11 Plus Exams Forum

...has anyone used this online reading site? DS2 (Yr 6) has been signed up by school and we had a quick look at it yesterday, but I'm not sure how the site should be best used - there doesn't seem to be a logical route around the various exercises, in fact, we spent about 20 minutes creating and dressing his avatar and painting the walls of his apartment ! He says they used the site at school today and it was fun - great, but is it actually adding anything to his reading/comprehension skills? He showed me his homepage and it says he is level 2-1 but I can't find anywhere on the site that tells me what this actually means! As far as he's concerned, it gives him free rein to play computer games under the guise of "homework"

Any opinions gratefully received.

If we are talking about the same website I think it's quite good. There are thousands of books (short books) to read and some of the comprehension tests are quite good. I sometimes read bedtime stories to my girls using this site. Not sure what the levels mean though.

Thank you for your opinion. A trawl through Google suggests it is a site used predominantly by home-eders, parents of pre-schoolers who want to give their DC a head start and parents of reluctant readers who are easier to engage when playing literacy games. The comments are largely positive. Cynical me says the HT wants to be seen introducing "new and exciting" learning methods - too little, too late in my opinion as DS2 leaves in a couple of months .

I can't personally vouch for the site as haven't used it yet but I have been given a code for a free 5 week trial. Register an account and then add the promo code UKS24RTG for 35 days free subscription. I have just signed up my youngest and it really is free, you don't need to add card details like for some 'free' trials where they rely on you forgeting to cancel your subscription before the free trial ends.

I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by posting the code, sorry if I am- I just thought it may help someone who is considering subscribing.

Thanks for that code. DS has had some fun trying out this site. The grammar, spelling and definitions bits might be helpful for 11+ and for those doing English papers the comprehensions might help. It's a different format anyway. Would reserve judgement until DS has played with it for a while but seems quite fun.

professor yaffle can yo please give me more info about this site/game thanks, you can pm if you want.

Just google readingeggspress and the site comes up. Have a look round or better still ask your ds or dd to check it out. They seem to be able to negotiate these things quicker. Basically DCs earn "eggs" by completing various literacy and language related games puzzles quiz etc Dcs can read a book or passage and answer questions or find the noun/adverb etc from a list of words. I don't know how much it costs as we are taking advantage of the free trial. It might be a fun free time way of slipping in some 11+ work!

Sorry for the late reply khanj010 and thanks mum23* I don't really have any information about this site other than what has already been posted I'm afraid. My year 3 DD had great fun for a few hours the first couple of days after registering but I think the novelty has now worn off I'm not really sure that this site is something that I personally would pay for but a few days after registering I had an email offering me 12 months membership for the price of 6 for @ £30 I think, which may be of interest to you.

After all the fanfare from school about this site and how it would revolutionize learning in literacy, DS2 has not used it since the day he activated his account . I think it is aimed at much younger children (KS1), very reluctant readers or those who struggle with reading and literacy in general. I am glad it was free .

There are parts of this site that are definitely for older DCs. Especially some of the grammar questions. DS is 11 and has already passed 11+ and he didn't know all the answers. It is supposed to be for up to age 13. However I agree it might not be anything I would actually pay for.