Before Eva was born I read to her. Reading is a huge part of my life and I want to instill that love of reading in Eva. As a family we read somewhere between 7 and 10 books a day to Eva. We’ve been reading one book almost every single night for a month that when we intentionally say the wrong words, Eva corrects us. She has pretty much memorized the book. I did that as a kid too.

I was given the opportunity to test out Stepping Stones Together, a reading program for children 3-7 years old. The program has a series of books that you can read together with your child in preparation for them to read on their own. The stories are very simple with repetitive words so that children can begin to recognize the written words and their sounds and meanings so that when they see those words they can read them by themselves.

Children can select a couple of themes that are of interest to them such as fairies, princesses, sports, vehicles, animals and superheros. The books are in black and white and double as coloring books that you can print out and give to your child to color. You can also personalize the start page of each book with your child’s name. Eva enjoyed reading the fairies and princess books but we also went through every other theme. She stayed very attentive and even began to say the sentences with me and then as we read the story again she would say the full sentences.

the program is very affordable at $19.99 for 60 days access and $39.99 for a year of access. The program offers high interest text (superheroes, sports, transportation, animals, princesses, fairies) repetitive syntax, helps develop print awareness, and utilizes all 220 high frequency words and more that 200 vocabulary words inclusive of the 95 most common nouns in children books.

At the end of each story there are questions that you can ask your child and there are writing assignments as well. The questions ask everything from recall of facts, making inferences, summarization, as well as elicit critical thinking skills and discussion of how a story is applicable to their child’s experiences.

For each user there is a personalized page that includes:
1. Incentive chart- for parent/child to record their daily progress
2. Daily writing practice sheet
3. Access to the flashcards which correspond to each book
4. Access to “Additional practice” which includes explanations of a variety of games to play to help a child master the high frequency words
5. The 5 step instructions to completing the daily program

I found the program useful and will certainly revisit it with Eva. I’ll probably print out the coloring books and flash cards. There are some great tips in the program too to help your child identify words for better reading skills. I bet that if we work hard at it, Eva will read her first book by the end of the year. She has an interest in reading that we continue to foster.

Would you like to foster an interest in reading in your child through the Stepping Stones Together program? I’m giving away one full year membership to a lucky reader. Here is what you need to do to enter.

How to Enter:

1. (1 entry) Please watch this video about the Stepping Stones Together program and program founder, Erika Burton, Ph.D. Then come here and leave a comment about something that you learned from the video.

2. (1 entry) Like Stepping Stones Together on Facebook. Then come leave a comment here.

3. (1 entry) Follow @DrEBurton on twitter. Then come leave a comment here.

4. (1 Daily Entry) Tweet Daily “Teach Your Child to Read with Stepping Stones Together. #Giveaway from @BenSpark and @DrEBurton”. then come here and leave me the link to your tweet.

The giveaway will go for the next week, November 12 – 19 at 12:00pm EST.

[Product review & giveaway disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”]