Product Review: Rock N Learn Phonics

I've been working with Caroline this summer on learning to read.  She has most of her letter sounds down, and definitely can identify all uppercase letters, but she still sometimes has some trouble distinguishing among lowercase and b and p and g and d.  Although, if I cue her with a "that's a B" she can sound out short vowel sound words. We've been using the Kindergarten Level 1 Hooked on Phonics program.  It's been going slow.  Slow and steady.  I'm happy with her progress, but sometimes it is tough to get her to sit down and work through a whole page of words.

I thought it would be nice to try out some new learning to read materials, just to see if there was a system better suited to Caroline. Caroline is quite the singer and dancer, so Rock n Learn Phonics on DVD seemed right up her alley.

The Rock N Learn Volume 1 DVD features 28 lessons, starting with short vowel sounds and beginning consonants with vowels. It progresses through blending consonants (e.g, sh), three letter blends, word families, silent e, consonant digraphs, read along sentences, and read along stories. Volume 2 DVD continues with long vowels, vowel combinations, syllables, ending sounds, silent consonants, rule breakers, and more read-along sentences and read-along stories.  This program covers a huge amount of phonetic material.

So far we've watched the first 10 tracks several times.  The animation, music and characters are really catchy, and I've caught Caroline singing the short vowel song a few times. A-E-I-O-U!  Each individual lesson covers quite a bit of material, so it will be a while before we're ready for the later lessons on this DVD.  Abby, who is an established reader, would still benefit from the later lessons on Volume 2.

Scattered among the songs on both DVDs are interactive portions to allow the kids to practice their skills.  For example, a word will appear on the screen, and there is a pause for the young person watching to try to read it. Then the answer is provided. Unfortunately, the pause isn't long enough for Caroline.  Even though she's been sounding out words all summer, she not fast enough for this DVD.  Even though she's happy to watch the songs, she isn't participating as fully as the intended by this program. 

With that said, the age range for this program is listed as Age 6 and up, and Caroline is only 5 1/2.  I bet in 6 months this program will be exactly the right level of difficulty for her.  In the meantime, she can watch the catchy vowel song and some of the other early tracks and reinforce all those consonant sounds. 

One other thing I really love about this DVD is that they have close-ups of someone's mouth when sounding things out.  As a veteran of speech therapy, I know that kids in Kindergarten are still developing portions of their speech (like r's and f's and l's).  So, watching the mouth reinforces correct tongue placement and sound pronounciation and they don't even realize it!

Summary: We will continue with the Hooked on Phonics for reading instruction and practice because it is better paced for Caroline, but we are definitely going to supplement her reading with this set of DVDs because this program is catchy and fun. This program is simultaneously entertaining and educational.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of Volumes 1 and 2 of this Rock n Learn Phonics in order to write a review on my blog.  All opinions are my own.

Final Note:  Abby has thoroughly, and I do mean thoroughly, reviewed the list of other Rock N Learn products and is literally begging me to buy the Solar System DVD.