Why doesn't Egorg come with its own reading material? Wouldn't that be better?

Students should read good literature. Not that your child won't improve by answering a couple of questions after reading a paragraph or two, but better skills are built the way Egorg was designed.

Besides, if your child is going to spend the time reading, why not have him or her read good works?

At first my son was interested, but now he doesn't want to use Egorg. What can I do?

Assuming he understands how important the goal is (whether he admits it or not is a different story), try a compromise: Tell him all he has to do is 1) prediction, 2) character traits for the three most important characters, 3) plot events, and 4) vocabulary. This will speed his progress through the reading and still produce meaningful results. After he has finished the story, he can fill in some of the other information so that it is easier for him to review it when the time comes.

What exactly is the NRP report?

In 1997, the U.S. Congress asked the director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to review everything we know about teaching people how to read and comprehend. The goal of this effort was to have an approach so that educators all became aware of the best practices and what really works and what does not. The director summoned the top experts in the field to perform the exhaustive review.

In 2000, the panel released its reports (each sub-group reported separately, and a report by the group as a whole was also released). You can find their reports here.

The results and recommendations from that report have found their way into the latest textbooks and teacher training. So the time spent with Egorg will be time spent using the best practices in education.