Reading Eggspress

I have to write a quick post about this.

This morning Caden and I were up at 6 ish so as Miles slept in, we did a little maths (measurement - easy peasy) and some reading. He chose to get a non-fiction book. He completed reading eggs this year and is onto reading eggspress now which is with a reading age of about 7. Realistically we thought that there was a pretty big leap from one to the other and Caden still enjoys playing the reading games on reading eggs. I think that the program is excellent but doesn't cater for little kids who still enjoy the reading eggs format, full of cartoons and funny songs, collecting eggs and stuff, but who read at a more advanced level than age 6. The eggspress version is a lot more geared at older kids, even the reading age 7 books (which are no problem for him to read) are presented in an older kid format that is much less appealing to him than reading eggs. As long as I do the work alongside him to help him around the site though, he is ok. I always prefer to work alongside him anyway, if you wanted your kid to sit and learn this independently then I would consider this to be a limitation.

Anyway, we found a non-fiction book. He asked yesterday about what the smallest thing was. I asked, living or inanimate? I guess you could call electrons living, if you were being very technical about it. Electricity being one of the building blocks of life. Or Quarks, as they make up sub atomic particles. Rather than go into this, I explained that we can either look at microbes which are the smallest biological organism, or atoms which make the molecules that these organisms are made of. He is a bit non-plussed (surprise) although I always made a point of using the correct language for things to expose them to bigger concepts as a part of every day life. So he chooses a book on forces. (I am in heaven, I love physics, though I don't think I am very good at it, I love to learn about the physical world too so a bonus for me  which hopefully fuels his own enthusiasm for the subject).

What was so great was that he really enjoyed learning about it. The book (we only got through 2 pages because there was a lot of information for a 5 year old, and he decided to play angry birds II instead), got us looking at cloths and stones, squeezing them to ascertain mass and density, throwing them and catching them to observe how forces act on them and how mass affects the level of force used. He asked lots of good questions before he'd reached his limit on this subject and he was fascinated by the idea of the Butterfly Effect. We had recently talked about how acorns grow into big Oak trees so the idea of small things eventually having a huge effect is a theme he is getting to grips with.

I am pretty excited at the realisation that we have access to all this scientific literature (rather than scour the library or look up the topics to learn on the internet). With the photos and the layout and the age appropriateness, it will make learning science and loads of other topics much more accessible for us over the years I hope. I love how there are classics too, unabridged. We read some of The Just So Stories together (he listens to them on audiobooks anyway so it was easier for him to read this to me as he knew the stories). I am now officially a big fan of Reading Eggs/Eggpress. We tried mathseeds but it was up to a level which Caden is now past. It will be excellent for Miles though in year or two.

Miles insisted on popcorn and porridge for breakfast. Then threw the popcorn all over the dining room. (sigh) He is really becoming a little dude with personality now, which is lovely to see. He really knows his own mind and is such a happy and contented little soul!