Crossbow Education: a Review

Recently we received a rainbow-colored packet of Reading Rulers from Crossbow Education. These were specially designed by experts as teaching aids for students with Dyslexia and Visual Stress and are used widely in schools in the UK.

I had been looking forward to trying these out with my son even though he is not dyslexic and doesn't have eye strain (that I'm aware of, at least). However, he's a young and often reluctant reader, has a terrible time concentrating and actually sitting still to read. I hoped that reading rulers would help with his focus.

We received the Eye Level Pack of 10 Reading Rulers. Each one is 8"x 3" and is made of a nice flexible plastic. They come in a great variety of colors (yellow, celery, grass, jade, aqua, pink, purple, magenta, sky, and orange) and the process is very simple. There's no complicated test to do. Just try each color until you find the one that truly "fits" by reducing eye strain and visual stress. One side of the ruler has a narrow reading strip for single lines of print, while the opposite side has a wider window for full paragraphs.

I have been so pleased with how well these have worked with my 7-year-old son. He was so intrigued by all of the great colors to chose from and I let him decide which color he would like to try each time he would read aloud to me. He has finally decided a certain shade of blue is his favorite. Reading with the tinted ruler has greatly improved our read aloud time together. He is so much more willing to read to me with the ruler than he was before we began to try them. His focus has improved also and he is able to keep his place and read much more smoothly now. Since he is such a reluctant reader I am always looking for ways to increase his interest in reading. This is a great tool for that!

The Eye Level Pack of 10 Reading Rulers is available through Crossbow Education for $16.95. They also offer a 5-pack for $9.45, along with many other great learning tools on their site.

You can read what other homeschool parents have to say about this product on the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I received this set of Reading Rulers through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion. No other compensation was received.

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