Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.
My daughter has been using LightSail for Homeschoolers to improve reading comprehension.
We are grateful that we were given the opportunity to access and use the premium subscription to LightSail for Homeschoolers for one year. It is a unique literacy platform for all ages that helps children improve their reading, writing, vocabulary, and fluency skills.
This program has SO much to offer!
In the Library, kids can read books, listen to audiobooks, check out World Book, learn different biographies, participate in unit study’s, get immersed in sports, view 3-D images, watch educational videos, be entertained by augmented reality, and look at a variety of live streams. What a wonderful variety of ways to learn!
There is a Reading tab where kids can see their goals, milestones, booklist, history, badges, grades, and data. This is an encouraging way for kids to see their progress and a count of all the books they have read.
Moreover, the Writing and Vocabulary tabs show students and parents their notes, essays, authored books, spelling words, defined words, clozes or the questions that they answered, data, and more!
Take a look and see the online Language Arts options made available and the details of what they offer:
https://lightsailed.com/homeschool/reading/
https://lightsailed.com/homeschool/writing/
https://lightsailed.com/homeschool/vocabulary/
https://lightsailed.com/homeschool/fluency/
Parent Dashboard
On the parent dashboard, we are given many ways to customize our children’s experiences. We can select and choose which types of books we want to have displayed on our children’s dashboard, if we want questions asked throughout the text or not, if we want to allow certain books when asked for permission, and so much more.
Each child using the program can have their own unique customization and experience. Some children will do well if they have questions built within their text while others may not. I think it’s great that these types of questions are available to can check their comprehension and vocabulary. It helps parents and children see their progress. However, Some children may not be ready to answer questions or may progress more smoothly without questions interfering with their reading.
Another option I like is that we can choose whether or not we want our kids to read faith-based text. If we do we can also choose which type of religious materials we want to be displayed. That is a huge deal to me because I don’t want my kids reading things that may be confusing.
Do you have dual lingual children? We have the option to turn on or off texts with Spanish in them. Isn’t that a great option for parents who want to keep up with fluency in both languages?
Our Experience
While signing up for the reading subscription, an option called the World Book subscription was suggested based on my daughter’s age (6 years old). I didn’t want to sign her up for anything too advanced so I selected the subscription from their suggestion and for the last few months, we have been using the Program to read books based on my daughter’s interest and reading level.
The program is designed to display materials based on their specific reading zone. The program adapts with their progress so that the student is always improving. The books that will benefit the student the most will have a little lightning bolt on the corner representing what they call a power text.
Most of the books that my daughter chose to read were a little challenging for her, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying the book. When she was stuck on a word, she would listen to the text being read to her which is just one of the many features that LightSail uses to make the user’s experience better.
We liked reading the books together, learning new and interesting things was fun for us. I was always surprised at the books she wanted to read. I thought I knew her taste pretty well, but her choice of books always seemed to shock me! She chose topics like 3-D printing and concussions over animals and humor. The challenge for me was trying not to influence her interests or her answers when questions popped up.
World Book was a nice feature or addition to the membership. I had a little difficulty getting access to it through my phone, but LightSail has great customer service and was able to tell me how to fix my issue. In this World Book, my daughter liked to explore the maps, games, and look through some of the experiments and activities they had available. We used this to find fun learning exercises after reading a book.
Final Thoughts
LightSail for Homeschoolers is an excellent way to encourage and strengthen children’s Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, and Fluency skills. It provides a great way for homeschooling families to access a Language Arts platform that they can fully customize and it will adapt to the students progress.
You don’t have to take my word for it, read the reviews from other homeschooling families by clicking the link below!
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!
~ Amy
