Review: Ooka Island Adventure

We were given a 2 month trial subscription to Ooka Island Adventure reading game to review.  Since the girls both read above grade level already, I set William up with the account.  He was so EXCITED!   The other 3 kids really wanted to try it out, too, but since it tracks each child's progress, I didn't want to let them use Will's account as it wouldn't accurately show how he was doing.  But Joelle MacPhee from Ooka Island extended our account from an Individual account to a Family account!  When I had a couple of technical questions/issues, the support people were quick to answer and were great to work with.  

Ooka Island is a self contained program, not a web based program, so it runs faster and without having to buffer all the time.  It is geared for Pre-K to 2nd grade. It keeps track of the child's progress and starts them right where they left off the time before.  I really liked the Ooka Lighthouse on the website.  It is an online progress report and lets you know how each child is doing.  It lets you know their current level, the level score, and the Average Percentage.  You can also see what they actually answered versus what the correct answer was for the Cake Factory, Cave of Sounds, and Bubbly Trubbly.   I also get an email when they read another book.  

Ooka Island tailors the game play to the child and lets them work where they are at in their abilities. 

Using Ooka Island Adventure gives the child skills in  phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

They are having fun and playing a game and Ooka Island helps them learn to read without realizing they are learning to read!  

The girls started with the Ooka Compass Assessment to find out where they should start in the program rather than just starting everyone at the beginning.

The child is guided through learning a new sound and then reading a book, followed by free play where the child is able to "buy" things with the Ooka mist that they have accumulated for playing the games. 

William was thrilled when he made it to the top of Alphabet Mountain and earned his Zopet.  He likes feeding snacks to the Ooka Elves he rescued by reading the books.  One time, he was doing Clumsy Wacky and he was just sitting there.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was waiting for the toys to go over the waterfall!  

William also liked having the book path to follow which books he's already read and seeing which books are coming up next.  There are also 2 reward books and certificates of completion here. 

I was glad that you can control the volume level of the music, sound effects, and speaking separately.  I turned the music almost all the way down as it was hard to follow the books when the singing was at full volume.  I thought it would be nice for the music to default off during book reading times.  

Ooka Island is a great program and gives the child both the visual and auditory learning of skills needed for reading all while they are playing a game.  My 3 ½ year old struggled mostly because of mouse handling skills, so I would have him tell me what the answer was and I would click on it for him.

For an Individual account (1 child) it costs $12.95/month or $124.95/year.

For a Family account (up to 4 children) it costs $19.95/month or $149.95/year.

Not only do they have the online books, you can also buy actual books as well!

Want to try it out for yourself?  Here is a code for up to 30% off!  It is good until June 1, 2013

I received a 2 month trial subscription to review in exchange for my honest review.  No other compensation was received.  Each person is unique so your opinions may vary from mine.