Educational Insights Teaching Tiles Early Learning Tiles Reading Readiness Center Review & Giveaway

I know I say this every time I do an Educational Insights Review but I seriously LOVE their products. They never disappoint and today's review has me all kinds of excited! I have been dreaming of getting my hands on their Teaching Tiles Early Learning Tiles Reading Readiness Center for awhile. I had visions of fabulous hands-on manipulatives and activities that would help foster the Lil Divas language, vocabulary and reading skills. Those dreams came true when this package arrived at our front door!

So why has this Mom/Teacher been pinning over the Teaching Tiles Early Learning Tiles Reading Readiness Center? Take a peek at the learning manipulatives and activity cards inside this box. Pretty drool worthy, right? 

What's in the box?

The Reading Readiness Center comes with:

*1 Teacher's Guide

*1 plastic work tray which is tilted for easy tile positioning and viewing and has a built-in ledge to hold the activity cards in place.

*100 plastic tiles (26 uppercase letter tiles, 26 lowercase letter tiles and 48 picture tiles). The tiles are color-coded to match the activity cards. This means that students can easily determine which tiles they need for their activity - perfect for some independent learning!

*50 self-checking activity cards (more on these below) Each card is color coded to match the tiles, has a skill-building activity on the front and the solution to the activity on the back - this makes independent learning possible even for non-readers.

What skills are covered in the activity cards?

The purple cards allow students to practice matching pictures to their shapes,

matching pictures to their opposites and matching pictures that go together.

These cards were perfect for my preschooler. She found them fun and has requested to do them again more than once. I found they were just challenging enough. Of course after repeated use, she has the answers memorized so I've changed up how we use the tiles (more on that later).

The blue cards provide alphabet recognition practice through the matching of upper and lower case letters.

The Littlest Diva did great with these - they were easy for her so I incorporated having her practice the sound each letter makes as she placed the tile on the card and then later, even added having her give me examples of words that begin with that letter/sound. I like how you can build on the activity cards to suit your needs and/or child's abilities.

The red cards are the most abundant and cover various skills including beginning word formation,

matching beginning letter sounds, 

sequencing the letters of the alphabet and lower case letter matching.

The green cards cover rhyming  and beginning sounds by having the child match pictures that have the same initial sound

and find rhyming pictures.

Our Thoughts

The Lil Divas enjoyed the activities and they caught on very quickly with how to use them. This is fabulous for at home use but it would also be ideal to use in a Pre-K or K (for the beginning of the year) classroom as a independent or teacher directed center. 

I especially like the many possibilities for extending how the Reading Readiness Center is used. The letter tiles can be used for ABC order activities, alphabet games and alphabet matching games (match lower to upper case letters). The picture tiles are great for beginning sound and rhyming games. The set can even encourage beginning spelling and story telling.

So many possibilities! I am so excited that we have this wonderful resource at our disposal and I am so happy to be able to share it with you thanks to the generous people over at Educational Insights hosting a giveaway for the Reading Readiness Center here at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Blog.

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 Buy It: 

Purchase Teaching Tiles Early Learning Tiles Reading Readiness Center 

(Retail Price = $49.99) on Educational Insight's website. 

Win It: 

Educational Insights is giving away 

One (1) Reading Readiness Center 

here on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Blog.  

How to Enter:

**Contest ends on 10/27/11 12:00 midnight (PDT)**

 One (1) lucky Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas reader

(US Residents Only!) is going to receive:

 the Reading Readiness Center

(See full Giveaway Rules Here)

To enter comment below and tell me why you would like to win the Reading Readiness Center. Please include your email w/your comment so I can find you if you're our winner.

Extra Entries (Optional)

Please leave a separate comment

for each entry &

please include your e-mail

so I can get back to you if you win! 

*If you are already follow any of the ways mentioned below be sure to leave a comment - it counts as an entry*

1. I'd love for you to Follow Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Publicly via Google Friend Connect  - join all the fab posh followers! You know you want to!
2. I'd love for you to join my growing Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas community on Facebook - I love to chat & share ideas there!
3. Visit Educational Insights on Facebook - they always have fab things going on there. Right now there is an Estimation Station Contest going on thru Oct 31st. Check out the photo & give your best guesstimate for the amount of pennies in the container.  The 20 fans who guess closest to the actual amount will win an Estimation Station.  I'd love for you to check out the page & tell them I sent you (even if you already like their page!)
4. Follow Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas on Twitter  - let's tweet & keep connected! I always share fun ideas there.
5. Subscribe to Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas emails  - This would ensure you don't miss a thing going on here & really why would you want to miss a thing?!
6. Subscribe to Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Newsletter  - sent 1x a week and gives you a fab recap of everything we've been up to here. You'll LOVE it - I promise! :)
7. Comment on any non-giveaway post on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Blog and leave a link.  You can do this for up to 3 posts but please note that comment must be dated after the start date of this post - not valid on previous comments. 
8. Tweet about this giveaway and leave a link - can be done once a day for it's duration. Example of a daily tweet- Tweet: #Win @ed_insights Reading Readiness Center w/@Momto2PoshDivas ends 10/27  http://goo.gl/fb/HDNzm  #giveaways #preschool #kindergarten

Giveaway Rules:

(See full Giveaway Rules Here)

Giveaway ends 10/27/11 at 12:00 (PDT)

Winner will be chosen via random.org. 

& contacted via email if an email is given .

Winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize.

Please note any entries that can not be verified will be disqualified.

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Disclaimer: I received the Reading Readiness Center for free from Educational Insights  for the purposes of trying it out for this review. That being said, this review is my 100% honest opinion of this product - I  am not paid for my reviews or optinions! They are 100% mine! Please remember that your opinions and tastes might differ from mine. 

Good Luck,

Bern