TOS Crew Review - Ooka Island

Ooka Island Adventure is a 3-D interactive reading program designed for ages 3-7.  Ooka Island is a virtual world in which children participate in different activities designed to teach phonics, word blends, sight words, and early reading.  All of the activities are designed to be fun and engaging, while also educational.  You can read about Ooka Island's philosophy, methods and features here.

The student starts their island adventure by creating an avatar.  This avatar then travels to different areas in the island, completing various tasks and challenges, for which they receive "Ooka Mist" - a currency they are able to spend later on.  Activities include the "Cave of Sounds", in which they have to listen for as well as visually find different phonic sounds, "Alphabet Mountain" in which they climb a mountain by jumping from letter to letter in alphabetical order, and then skateboard back down, also identifying letters, and "Z-Doo", in which the student rides on a watercraft vehicle and has to practice saying various sounds at checkpoints, plus many more! There is also a visit to the "Popcorn Library", where the student hears a book being read to them, and then has to answer some basic questions about the story, as well as learn sentence structure and sight words.  As the student progresses in their lessons, more and more parts of the island become accessible, teaching more and more complex skills, such as phonics blending and sight words. 

After about 20 minutes of lesson time, the student is rewarded with "Free Play" which lasts about 8-10 minutes.  During Free Play, the student can visit "Pencil Playground", where they can play with elves, change their avatar, listen to music, or spend their Ooka Mist on other fun things.  The student can also choose to go play some more of the learning activities during Free Play - which, surprisingly, was a popular choice here!  That goes to show how fun the learning activities are!

Check out videos on The OokaTube to get a more in-depth look at the program!

Nathan (4.5) was my reviewer for Ooka Island, although ALL the boys enjoyed watching Nathan play.  He eagerly asks for his "Ooka Island" time every day (even on the weekends!) and I feel that the program has definitely strengthened his progress in reading.

We did find a few small potential drawbacks that I wanted to address.  First, to access the program, it must be downloaded, and it is a very large file.  It took several tries to get my computer to complete downloading it, and once it finally did, it took over an hour for the entire download.  (Also note, that even though it is a downloaded program, web access is still required to play - not a drawback for me, but just something to keep in mind.)

Second, there area  few games that said a microphone was needed for voice recognition so the student can practice saying the sounds.  The games are actually still fully functional without the microphone, so if the student doesn't have one, that's OK.  However, we noticed that even with the microphone, Nathan could say whatever he wanted into the microphone, and the game still continued as if he were saying the correct thing.  I didn't understand this, but the FAQ's on the Ooka Island website somewhat addresses this (and also leads me to another point):

At Ooka Island our goal is to help all young learners achieve reading success. We wanted to make the game accessible to all children, so the game is playable without a microphone or headset. If a child plays without a microphone, she/he will not miss out on any features or activities on the Island.

Not having a microphone does not change the game play experience but it does change the data that we are able to process during play. Without a microphone we are unable to record and process speech using voice recognition. Without this data we are unable to produce a report in the Ooka Lighthouse that displays progress in the Z-doo (Voice Recognition) activity.

It says that the voice recognition feature is used to produce a report in the Ooka Lighthouse, which is supposed to be the parental control spot, where I would be able to see Nathan's progress.  However, at the time of my writing this review, the Ooka Lighthouse was not yet functioning, so I can't comment on how well it is laid out or how useful it is.  That was a bit disappointing for me, because part of using a computer-based educational program is the ability to track my children's progress, since I am not teaching them directly.  I am looking forward to when I can get a look at it!

My final drawback was that I felt the lessons were a bit too long.  I'm not a fan of my 4 year old sitting in front of the computer for a half an hour at a time.  I know many people don't have a problem with that at all, so its a particular issue I had, and may not be something that concerns others at all!

However, despite these drawbacks, overall I feel that Ooka Island is an early reading program that is effective and engaging, and I would recommend it!  You can actually try it yourself for 14 days free, to see what you think!

Here is the pricing list for Ooka Island:

(Please note that if you are a large homeschooling family with more than 4 children that would be using the program, they recommend buying an annual school license.)

Here's a promo code you can use to save 30% on a monthly subscription!

Check out what other Crew Members thought of Ooka Island by heading over the the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog!

Disclaimer: I was given this product  specifically for the purpose of reviewing here on my blog as a member of  the TOS Homeschool Crew. I received no other compensation in regards to  this review.