Blast Off to Reading (Review)

Blast of to Reading by Reading Specialist of Long Island uses 50 Orton-Gillingham based lessons for struggling readers and those with dyslexia.

The recommended age is 7-13. This is in full color. If you have an older child you may want to try this one. It has less color for a more "mature" look. I have a video at the bottom of this review comparing the two.

This phonics program is meant for the parent to be involved and work with the child. It is not a hand-to-your child to complete on their own type workbook.

Blast of to Reading lessons consist of 2-4 pages sometimes 5 depending on the lesson. Each lesson usually consist of a new topic. Your child will review a list of words and sentences and then complete some exercises.

Starting with lesson three at the end of the lesson you are instructed to do dictation. All the dictation passages can be downloaded and printed at the Reading Specialist of Long Island website. What's neat is it's all on audio as well, so you can simply hit play!

Although it is suggested to work at your child's pace for 30-45 minutes, the lesson is not meant to be completed in one sitting. With that said, if your child is older like mine (12 years) it is okay and will happen. Especially with the short two page lessons. You know your child and know what's best the main thing is to work at their pace.

Not all of the 30-40 minutes will be in the book. You are encouraged to play games with your child all provided for free at Blast off to Reading or you may purchase physical games as well. Choose online games or download for print-at-home games like the Monster Phonics card game.

Flash cards are free too! You can purchase a set as well but there are more in the FREE version. I myself prefer to purchase and did so.

This is a complete reading program for your child so again, go at your child's pace. If he needs to spend time parked at a lesson that's okay. Play the fun games and let him enjoy the process of learning to read.

The Blast off to Reading book includes the instructions at the beginning of the book. This program is meant for a variety of ages, if you have an older student there are more word lists in the back of the book.

Several features that I would love to see is an answer key and if the book used the Dyslexie Font. The Answer Key can be found on their website which you can download.

Take a peek at the video below to compare the two books and see the pages. The Blast off to Reading website has a lot of sample pages as well.

My Final thoughts: A great value for what you receive and the company is very generous with offering free online games. Usually you need a code to access the extras or have to pay for them so I thought it was just super that you don't need to pay extra for those.

The pages are fun but not overwhelming. I know some kids get distracted with colorful pages, so this program has the right mix. Fun but yet it doesn't take over the pages.