The newspaper is a 20 page color PDF or online document that has 'news' regarding specific topics and a variety of 'to do' activities. (This is not necessarily current event news. It is more 'historical' things presented in a newspaper format.) The worksheets in the Newspaper need to be printed in order to do them but there is some information you can read online. The topics covered in the Newspaper are specific to that month. February included Valentines, Presidents day among other items. There are puzzles, jokes and more 'traditional' type of work in the Newspaper.
If you have a great reader, don't let the name of this program deter you. It would be GREAT for a reluctant reader. It is snappy, eye catching yet filled with 'real' information. BUT, I have an avid reader. He is not a reluctant reader. As I sit here typing he is reading "How to be a Genius." My kiddo reads...reads...and then reads some more. When he was about three years old, we were walking into Meijer Thrifty Acres and he looks up at the sign overhead. He points and says..."Welcome." Indeed that is what it said. But he has very much enjoyed both the newspaper and the worksheets. And we are not generally 'worksheet people.' It has offered me a much needed break to do the dishes, get caught up on email or blog when I hand him something interesting to complete. We have even learned a few new things because of the snappy way it was presented. In one of the Newspapers there was a two page spread on money, interest and the stock market. He now knows about the bulls and the bears... and we did a bit of math work with the information provided. (Shhh! Don't tell him we did math.) You can get almost every school subject covered to some degree with these Newspapers.
Although I very much think this is a good product I noticed you can get many downloads individually on this website as well as a weekly Newspaper. I didn't find anything more about the weekly Newspaper so I can't really tell you more there but there were plenty on the 'downloads' so you could give this a trial run to see if you like it. You can get a sample for free here. Each download has a variety of activities from word searches to experiments. It appears to me that these are the same as those that would be included in The Reluctant Reader although I am not sure. I know it does not include ALL the worksheet packets. We received 60 topics of downloaded packets. The website says that The Reluctant Reader includes 365 worksheets. Each packet is about 6 pages long...so this does work out to be 60 packets. (You can do the math!)
In these packets there are 'fun' things such as spot the difference or puzzles and other items that are more 'school-ish.' Each packet is $2.99 each and there are plenty of topics to choose from. We didn't get the Jack Prelusky or Vitamin C in our Reluctant Reader packet and these are two I might pick up. (We did get the immunization download..and if you are of the same mind as me...just let that one go. Hey. We are not all perfect.) If you are interested in purchasing a packet first, you could contact them to see if the one you are interested in is in The Reluctant Reader. That way you could choose something that is NOT included in that to insure that you don't purchase it twice.
I did notice that you can get the monthly magazine for $15 a year as of the writing of this blog - regular $24 as noted on this page. I am not sure how that differs from the $55 value indicated on the Reluctant Reader page. I did enjoy our monthly magazine.
Although the worksheet packets can be purchased separately it is quite a big savings if you think you will use the topics given because separately those would work out to be $179 and that is without the monthly magazine. You will be printing much of these so work that into your cost scheme.
Below are pictures of Andrew working on an activity from these Kid Scoop topic specific downloads. We did enjoy it and I definitely recommend checking out the samples and purchasing a unit or two. If you decide you like them then the Reluctant Reader is well worth the dollars. OR.... they have a money back guarantee. That is on the main Reluctant Reader page about half way down. So there is really no risk.
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I received this product in exchange for my honest review.
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