I first laid the foundations of reading with my 7yo and 5yo: letter sounds, vowels and consonants, syllables, and etymology. Then, before I learned about this game, I had a "word of the day," which we would break down into syllables, and I would explain why each word was spelled the way it was. Beyond that, it was hard to motivate my 7yo to learn to read, and I wasn't quite sure what my next step was for my 5yo. Enter The Fidget Game! After one week of this game (just 4 words), they were BOTH reading sentences! The game worked exactly as described on Shark Tank: by learning common words, their brains were free to focus on sounding out new words. I would mix in simple new words with their learned sight words, so the learned words acted as breaks and a confidence boosts in between the new words. They were both so excited! Now they're reading everywhere they go, even words that are new to them. I've also started expanding the game by creating word searches and bingo cards using all the words they've mastered in the game. Once we've learned our new words for the week and are ready to incorporate them into the game, I only have to supervise a round or two of them playing to be sure they've mastered each word and aren't cheating. Then, they play independently while I tend to my other duties. Great game for a homeschooling mama who has ADHD and 5 young children! BONUS: There are extra mats for the little brothers to play with while the big brothers play.
I will say I don't understand the division of the grade levels. They don't seem to progress in difficulty from Pre-K to 3rd grade, so maybe there is another way they are organized that I am unaware of. I also don't quite agree with how some of the hearts and lightning bolts are assigned. On Shark Tank, the creator explained that the hearts are for the tricky parts that the children had to memorize and the the bolts were for words that made sense phonetically and that the children could "read in a flash." On the word "funny," for example, the "nn" are assigned a heart, but the double-n has the function of giving the "u" its short sound, so phonetically, the word does make sense. That's just one example. We just don't use that aspect. I've also skipped the unicorn cards for now because I want them to have to read a word for each of their turns. We didn't add the gremlin cards in until after we had done 8 words. For the sake of others' enjoyment of the game, I do wish the instructions that came with the game explained the game as well as the Shark Tank pitch did. The QR code on the instructions did lead to a better explanation.
So maybe half a star off for presentation, but as far as fun and effectiveness go, this game WORKS!
