Samson’s Classroom is an online program to help your children with sight words, spelling, and reading. Geared towards grades K-5, this program is a wonderful supplement to your reading program.
When you child logs on to the program, he/she can choose one of the 3 choices from the picture above. I do not use sight words as a means to teach reading, so we really didn’t use that portion of it very much. Sometimes Benjamin wanted to stay on the program longer, so he would do the sight words just for the game of it, but he didn’t do it every day. He did enjoy playing the sight word games though!
I really wanted Benjamin to work on the Spelling and Reading portion of the program the most. He really enjoyed them both.
For the spelling portion, he had to start by going over his word lists and listening to the spelling. He also had to fill in the blank of a sentence by spelling the words from the list. This part was fairly boring for him, but he got through it with no problem.
The games he really enjoyed were the one where a walrus was after him in icy water and the one where a spider is chasing him!
Here is a screenshot from the walrus one:
A word is read aloud by the narrator and then the child has to spell the word in the box before the walrus bites off enough of the ice that Samson falls in the water. Benjamin though it was fun to wait til the very last second to spell the word so that the walrus almost gets him. Silly boy. :)
Then, there was the spider chase one… this was definitely his favorite! When it was time for that game he would say something like, “Yay, now I get to play the fun one!”
I will say that when your child plays the spider one for the first time, you will need to help them understand how it’s done. You only use the left and right arrows to make Samson go where he needs to go. It was frustrating at first, but once Benjamin and I had it figured out, it was quickly his favorite part of the program!
Lastly, there is the reading part of the program. I really like this part, because as a homeschool momma, I have not done the best at working with reading comprehension. My kids know how to read, but I have recently decided to make it a priority to make sure they are actually comprehending what they are reading. Samson’s Classroom has made that an easy task for me!
Benjamin would have a story to read, then have questions to answer about the story. If he got a question wrong, he would get a hint and get to try again. The program gives hints by highlighting in red the portion of the story with the answer in it. See below for a screenshot of what I’m talking about.
After doing the Reading Comprehension, Benjamin got to play a game. He loved that!
Information at a glance:
What is it? Samson’s Classroom – Online program for reading, spelling, and sight words
For whom? Grades K-5
How much? $30/ year for one user or $50/year for up to 4 users. They also have pricing for classrooms.
Did we like it?? YES!! Love it and will continue to use it! I feel it is well worth the $50/year!
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