I’ll be honest here, there are a lot of things that I am not super successful at as a parent.   I am not great at getting the kids teeth brushed each night, or teaching them how to floss.  I am NOT great at remembering that they need replacement runners, or a new box of paints for school. I am terrible at wrapping birthday gifts … especially if it needs to be in birthday paper.

And when our last little one went into Kindergarten last year I remember that I am terrible at teaching them to read.

Now, I am an avid reader. I enjoy being snuggled on the couch, fire crackling and my mind filled with stories. What I don’t like is reading aloud, or having them read to me in their halting words.  I am bad at helping “sound out” letters, and all in all, a pretty terrible “teacher”.

Our first daughter took to books in the middle of grade 1. She went from reading copy paper, hand stapled books in December to the Harry Potter series in January. Once her mind opened to it, she grabbed hold of reading and it became a passion.

Our middle daughter got caught up in transition in classrooms and never really got the basics. Since we had to do so little work with our first, we were utterly unprepared to do it with the second.  Missing the key foundational elements made it difficult for her until we were able to secure time to help her through.  She too now loves to read and it is part of her evening routine each bedtime.

And now again we are faced with a child in grade one and this desperate urgency to create strong reading skills.  When those early reader books started coming home in September I started to dread bedtime. I knew it was important, but as soon as I snuggle in for reading, my eyes get heavy and the learning opportunity goes out the window.

But I also didn’t want our son to have the same struggles as his sister, and I could see his desperation in wanting to LEARN how to read.

But I needed help.

Along comes Ooka Island at the perfect moment.  

An online “learn to read” app that is downloaded to a tablet or iPhone (or used on a computer). It teaches the five foundational reading steps in a fun and encoring way.  Built for kids between preschool and grade 2, it takes your child on an adventure through Ooka Island and identifies strengths and learning styles to suit your child.

Ooka Island is founded on 25 years of reading research and scientifically-proven concepts ranked #1 by the Institute of Education Sciences.

All of that is super important, but the main things I was worried about was “would it be fun” and “would it actually work”

I downloaded the app to my tablet and let my son know that he had a new “game” to try. Now, this is a mine craft kid here. He spends (far too much) time in mine craft world, building cities and fighting zombies.  I knew that if I ever wanted to drag him away from brain burning entertainment, it had to be done right.

We launched, and I let him open the app and explore on his own.

Now, the makers of Ooka Island say that your child should “play” the activities for 30 minutes for 3 times a week.  Well, that first week my dude logged a wee bit more than that….

At one point when I asked him how he liked the game, he said (and I kid you not) “Its better than mine craft”

As a parent I am sure you have the same issues with “tablet time” that we have in our family.  constantly managing the use, and the activities.  With Ooka Island I can now limit WHAT he is playing, and get a detailed progress report of how he is learning.

And he IS learning.

We started off the year with him struggling to understand even the most simple words in his readers.  Now, only a few weeks into playing Ooka Island, coupled with working through his home readers, my dude is READING.  He is able to successfully sound out the words, and can recognize the simple receptive words in stories.

In the evenings, he now actually reads his readers to ME, and after every book is done he high fives me and shares his excitement. He is getting more and more “into” reading the easier it becomes and my fear and stress over having to teach him, when I don’t really have those skills, has diminished.

So, run over to the app store and search OOKA ISLAND.

Download the app and you will get a chance to try the first of 24 levels for free. Level 1 averages 1.5 – 2.5hrs for a child to complete and highlights a variety of activities (but not all, there are higher level ones that come post level 1) and a couple of the beginning books.  After that it is a $11.99 subscription per month, and that is when your childs progress reports will start to kick in. And trust me friends, this program is 100% completely worth the investment.  Not only is my son still excited to play the activities a month later, he is learning a heck of a lot more than he does playing minecraft… and our evening conversations are less about mushroom cows and more about the books he has read and the letters he knows.

In the end, we all have our strengths and weaknesses in parenting our kids. I think if we are able to spend the time doing the things we love, and then getting support for the things we don’t, that is what makes us fabulous parents when it is all said and done.

And just the thought that I could have 3 kids reading this winter break makes me giddy with excitement!  All of us could be curled up in front of the fire, book in hand, mind filled with stories of adventure.