Not Quite Bob….
Rime to Read
http://www.RimetoRead.com
$9.99 for four books or $44.99 for set of 20
For those who have taken up the challenge of teaching their own children to read, there is an ongoing debate over the value of phonics over “sight reading”. What many may not be aware of is the variety of teaching concepts that can actually be called phonics. There is an excellent explanation of the various approaches to phonics on Wikipedia.
The approach used in Rime to Read is analogy phonics. Rime to Read uses a tightly controlled vocabulary of rimes – phonograms consisting of a vowel and an ending consonant (or more than one ending consonant). An example of a rime would be “at” in “Pat”, “Cat”, “hat”, “bat” and “fat”. In theory, once a child has mastered all of these phonograms, an analytical approach that teaches them to connect phonograms within a word and sound them out would enable them to decode most words.
The phonics you probably grew up with starts with the analytical approach – teaching all of the possible phonemes and then moves on to teach the child how to decode words using the phonemes. If you can’t see the difference, don’t worry. You’ll probably find that you end up using a combination of teaching strategies even if you only have one phonics program.
Rime to Read is very similar to the popular “Bob Books” that come in a set and teach simple word combinations, all of which share a vowel or a given phoneme. Both Rime to Read and Bob Books give the beginning reader a realistic chance at success. As you’ll see below, Rime to Read’s approach could be a revolutionary advancement in early reading… or just another high tech knockoff of the tried and true methods those who’ve been around the block did successfully the “old fashioned” way. You really won’t know which side you come down on until you try the free lesson.
Signing up for the program is very simple. The Rime to Read software collects your personal information and you set up an account. If you’re still thinking about whether this approach will work for you, take the free lesson first. You should consider taking the first lesson with your child to get a feel for how they respond.
If it looks like a book…
Rime to Read online books look like the real thing – complete with turning pages. There are twenty in the collection and each has a reading style and story structure similar to that found in Bob Books. Other than the use of rimes, there are other important differences between Rime to Read and Bob Books that make the online program worth considering. The vowel sounds in Rime to Read are color coded to help the child use visual cues to help decode the words. Rime to Read has a simple point and click approach to moving from page to page and for playing the highlighted words through your computer’s speakers. However, this aid is only for the words being learned. Rime to Read books are not “talking books”; they are true readers.
New sight words are introduced at the beginning of a book and they appear in black print the first five times they are used. Sight words in this curriculum are common and frequently used words. Rime to Read is not a whole word program, and the sight words used are similar to those used in other phonics based programs.
Rime to Read online books are printable using the freely available Adobe Reader program available at http://www.adobe.com. Unfortunately, you are warned to follow the directions carefully as you can only print the books one time. I had no problem saving the books to my hard drive for later printing. The Adobe Reader page comes up with the book you choose. It’s up to you to decide how the Adobe Reader prints your book for you. Printing in book format on both sides of the page is possible with most printers, but that is beyond the scope of this review. I mention this only as a warning that the cost of printing out twenty books on a typical inkjet printer would be more than buying a good used set of Bob Books.
Rime to Read is a fun, easy to use and accessible early reading program. Like most computer based curriculum, it’s greatest failing is not in the content but in the delivery. If you’re the type of person who wants to sit with your little one in your lap while you go through her reading lesson, get tech support. Printing Rime to Read is a daunting task, even for this died-in-the-wool geek. While it’s understandable that some computer-based learning tools cannot be turned into printed texts, those which are merely analogs of textbooks should be made available with real pages that can be turned. For the price, the couch-as-classroom crowd should not have to spend their investment twice to get a program of this quality. We believe Rime to Read is good enough to warrant both a print and an electronic version. It is also good enough to justify spending time in front of the computer if your classroom is set up that way. My guess is that if you’re reading this review, Rime to Read will work just fine in your classroom.
