Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I
compensated in any other way.
If you have a child that struggles with reading, you need more of a focused curriculum to help him or her master it. Why not try a reading program that was designed specifically for learning disorders? MaxScholar is a reading program for dyslexia – a powerful reading intervention program specially designed for children with learning deficits, such as dyslexia, autism and Asperger Syndrome, ADHD, and other auditory processing disorders.
This program has adopted the Orton Gillingham method within their program as well, along with a multi-sensory approach that fits all learning styles. With its bundle of phonics, MaxScholar helps children retain information this way by making connections in the brain through visual, audio, and kinesthetic instruction.
MaxScholar offers a one year subscription on various subjects within the MaxScholar program. Although each program stands alone by itself with its own objectives, they all work together for your child to achieve triumph in reading mastery!
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A Reading Program for Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities
All of the following online reading programs are included within a MaxScholar subscription, including:
Pre-K Phonics
Pre-K Phonics is the preschool phonics program for MaxScholar, which is targeted for ages 3-5 years.
MaxPhonics
The MaxPhonics program is effective for ages 5-7 or for those who need extra attention in this area. This online program is a multi-sensory approach of teaching phonics with the Orton Gillingham methods and helps children improve their reading skills easily.
MaxReading
Based on the Lindamood Bell Reading Program, the MaxReading is a reading program for dyslexia and other learning deficits. It is also a multi-sensory program for teaching effective reading comprehension strategies that employ a research-based strategy to improve focus, visualization, and retention while reading. Aligned with the Common Core standard, this program is for students who are below grade level in their reading skills and applies to all types of learners.
MaxWords
MaxWords is the multisyllabic word program of MaxScholar that teaches the student prefixes, suffixes, Greek & Latin roots, syllabification and spelling rules. By using MaxWords, students will increase their vocabulary by 16,000 words! It also helps build vocabulary, improves spelling, and improves reading of multisyllabic words.
MaxMusic
MaxMusic uses music and engaging games for students who might otherwise be uninterested in reading and learning. Students can play fun learning games to work on memory, recognition, and auditory skills.
MaxVocab
MaxVocab is MaxScholar’s dictionary. It is one of the most important complements of our MaxReading Program. MaxVocab offers thousands of definitions and interactive games to expand the students’ vocabulary.
MaxPlaces
With MaxPlaces, students get the chance to explore the world. After choosing a city or attraction from the world map, the student reads a short passage filled with information about the chosen place and then answers a series of multiple choice questions to check for reading comprehension.
MaxBios
MaxBios introduces students to famous personalities, both past and present, from around the world through biographies. Each biography is set up in a timeline structure, which teaches the students chronological ordering skills.
With MaxScholar, children with various learning styles and varying learning disabilities will benefit from this Orton Gillingham focused curriculum. The programs throughout MaxScholar offer captivating content to help the children improve their focus, which is beneficial for developing other skills later in life.
How We Used MaxScholar In Our Homeschool
When we got selected for the review, I was pretty excited because I love a program that (1) has a specific goal in its design, such as designed for dyslexia, and (2) that encompasses multiple branches of language arts. When a program has those two highlights, such as MaxScholar, I’m eager to get into it because of how all the programs connect together.
As a teacher or parent, when you first log in you go to the Dashboard, where you hub of information and lessons on all programs will be.
Although MaxScholar can be used for school-wide use, like in a classroom, it can also be used for homeschoolers as well. It was created for both forms of education!
Within the dashboard you can:
- Progress monitoring of your children
- Reports of each of your children’s progress
- Settings for your children’s login information
- Licensing information
- Materials – where you will access all of the materials and lesson plans for the programs
- Change password
Using MaxScholar: A Reading Program for Dyslexia
When the children first log in, they will be instructed to go through various placement tests for the programs. This actually took a lot longer than I anticipated with a lot of the same information on repeat. For instance, in the phonics placement test, my daughter sat through an hour of the test and wasn’t finished. The next day she sat through another hour and still wasn’t finished. She also needed to do other placements tests for the other programs as well. Unfortunately, this dampened the excitement of our experience right off.
Moving on, in order to do lessons, you’ll need to access the Materials tab within your parent dashboard. Through this tab, you will be instructed to pick a program that you need. Once you pick a program, you’ll receive a document PDF that tells you what your instructions are and what the objectives of the lessons will be about.
When we moved through the MaxPhonics materials, I was delighted to see the lessons all laid out for me because I had no idea how to start teaching this program! Luckily, it tells you in order via documents in your Materials tab, as you can see in the image above.
All of the programs within MaxScholar are set out like this, which is something I am extremely happy about. The kids enjoyed the lessons on MaxScholar and I saw that they were connecting what was being taught to applying it in later lessons.
I wasn’t really thrilled with the spiral approach to the program though. I’ve never been a big fan of repetitive things in general, and I tend to lean more on the master-approach of curriculums, using only reviews on what they previously learned. However, even though MaxScholar does bring up things they already learned, I can understand why the do this.
It is usually the repetitive nature in itself that helps kids remember certain concepts, and with reading, grammar, and vocabulary, it takes memorization skills to learn these subjects. MaxScholar understands this and they’ve applied it to their programs.
I know I just said that I’m not a fan of repetitive things in nature, but I saw the progress my children made in MaxScholar’s approach. And I think MaxScholar has successfully converted me to liking spiral approach, at least in some areas of homeschool!
We really enjoyed the MaxScholar reading program. Even though there are a lot of steps to take to be active in each program, if you set up a schedule for various days to the program, it won’t be so overwhelming. This is what we had to do when we all became overwhelmed on the amount of work that lie ahead.
However, steer the direction of this curriculum in an organized, scheduled manner and you can’t go wrong. You’ll spend about 1-2 hours a day on MaxScholar versus many more with an organized schedule!
How To Teach Your Struggling Reader To Read Using MaxScholar {Review}
MaxScholar successfully created a program for children with reading deficits, as we experienced in this program. Although my children aren’t dyslexic, my son struggles in certain areas like vocabulary and spelling, and then applying these to reading and writing.
MaxScholar really did help my son bridge the gap of weakness into strengths, so I have to say everything we did in MaxScholar to see it off was mighty worth it. Especially how MaxScholar supports your child’s success with tons of materials to help him or her along the way.
To read more reviews from families that used MaxScholar in their homeschools, check out the Homeschool Review Crew blog or click on the banner below!
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