A reading game from the author of Worldy Wise

Most of you know we love games at our house. So when I was given the opportunity to review a reading game, aptly titled, The Reading Game, I was excited to see what it was all about. In the back of my mind, I thought maybe Miss O, my emerging reader, may be too good at reading to benefit from this game, but never the less, we gave it a go.

The Reading Game comes with several decks of leveled word cards and a corresponding leveled reader for each deck. The player uses the cards to play a memory game. When the words on the cards have been memorized, the player then reads the book. During the course of the game, the child memorizes 180 of the most commonly used words in early reading. The goal of The Reading Game is to make learning to read fun for the student and to help give their reading skills a little boost in a low stress situation.

In the end, I was right about Miss O being too advanced in her reading skills for this game. She is already reading most all of the 180 words that were introduced, and the few she didn't recognize she memorized on the spot. So from an educational standpoint, this game was past its' prime for our household. Does that mean it's a bad game? Not really. It's just that since my youngest reader has already learned the words in the game, there was no real educational point in playing it.

In terms of fun factor, I wasn't particularly impressed. I was really expecting a reading game, something new and different, not just decks of word cards and instructions on how to play memory. Memory isn't the most exciting game, my kids have played probably dozens of memory games in their short lives, and it wasn't all that fun for them. Is this always the case? Probably not. There are probably kids who love memory games, and those kids would probably really like this game. For us though, it was a little dry.

Quality-wise, the game itself is packaged neatly and nicely in a little box with colorful decks of cards that appear sturdy enough to be used many times. The readers are paperback, printed in black and white on glossy paper. They aren't fancy, but they do the job. The Reading Game sells for $24.95 here. Free worksheets and assessment printouts are available here.

Please note: I was sent The Reading Game free of charge in exchange for my honest review. I am not obligate to give a positive review.