Friday, November 28, 2008

Rime To Read

Lime, time, rime! No, that's not misspelled...r-i-m-e is correct. Rimes sound alike and are spelled alike (cat and bat) while rhymes sound alike but are not necessarily spelled alike (hair and share). Rime To Read is a program that does just what its name suggests: uses word families (rimes) to teach children to read.
The Rime To Read method to start beginning readers on a road to successful reading consists of:
  1. The use of word families (rimes)
  2. A unique color coding system where rimes are assigned different colors
  3. A structured, progressive approach where each additional book builds on the ones before it

Books can be printed and read in hard copy or can be viewed online. One feature of the online books is that rimes can be read to the child at the click of a mouse when he or she wishes to have assistance sounding out words. The books are designed to be read in order. Characters, rimes, and sight words learned in earlier books appear in later ones, with the goal being to have the child recognize and remember the already familiar words. Each of the five vowels gets four books to learn and practice its short vowel sound. Each 4-book set can be purchased for $9.99 a set or the entire lot of 20 is priced at $44.99. Either way, the price includes lifetime access to the online book and the ability to print a hard copy.

My final verdict: The printable books are nicely done with simple line drawings and pleasant color coding. The online books are still undergoing some debugging as I noticed that the voice that pronounces the rimes still has a few quirks and not all of the 20 books are fully functional as yet. The folks at Rime To Read are hard at work to correct this. My 5-year-old is already a strong reader, and so I was not able to measure the effectiveness of the Rime To Read method with her. A friend of mine agreed to try out Rime To Read with one of her daughters. This is what she emailed me after using the printed books:

I can’t think of one bad thing to say about the Rime To Read books. My daughter is doing very well with them. The length of each book is perfect for her short attention span, and she loves that she can read a whole book all by herself! She also enjoys finding characters from previous stories in the new ones, and it keeps her excited about reading more. It did take her a few books to pick up on the spelling patterns, even though they were color coded, but once she did there was no stopping her! The sight words are also helpful, and even follow along with some other reading programs that she has been doing. I wouldn’t use these books by themselves, but they are a great supplementary reading program.

I do not understand what combination of wonderful things goes on inside a child's head that makes everything 'click' for them. I do understand that it is different things for different children. For some, Rime To Read's method of word patterns, color coding, and structure may be the very key that unlocks the world of reading for them. Try out book 1 for FREE!

3 comments:

Susanne said...

I love using Rimes for beginning readers. I'm going to have print the freebie out tomorrow! I soooo need a laser printer of my own

all i want for christmas is a....

SpongeBlawg said...

BLOG looks great.....love the CHRISTMAS Music and Background...and yes Laser Printers do come in handy!

Susanne said...

i'm dying to see what you have from Crayola Art Studios.