Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Educational Insights Hot Dots Jr. Giveaway & Review


As a homeschooling family it is so nice to find educational tools to assist with our learning.  With Educational Insights I found just that.  Educational Insights is the place to go for innovative toys, games, and relevant classroom tools.   They have a great teacher section, providing the best tools for the classroom, including a really awesome classroom jeopardy game.  Their parent section is equally awesome and easy to navigate.  You can search by subject, category, theme, brand and they even have a section for special needs.
They cater to pre k through 3rd grade students.

I recently had the pleasure of trying two of Educational Insights many Hot Dots Jr. sets: Hot Dots® Jr. Let's Master Kindergarten Reading & Hot Dots® Jr. Let's Master Kindergarten Math.  Both sets include 2 books consisting 100 lessons  and “Ace"—the Talking, Teaching Dog™ .   Ensuring that your child moves forward, last fifteen of the 100 lessons are challenge activities that prepare children for skills at the next grade level.

When your child presses on one of the correct dots, the pen will flash green and say “Great Job” or “You are Correct”, if you get the wrong answer the pen will flash red and buzz or say “Sorry, try again!  What a super fun way to practice math and reading?!

Ace"—the Talking, Teaching Dog is designed for little hands and is both fun and encouraging.  Though it would be nice if it came with batteries.  I love it praises the child when the answer is correct and gently tells them to try again if they are incorrect.  The volume control feature really comes in handy.  When using the pen, you have to press exactly on the dot in order for it to register; even if you select the right answer if you are not 100% on the dot it will buzz you.  

Little Miss M absolutely loves it when the dog lights up and barks.  She also likes when it buzzer her, so sometimes she answers wrong on purpose and then laughs which it totally cute.

As with all of Educational Insights’ products, Hot Dots Jr. is made with high quality materials and sturdy construction. This pen and the laminated books are designed to hold up to wear and tear.

A nice thing about Hot Dots Jr. is once they have mastered a book it is still fun to play it again and again.  Plus everyone knows that repetition is the best way to enforce learning.

Hot Dots® Jr. Let's Master Kindergarten Math is my favorite!  It covers counting & numbers, patterns, time, geometry, fractions, measurements, money, and math facts

Since M is still in the early phases of letter recognition, we go through the books together, so I can read her the instructions.  Such as, “Which are the same?” and “Match the whole with the part.”  For that same reason, I love that the book has a key.   With this she can familiarize herself with the both versions of the number.

Being a visual learner myself, I love that some of the algebra problems use pictures in the equation, this also makes it much more fun for M. 
With pattern recognition being such an important part of math I love that Hot Dots Jr. has introduced this to our lessons.   She just loves the “Complete the Pattern” activities.

M has mastered Book One, but with her nearly being 4, Book Two is a tad advanced for her.  We are slowly working through it and she is doing great. 

Hot Dots® Jr. Let's Master Kindergarten Reading covers letter, recognition, reading readiness, phonics, sight words, punctuation and grammar.  This set is too advanced for M but perfect for my nephew who just turned 5. 

My sister and I have already noticed a difference in his schoolwork and willingness to read when he is home. And his reading comprehension is amazing after just a few days of using Hot Dots Jr.  He too loves when the pen talks and lights up.  I cannot wait for M to grow into this set! 


You can connect with Educational Insights via Facebook and Website.  I also encourage you to sign up for the Educational Insights newsletter.

Want to win one of your own?  Educational Insights has generously offered my readers the chance to win the Reading or Math set in whichever grade level you choose.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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