You have a child who is getting curious – about letters, about sounds, about reading, about what it feels like to be an actual reader. But you don’t know how to help your child transition from listening to a story to actually reading independently. Let me help you get there.
I’m a mom of a 5 and a half year old boy and 20 month old girl. I have my PhD in Educational Studies with a focus in Literacy. I am a former 2nd grade teacher. I have owned a K-12 tutoring business for the last nine years. To say I have experience in the field of reading is an understatement. And yet, when my own son came to me and asked me to learn to read, I faltered. We all know, as fairly seasoned parents, that doing anything with your own child is different. It feels like it should be easier and it’s often harder.
Then I came across the Lovevery Reading Skill Set. This kit is so well-constructed, thought out, and effective that it compelled me to write a review that isn’t sponsored or paid. This kit takes the guesswork out of pre-reading support, covering key concepts like syllables, letters, and letter sounds in an engaging, play-based way. It will take you from the most basic skills through beginning reading, all screen-free and evidenced-based.
As a literacy expert and mom, here’s my honest review of the Lovevery Reading Skill Set: Part 1 – Sounds to Reading…
When you open the box, it feels like how Apple brand items felt when they first came around. Sleek packaging all fit snugly together. It makes me think about the engineers who crafted these amazing boxes. Brilliant and creative people. You are welcomed by what I call the parent guide. Each kit has one and they are the most underrated part of the kits because they are full of valuable nuggets. This guide teaches parents about the reading process in a truly accessible and meaningful way. The whole thing, when you really think about it, can be super overwhelming! Letter sounds, breaking it down, putting words together, teaching it in a way that sticks, and oh ya, all the words that don’t make any phonetic sense, what now?! This guide will walk you through it all – literacy buzzwords for your in-depth understanding, order of skills for your child to acquire, easy tips and tricks to help them succeed, activity extensions, and more. People rave about the Lovevery kits, but it’s the “More Ways to Play” section of the parent guide that adds even more to the value. Excellent ideas that kids just love.
Once you have a sense from the guide where this is all going, you can dig into the actual kit. And I mean dig in! There is so much here in just Part 1.
Compound Word Pairs – Understanding Words
The kit begins with a deck of cards all about compound words. When I worked with beginning readers, starting with compound words was a great way to get them thinking about putting words together to make bigger words, and it built their confidence quickly. The parent guide suggests that only doing small portions of the deck to begin is less overwhelming for children. This means, you can visit this activity again and again, and there is plenty there to deepen your child’s understanding. This deck is perfect to pack for a doctor’s appointment, a restaurant, or a road trip.
Syllable Race Game – Understanding Syllables
Breaking words into syllables is tricky. Children often confuse syllables with sounds they hear. Clapping or snapping out the syllables of many familiar words and names helps, but playing a game to practice skill can be fun too. The parent guide gives lots of examples of how to talk to your child about this skill and many ways to practice too. These are perfect ideas to do while on a walk or a hike, running errands in the car, or passing time on a road trip. You can then put your skills to the test by playing the Syllable Race Game. Two dogs race around the track based on how many syllables are in the words on the picture cards. This is so fun I can see two friends wanting to play together too!
Rhyming Leaves Game – Understanding Sounds
This is a 2 player game – perfect for parent and child – and there are two ways to play. (This level of creativity and thoughtfulness that Lovevery brings to their products is what pulls kids in and they can connect with the playfulness of it all.) This game is all about rhyming. When we talk about laying foundational skills for reading, rhyming is critical. It gauges the child’s sense of the sounds of language and tunes their ear to the finite sounds in words. This skill is absolutely critical. This game will not only build that skill, but give you as the parent, ideas of how to encourage rhyming, playfulness, singing, and games on the go to continue to build this skill.
Follow the Sound Maze – Understanding Letter sounds
If I’m honest, I couldn’t stop playing with this one! The maze begins at the starting spot with one window open. You have to tune your ear to figure out the beginning sound. You then try to work your way through the maze finding words that begin with that sound. You can then switch the board and try another maze or do mazes that follow the ending sound. These explicit opportunities to practice critical phonics skills build the skill and breed confidence. We want to grow confident readers, and the more we practice these skills in playful, fun ways, the more they want to play and show their abilities.
The ABCs with Mr. Z – Letter Sounds
There are so many alphabet books out there, but which one to choose? Some have beautiful pictures. Some have unique words for each letter. Some just appeal for one reason or another. Would you like to know what I love about this one in particular? Each page is a conversation starter. The script is there for you. They take the guesswork out of talking to your child about letters and walk you right through it all. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Moveable Alphabet and Wooden Letter Sound Blocks
My son has attended Montessori school for the last few years. As a Montessori kindergartener, he has become well-acquainted with the moveable alphabet. Of all the finely-tuned and beautifully crafted Montessori materials, this is my favorite. I love the open-endedness of it and how it holds a child’s hand into letter sounds, word making, spelling practice, and reading. They manipulate it with the letters creating the most hands-on experience.
The letter sound blocks can be used a number of ways. Children can practice all the skills they have learned so far and extend the learning with the help of the skill tokens. The ingenuity used to create each manipulative and learning material is unreal. As a well-versed literacy expert, I am truly blown away. Each material can be used in isolation in its most basic form, in a way to extend learning, and also in partnership with other materials in your kit.
Letter Case Beehive – Matching Upper and Lower Case Letters
This fun material should be used in conjunction with the moveable alphabet. The question I am often asked by parents is which case to teach first, upper or lower. The important thing is your child will need to learn both. So let’s hop to it with this fun activity. You and your child can play the short version or the long version and practice matching the lowercase letters with the uppercase letters. This game and the visual association created by pairing the letters in this way will build this important foundational skill.
Wordless Book – Understand Story Structure
I often hear from parents that they don’t know what to do with wordless picture books. The beauty of these books is they are fodder for imaginative storytelling and deep conversations. They allow the child to immerse themselves in the pictures and use the clues to figure out the story, and then they use their voice and imagination to tell the story. Once you get the hang of this one, try another one from the library or the bookstore. It can be wildly fun!
Spell & Check Slider – Building Words
One thing we most certainly know to be true about children is the more physically interactive the learning is, the more the child is able to absorb what they are trying to learn. When a child takes letters, lays them out, builds a word, and then puts those isolated sounds together to read a word, there is A LOT of learning taking place. The more hands-on this experience can be, the better. The sliding of the picture card in this activity not only helps them physically, but their brain can more easily slide the sounds together. As they gain more knowledge and can put the words together faster, their confidence will grow each time they slide the word card to put it all together. Did I mention that when the word, it shows the correct answer? How satisfying is that?!
Book Series – Turn Taking – Let’s Read!
Finally, putting all those skills to the real test. Reading. Isn’t it absolutely amazing to think that you could have a child who hardly knows any sounds, but by the time you work your way through all the activities, games, conversations, and more, you have a reader?!?
So what’s the catch? The two drawbacks I have heard mentioned are the price and the time commitment from parents. Although it may seem a bit steep in price, I think you would spend considerably more time and money tracking down activities and books to teach your child these skills. This is a one-stop shop. And the activities often need a parent, at least the first time through. This is a commitment and probably most ideal for homeschool families and families who are committed to supporting their child’s reading growth. But considering these games are as fun as Candy Land, perhaps it could be sprinkled in throughout your time together.
I have been around the world of literacy for a long time. I have reviewed endless books and kits and gimmicks and more. I actually laughed. And I mean laughed as I went through this kit for the first time. It takes all of my absolutely favorite tools and games I have used to teach many, many children how to read, gives them one heck of a glow up, puts them together in a box with the most helpful instructions, and packages it all up with a bow.
Shop the< Lovevery Reading Skill Set Part 1: Sounds to Reading here, and stay tuned for my review of Lovevery Reading Skill Kit Part 2, coming soon!
♥
♥
