Review: 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade from Reading Eggs

When my kids were younger, we used the online Reading Eggs program for them.  I’m happy that Reading Eggs is offering 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade and other levels and workbooks, too.  Upon receipt of the workbook, I flipped through and liked it so much that I immediately ordered the 200 Essential Reading Skills for Third Grade for my other daughter.

For reviewing purposes, even though we now have Fourth Grade and Third Grade, I’m just focusing on the Fourth Grade book. 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade has 200 pages of comprehension, grammar, spelling, and review and is based on the multi-award winning #1 reading program.  It is proven to increase reading levels in just 15 minutes a day.  Inside the book, there are 5 days of work for 36 weeks.  In the midst are four different review checkpoints.  Typically Days 1 and 2 of each week is spent working on comprehension.  Days 3 and 4 are spent working on spelling, and Day 5 is grammar.

The Comprehension pages are probably my favorite part of the workbook.  On these pages, the student needs to read a passage and then highlight/circle/underline/color certain parts of the passage to help them answer the comprehension questions.  This is definitely something that my girls needed to work on.  It is approached with such simplicity that my daughter hasn’t struggled at all to find the answers.

 

The spelling sections were a little frustrating for my daughter.  It’s hard to only work on spelling words for 1-2 days.  Some of the words they expected the kids to know the definitions of were challenging, such as sluice, retinue, and sinew.  This did cause us to bring out the dictionary and look up words, but I feel like they could have used more common words since they are only used during a short time.

One thing that was a little frustrating for me as the parent/teacher, is that the answers are in the back of the book.  While I appreciate this for quick checking, the first page of the answers are printed on the back of the last page of work in the book.  I can tear out most of the answer pages and keep them at my desk, but I wish they had left a blank page first so that it wouldn’t be on the back side of the last lesson.

Another thing to point out is the book has a plastic film over the cover for protection.  We’ve been using it normally for several weeks and it’s already starting to peel.  This isn’t a dealbreaker, but worth noting.

Overall, I’m thankful we had a chance to put our hands on 200 Essential Reading Skills for Fourth Grade for this review.  I have no regrets in grabbing the Third Grade edition and we plan to continue it throughout this school year.

Reading Eggs is generously offering 4 weeks of their online program for FREE to my readers.  Sign up today and watch your child become a stronger reader this Back-to-School season!  A multi-award winning online learning program for children ages 2–13, Reading Eggs supports the essential foundations of reading with its highly engaging lessons, games, and e-books!

For More Information:

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