Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Ooka Island Adventure?

Yes, and soon a math program called MathSeeds.

Do your kids still like Ooka Island?

I am thinking about buying it before the hsb discount expires tomorrow night...

My DS5 has stuck with this the longest. IMO, it doesn't seem to move as fast as the FAQ on gifted kids indicates, but perhaps if my son was making more mistakes than he is, he'd get "stuck" with a particular phoneme.

For example, both my DS5 and DD23months started at the same place and have been continuing through the same sections. (My little one doesn't have the fine motor skills to control the mouse, but I sit with her occasionally. Mostly she watches her brother play. But I use this as an example of them doing the same things, despite age or ability.

Still, even though he sometimes resists playing, if I just turn it on, he'll go toward it and go through a round. My friend has a gifted 6 year old who has been reading since 3 and she apparently still enjoys Ooka.

chiming in here since I'm the original poster We still have Ooka Island till the spring for now when our subscription expires but might extend it. We'll see. DS is now 5.4 years old and we are strongly suspecting dyslexia/dysgraphia. He went to public Kindergarten for the first trimester and then we pulled him out to homeschool after Thanksgiving break. We don't use Ooka Island on a daily basis like I would want to, he gets too defiant if I want something from him regularly but he does use it about 2-3 times a week and when he does, he'll sit with it for an hour or longer. I found out the best way for us to use it is when he does it in his room on a laptop and I'm not around, he's actually really trying hard pronouncing the sound and doing everything else it asks him to do. When I'm around he's too distracted.
He's finally now making a little progress with reading basic words but it's always an issue when he comes to a b/d, p/q ... he gets stuck because he can't tell if it's a d or b and ALWAYS guesses wrong If we could be without those 4 sounds, he'd be a fluent beginning reader now! But yes, we do love Ooka Island!

Glad to hear it! I will give it a shot. :-)