Rosetta Stone Kids Reading Program

I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Rosetta Stone. I received a product and a promotional item to thank me for participating

It is so important to promote literacy and work towards pre-reading and reading skills at a very young age. After all, literacy is the gateway to all education. I believe that children should be a taught a love of books and reading from a young age. Learning to enjoy books when they are young will encourage a love of reading as they grow older. Something we should really focus on since nearly 47% of US children are below reading level. So where do you start when teaching a child to read? Before they even learn to recognize words and letter sounds, there is a series of pre-reading skills that can be developed in very young children. We recently had the opportunity to review Rosetta Stone Kids new reading program geared towards children ages 3-7 and are so excited to share this new learning tool with all of you.

5 Pre-Reading Skills

Before a child begins to read there are a number of skills that you can work on with them. Rosetta Stone Kids reading program incorporated all of these into their lessons.

Matching/Sorting
Rhyming
Letter Knowledge
Phonemic Awareness
Narrative Abilities (story telling)

I have a preschooler at home that is more than ready to begin her journey towards literacy, the problem we are facing is that she is an October baby and with the new kindergarten start dates being September 1st, She isn’t eligible for pre-k programs yet. This leaves us to work with her at home and I have had some challenges finding programs that were geared towards teaching pre-reading and reading skills yet were simple enough for a 3-4 yr old to use.

When we began the Rosetta Stone Kids Reading program I was instantly aware that it was easy to use. The program is available on both a computer and tablet making it simple for the young children to navigate on their own. As computer programs are great teaching tools for slightly older kids, I found that my 4 yr old did not have the dexterity to control the mouse on a regular computer or laptop. Since we were able to use the exact same program on our ipad she was quickly able to work on her own with the touch screen.

Since my child is 4 years old, we started her at the beginning of the Rosetta Stone Kids Reading Program on level one. {for older children you can skip the lower levels and start them where they need the practice, my 6 yr old has really enjoyed it as well} I was pleased to see that even before they started practicing Letter sounds and recognition, they began with matching and sorting colors shapes and objects – the foundation for reading. Once each level is completed they move onto the next, but getting a sufficient amount of practice in each before allowed to move on. At the end of each level there is a fun game for the kids to play, one that is unlocked only when each of the lessons has been completed, giving the children something to work towards. As the lessons move forward they build on what was learned previously, creating a foundation of reading skills.

Rosetta Stone Kids reading program is fun and engaging for the little ones, my daughter gets excited to see the “Lingos” pop up on the screen with their bright colors and cheery sounds. When she gets stuck on a lesson, there is help from the Lingos to move her along. They are perfect little companions for the Rosetta Stone Kids reading program! She can complete a lesson with very little help from me, making it easy to do in between other learning activities or take on the go.

As my daughter moved through the lessons I could see she was truly learning reading concepts! After completing the second level, she now understands what rhyming is (something she had no prior understanding of) and can rhyme basic words! I was also amazed as she went through a story matching lesson, in which she was identifying the beginning, middle, and end of short nursery rhyme stories – a concept they teach in Kindergarten and is the foundation for reading comprehension.