Schoolhouse Crew Review~Scaredy Cat Reading System Express

For the past several weeks, Chad and I have been reviewing Joyce Herzog's product Scaredy Cat Reading System Express.  Joyce Herzog offers many educational and Christian products, as well as educational services. Her Scaredy Cat Reading System is a mastery-based Phonics program that can be used for all students, even those with learning difficulties.

Chad is dyslexic and struggles with reading.  This past year he has improved quite a bit, but is still a few years behind.  I am always happy to try new programs with him, so that he can find what makes sense to him.  Joyce's reading program has three different levels you can purchase, and then the SCRS Express, which we tried, has all three levels condensed for the more advanced learner. This Express level would also be great if you feel your child may have some gaps and needs to brush up on the rules in reading.  I thought with Chad's age, the Express system would be the best choice for him.  Included in SCRS Express is:
*Teacher training section
*Two multi-use boardgames
*All the stories, word lists, and sentence lists
* The story of Lettermaster mini
*Using Lettermaster as a teaching tool
*SCRS Rules Songs CD

SCRS Express is available for $30 at Joyce Herzog's store.  Download a sample of the SCRS Express here.

The teacher training section has suggestions of different ways to teach the material, ideas for games and use of the word lists.  The Story of Lettermaster is a fun way to get kids to learn rules of letters and spelling.  Chad thought it was very entertaining.  There is also a DVD version you can purchase.  Chad's favorite part of the SCRS Express was playing the board games.  We would take turns choosing a word from the word list, and if the other person spelled it correctly they would roll the dice and move forward.  Here he is in the middle of a game:  

Overall, we both liked this program.  It was very flexible.  We spent about 30-45 minutes 3-4 times a week using it.The teacher training section took a few times of reading over before I felt ready to start the program-it has a lot of information in it!  The only part of the program Chad did  not like was the song CD-we just have a small handheld CD player, and the songs sounded muffled and hard to hear. I'm not sure if it was the CD or our player. Chad has definitely mastered words he did not have mastered before, and I see an improvement in his reading.  This summer, we are going to continue with the SCRS Express program.

Be sure to check out Joyce Herzog's website to see all it has to offer!  Click to read more reviews on the products from Joyce Herzog that the TOS Crew reviewed.