Review: See Me Read

Believe it or not, it's quite possible to teach children as young as three to read with proficiency. When Lori and Michael Luke taught their son his teachers and other parents were amazed. Through this experience, they were able to create See Me Read personalized learning kits to help teach your kids to read too.

See Me Read uses a whole-word approach to learning. By associating words to your child's familiar possessions and family members, your child can instantly understand the connection between words and the physical world. The See Me Read products use personal photos of your child interacting with favorite people, animals, and items in his or her life.

We were sent a sample See Me Read kit which includes a set of labels (each with a picture and a single word), a set of reading cards (essentially flash cards with the same words and pictures), a writing pad which encourages your child to draw and write about the words and objects pictured, and finally two See Me Read books. This is the complete kit; the level 1 kit includes the labels, reading cards, and a level 1 book, and the level 2 kit includes a level 2 book and the writing pad.

The materials used are all very high quality. The books and writing pad are printed on thick glossy paper. The labels are large, and you must supply your own adhesive. You could probably just use a little masking tape, or painters tape to make sure you don't harm any paint or finishes.

Creating a kit of your own is easy. Simply go to the See Me Read website, and choose the kind of kit you'd like to make. From there you select the words you want to use. After that the website will prompt you for pictures for each word. It's probably easiest to choose your words ahead of time, make a big list and then go around taking all the necessary pictures before uploading them. Just make sure that when you take your pictures, you hold your camera correctly, as most pictures require a vertical orientation (as opposed to the more natural horizontal orientation). Once you're done, you can preview and order your kit!

If you're interested in getting this for somebody else, don't worry about taking all the pictures yourself. See Me Read makes it very simple to buy and redeem gift certificates for whole kits.

The See Me Read system seems like a great way to help your child learn to read. Each child learns a little differently, and this might help a lot of children who may be struggling with more traditional phonics-based instruction in preschool and kindergarten.

January 2, 2008

Review: See Me Read