Let’s Go Read! An Island Adventure
© 1997 Riverdeep, Inc. (Edmark)
This exciting phonics-based reading program has all the proven essentials including repetitive skills practice, numerous opportunities to apply the skills, speech recognition, tracking, record keeping, adult control features and great stories. Drawbacks include a finicky voice recognition system and a format that can get dry after a few hours of play. The introduction tells the tale of how Robby the raccoon can't read a sign that has been mysteriously posted on his tree. With the help of his friend, Emily the squirrel, he flies the Reading Rover out to an island where he meets the letters and learns to read. For each letter, the program cycles through a 15 to 30 minute sequence of nine activities which must be mastered to progress to the next letter. For the letter T, for example, the child first practices saying "tah" into a special microphone. Next comes several sorting tasks which sharpen knowledge of each letter and sound, along with a fun jigsaw activity in which letters are built by dragging puzzle pieces into form outlines. Providing even more reinforcement, the child then sorts T-related words, builds short sentences with T and practices the letter in 12 well-crafted interactive stories. The main problem is that after 10 or so letters, the repetitive sequences start to bore children. Also, even though the voice recognition worked surprising well, it frustrated some children, especially when they would knock the microphone out of position. Fortunately, the program functions perfectly well without the voice features which can easily be turned off. It is also possible to quickly customize the program to any individual child making it especially handy for classroom use. All things considered, this program sets a new standard in the early reading category and would be ideal for home or classroom settings, particularly for kids who seem to benefit from repetition. https://www.google.com/search?q=lets+go+read+island+adventure&oq=lets+go+read+island+adventure&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30l2j0i390.6716j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:52f5a49a,vid:xb_1PE59bd8
$39.95, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: reading, letter recognition, phonics, spelling