Reading Eggs vs. Fast Phonics: The Best Start for Phonics Success

Since expanding the award-winning three-in-one literacy program Reading Eggs in August of 2020 to include the systematic, synthetic phonics learning area known as Fast Phonics, we’ve seen both a flurry of excitement and a desire for guidance on directing students. While the blossoming program lessons, characters, and animated fun have been a powerful addition to our learn-to-read offering, we recognize that there is a need to answer one common question: When exactly should students use Fast Phonics?

To help guide educators in this endeavor, we offer you this simple infographic overview. We’re also breaking down how and when to use Reading Eggs and Fast Phonics in further detail so that you can make informed decisions based on your students’ needs.

Reading Eggs

Let’s start with the program you already know and love, Reading Eggs. As the bedrock of this larger-than-life reading world, Reading Eggs has been the go-to start for pre-K through 2nd grade students to learn letters and sounds, sight words, and basic sentences. This program component features 120 sequenced lessons at its core with a built-in placement test, brain-stretching puzzles to reinforce sight word knowledge and vocabulary development, Driving Test racing games to assess phonics skills, a Spelling Skills Bank with 96 lessons focused on word families and segmentation, and a dedicated writing area known as Story Factory.

Using a blended phonics approach for teaching reading, learners begin at an absolute emergent level and move methodically through lessons that teach initial sounds and letters, using spiraling and intentional repetition to make learning part of a child’s long-term memory. Skill instruction focuses on onset and rhyme, rhyming words, and word families, and lessons feature picture clues to support reading.

This area is a great place to start for your early readers for whom a blended phonics approach is desired. But, what if students still lack a firm grasp on phonics concepts?

Fast Phonics

To support increased requests for a dedicated, systematic, synthetic phonics instructional area, the larger Reading Eggs program now includes Fast Phonics. Designed for students in pre-K through 2nd grade, as well as other elementary learners needing phonics intervention, Fast Phonics focuses explicitly on helping students crack the alphabetic code by teaching letters and sounds in a direct and systematic manner. This program component features 400 sequenced phonics lessons with a built-in placement test and embeds 170-plus phonetically decodable books.

Wrapped inside a snowy Yeti interactive world, Fast Phonics, is just that—a fast-paced and phonics-first program. If your school or district is in search of this dedicated approach to suit strict curriculum needs, Fast Phonics will meet those criteria. Additionally, this differentiated approach to teaching reading is a perfect second stop for learners who require further reading intervention. The more mature Yeti characters and top-notch level-up video game quality will even appeal to your 3rd through 5th grade students who require this level of support!

No matter what you determine is the just-right fit for your students, Reading Eggs and Fast Phonics are the perfect one-two punch to ensure that your students become successful lifelong readers who can unlock all of their academic potential. Want to learn more about implementing Reading Eggs successfully? Check out this blog post on combining the Daily Five and Reading Eggs.