick review of previously learned concepts, and follows the same pattern in each lesson. Rachel quickly grasped the routine and loves the story time section.
After learning or reviewing letter sounds, there is an accompanying worksheet for each lesson, Children work on completing a picture with tracing lines, as well as letter recognition by crossing out, underlining, or circling letters. They also work on practicing writing letters by tracing the letters in the day’s lesson.
When Funnix offered its curriculum for free in January, over 40,000 people downloaded the programs. Due to the huge response, they’ve lowered the price for those that missed out on the free special. You can now download the entire Funnix curriculum, including Funnix Beginning Reading and Funnix 2 for $25.
I’d love to hear from others who have tried this program, to see what you think, too.
I received this program for free, through Funnix’s January open promotion. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.
When she’s not trying to teach her children how to read, Dianna writes at The Kennedy Adventures, sharing things faith, fitness, and family. Be sure and join her for Saints and Scripture Sundays, or catch her on Twitter.
I also downloaded the program for free and am using it with my four year old. We are a little further in our lessons. 22 (I think) and have been enjoying it. I chose to give this program a whirl with her because she has such a short attention span and its hard to get her to sit still. Since moving to touch the screen is integrated into the program it is a good fit for her wiggle worm personality. I did not like how it emphasizes the letter names because I have been a big supporter of teaching letter sounds not names but all in all it has worked ok thus far. I’m curious to see how it pans out the further we get into the program. She is learning a complete different way than her sister did. I can’t wait to see which method I end up liking best and will choose for baby.
I’d heard of Funnix, but was unfamiliar with it. Your post makes me want to investigate it a bit more in depth. Thanks!
I also downloaded it for free and have used it with my daughter. She’s 6 and it became boring fast for her. However, I continued to use it for handwriting instruction for awhile. I think it’s a great program.
Thanks for the link and review, I’ll definitely check it out!
Here from HHH.