Evaluate reading readiness/early literacy tools

The five tools that I selected are as follows: Kiwi Crate, Education.com, Ranger Rick, Disney Family Fun, and School Zone Publishing Company.

Kiwi Crate: www.kiwicrate.com/ Children love to receive their own mail, Kiwi Crate formally Wonder Box is just the thing parents can order to help their children develop early skills.  This four time award winning program was started by a mother of two who realized her time was limited to spend educational time with her children.  After creating several projects that she shared with the members of her play group, the other parents expressed the desire to have these types of activities at home.   Each month a box is delivered to the child, complete with two projects and all the necessary materials targeted to develop key skills for children 3-7 years of age.  Subscriptions can be ordered for 3, 6 or 12 months.  As mentioned before this program has received four awards: Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products of 2012, Oppenheim’s Gold Seal Best Toy Award, Parent’s Choice Gold Award and Maker Faire Educators Award.  It has also been featured in multiple periodicals: The Wall Street Journal, In Style, Today, Parents and Martha Stewart.

Education.com: A great web site for both parents and educators which is simple to navigate and very easy to use. Articles within the site suggest solutions to assist parents with difficult situations they are experiencing with their children. Creative Crafts are featured to accompany various themes taught in the classroom or stories parents read with their little ones.  This site covers almost every age group of learner. Activities and worksheets cover all subject matter from reading to science and math. One activity I found interesting, a science based experiment entitled Mighty Fortress Erosion allows the child to test how wind power (their breath) can erode various objects which tie into the story of The Three Little Pigs.  This simple experiment will encourage the child to want to read more stories based on a new way of looking at the story.  Kids and History allows parents to provide ways to learn about the past, by dressing up as a historical figure they have read about, cook a historical recipe and take field trips to local historical sites.  The majority of the activities are printable providing many interactive activities to encourage learning.

Disney’s Family Fun Magazine and Website: http://family.go.com/  a great periodical that covers activities for all ages.  This magazine provides multiple ideas for parents to cook, craft, color, cut, create, print, read, and places to go.  All the activities encourage children to enhance their basic skills for learning. Of course all activities should be done with parents’ interaction with their children.  This provides good quality time which helps the child to view learning as a fun activity done with Mom or Dad. The web site provides even more activities than the magazine, so the two give the parent or educator multiple options to enhance the theme they wish to work upon. The instructions and thorough illustrations allow for ease of use for the parent or educator as well. Note: not all of the activities are Disney related, so even the non-Disney person will be able to find excellent activities.

Ranger Rick Jr.: formally You’re Big Back Yard by National Wildlife Federation thus focusing on wildlife and nature. The age groups this magazine targets is 4-7 years of age; however, with adult supervision the activities can be used with younger children.  This periodical also has a website and digital apps that accompany the magazine.  Again all forms of periodicals contain extra activities that enhance the learning.  All forms of the periodical contain Parent/Educator pages which make the activities easy to use.  The magazine contains lots of real life pictures and small word boxes containing 1-2 sentences with simple wording providing facts about the featured animals or plants.  Activities based on the theme of each magazine can be crafts, recipes, songs, printables, contests and outdoor activities.

School Zone Publishing Company: Educational items by this publisher can be found in most grocery stores, craft stores, toy stores, teacher stores and office supply stores.  While I have only seen items for ages 3 and up, some of the flash cards can be used for children from 1 ½ years old and up. Samples such as cards devoted to colors and alphabets. Many of the workbooks list skills that are covered in each book. One such book for ages 3-5 cover Reading Readiness, Early Math and Beginning Science.  Preschool colors list ages 4-6; however, with adult supervision this book will benefit 2 and 3 year old children.  The ease of use for adults is great as all items come with a Parent Card or Page to help guide the children through early learning while spending quality time with their children. All the products have colorful illustrations which hold the child’s attention, plus all the flash cards are two sided to multiply the activities and reinforce the skills.