A few weeks ago I wrote two blog posts about recommended resources for primary aged children which were very popular; one about our favourite Phonics resources and another for our favourite Maths resources. Two resources that really stood out on the lists were Mathseeds and Reading Eggs– which are both created by the same team of educational experts. Reading Eggs is a popular online programme that helps children develop their reading through phonics. Mathseeds– a very fun, online maths programme for children – helping them to develop their maths skills and understanding through play!* Together, Reading Eggs and Mathseeds make the perfect combination for developing children’s learning at home.

Giveaway

We’ve teamed up with the lovely people at Mathseeds and Reading Eggs to giveaway a Year’s Subscription to Reading Eggs and Mathseeds (worth £69.95!) to one lucky winner over on Facebook! Head over to our Facebook page now here to enter. Full terms and condition apply (read them here)

What is Reading Eggs?

Reading Eggs is, in all honesty, my current favourite online programme for teaching children how to read. It’s fun, play based and teaches children through phonics (as they are taught in school). Its engaging, interactive and motivates children to want to succeed. It’s made up of mini lessons – that involve children playing interactive reading games to practise their phonics.

What is Mathseeds?

Mathseeds is a brilliant, online programme for children aged 3-9 to help them develop their maths skills. What is particularly clever about it though, is, as far as children are concerned, it’s just a series of great games they are allowed to play on the computer or tablet. When in reality, hidden behind the colourful, engaging graphics, games, animations and levels there are structured maths lessons that are specifically designed at the right level for your child’s maths learning. These lessons, that are developed by educational experts, help children to understand and enjoy a whole range of maths topics including number, measurement and shapes, supplementing and reinforcing their learning at school. 

What did we like about Reading Eggs and Mathseeds?

• Engaging – Both Reading Eggs and Mathseeds are genuinely really fun for young children! They are perfectly pitched at their age, with bright colours, cute characters and fun interactive games. The format of both the programmes is really engaging and keeps children interested. Each new level starts with a little cartoon video introducing the topic, then children are taken through exciting activities to practise the new concept.

• Rewarding – When children complete each level on Reading Eggs they are rewarded with eggs dashing across the screen, accompanied by a jingling sound. These eggs are added to their overall total that they can use to buy clothes for their avatar and furniture for their house or use as tokens to play fun games in the ‘arcade’! Similarly on Mathseeds, children earn ‘acorns’ which they can use for same purpose. I was initially a bit dubious about if my own children would think this to be a good enough reward, but I was very pleasantly surprised and discovered these acorns and eggs are VERY motivating! The children absolutely loved customising their avatar to make it look fun and ‘buying’ all sorts of things for their houses. They also enjoyed playing the learning games in the ‘arcade’. There was also a bit of friendly competition going on, as to who could make their avatar look the best and who could have the nicest house. What’s particularly fantastic about the rewards on Reading Eggs and Mathseeds is there’s a wide range of different ways children are rewarded, catering for all. So if your child might not be interested in the eggs/acorns to customise their avatar and house, there’s other ways they are rewarded too. For example, at the end of each lesson a big egg/acorn cracks open on the screen and children ‘win’ a new character to collect. Also, at the end of each series of lessons they complete a quiz and are rewarded with an official certificate to print off.

• Develops a Love of Learning – I strongly believe in the importance of making learning fun for young children. Not only does it mean its enjoyable for them but it helps instil a love of learning from an early age. Reading Eggs and Mathseeds do exactly that, they show children through games, animations and puzzles that playing with letters and numbers is fun. Hopefully setting strong foundations for their future education. I was delighted to hear my own children asking to ‘play learning on the iPad’!

• Helpful for Home Learning – With the latest national lockdown, it has never been more useful to have resources at home to help your children with home learning. What’s brilliant about Reading Eggs and Mathseeds is children can complete the lessons relatively independently. In addition, to give you more support, there are downloadable lesson plans and worksheets for each lesson!

• Tailored to your Child’s Exact Level– If you google ‘maths games’ or ‘reading games’, you’ll find an array of online games and apps your child can play online. But what’s special about Reading Eggs and Mathseeds, as well as the fact that they are very high quality and designed by experts in the education field, is that the lessons are tailored to your child’s exact level of understanding. At the start of playing they are given a quiz to work out which lesson they are best suited to start at. Children can also work at their own pace, taking as long or as little time as they need on each lesson. They can also repeat any lesson or activity within the lesson, at any time.

• Dashboard – I’m a huge fan of the Dashboard! Its wonderful! It tells you everything you need to know about your child’s progress. It tells you which lesson they started on, the last lesson they did and how many lessons they have completed. As well as how many quizzes they have done and their average score and total attempts. It also gives you a running total of their certificates and which certificates they have achieved (gold/silver or bronze)

• Assessment and Reinforcement Throughout – Checking children’s progress during learning is really important as it helps you to understand where they are at and what they might need extra help with. I was pleased to see that regular assessment is a fundamental part of Reading Eggs and Mathseeds, with regular quizzes at the end of each level to check children progress as well as the ‘driving tests’. I also loved that the key concepts taught are also reinforced throughout the programme, which is so important for helping children to remember and apply what they have learnt. For example, at the end of each lesson there’s an E-book which on Reading Eggs, children are expected to try and read (practising what they have just learnt) and on Mathseeds the key skills they have just learnt are recapped.

How can you subscribe to Reading Eggs and Mathseeds ?

Head over to their website here. And don’t forget to enter our give-away on Facebook to stand a chance of winning a Year’s Subscription to Reading Eggs and Mathseeds here (full terms and conditions apply – read them here)

*Please note, we were gifted a complimentary subscription for the purpose of this review and this post is sponsored. All thoughts and opinions are our own.