Why Choose LightSail
LightSail for Independent Reading at Home is a supplemental reading program to help your child improve reading and writing skills. Gone are the days where you need to search for books on your child's independent reading level. We choose them for you!
| Category | Feature | Description | Watch to Learn More | Learn More on our Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Library | In addition to the thousands of titles that come with every LightSail subscription from World Book Encyclopedia, Lerner Publishing, and LightSail’s own Antares collection, parents can curate their family’s LightSail library by purchasing from among tens of thousands of individual titles and bundles of books from top publishers. | Video | Link |
| Content | Classics | LightSail is a classic lover’s dream! There are over 3,500 included in your LightSail library. But these are no ordinary public domain books. All of our classics have been enhanced with LightSail’s six layers of educational features, like tracking reading minutes and comprehension and embedded assessment questions. | Video | Link |
| Content | Audiobooks & Interactive Books | LightSail contains over 13,000 audiobooks of three different types to suit different readers: standard audiobooks, audiobooks with text highlighting by word, and audiobooks with text highlighting by sentence. Additionally, we have interactive and augmented reality books that add exciting and engaging options for young readers. | Video | Link |
| Content | Library Collections | Library Collections are groups of books, encyclopedia articles, videos, or any other multimedia content in LightSail centered around a particular topic or central theme. These collections are perfect for unit studies or thematic learning. Parents can create their own collections, but LightSail also includes over 150 pre-made collections. | Video | Link |
| Content | Bookmarks | Sometimes, when you’re studying a large work of literature or anthology, there are only portions of the text that are relevant for your purposes. LightSail’s Bookmarks feature lets you isolate sections of a book and then organize them, assign them to your child to read, attach assessment questions, use them in a fluency assignment, include them in Library Collections, and more. While you can create your own Bookmarks, our team has created hundreds of them for LightSail families to use from classic literature, the Bible, and more. | Video | Link |
| Content | Quotations | LightSail’s Quotations feature allows you to isolate, organize, and assign small portions of a larger text for your child to read and study--perfect for a few lines of poetry or Shakespeare or a Bible verse or two. While you can create your own Quotations, our team has created hundreds of them for LightSail families to use from classic literature, the Bible, and more. | Video | Link |
| Content | Memory Work Lists | LightSail’s tool for memorization takes the work out of memory work. First, pick the content you want your child to memorize. Then, set up a schedule for practice and recitation. LightSail contains hundreds of premade lists for memory work. | Video | Link |
| Content | Educational Videos | Video has the ability to engage, educate, and entertain like nothing else does. That is why LightSail places that power in the hands of parents, allowing them to integrate educational video content with reading and writing assignments. | Video | Link |
| Content | World Book Encyclopedia Articles | LightSail has partnered with World Book Encyclopedia to bring exceptional interactive resources and tools to your child’s fingertips directly within the platform. The entire World Book Encyclopedia is included, consisting of over 50,000 articles - all enhanced with LightSail’s seven layers of educational features like fill-in-the-blank assessments to check reading comprehension, a full dictionary, read-aloud ability, related content, and more. All articles are routinely revised to ensure they are up to date and relevant, and expert contributors and advisors ensure reliability and accuracy. | Video | Link |
| Content | Maps & Atlases | World Book’s Atlas feature links to articles, tables, and data about the world, helping children find maps showing political, population, economic and meteorological information, while World Book Maps lets children explore by continent, country, state/province/region, city, or point of interest and find related articles and other resources. | Video | Link |
| Content | Timelines | World Book Timelines is an interactive database of over 650 premade timelines and over 14,000 individual events. Children can use these timelines as-is, customize them for their individual lessons, or build their own from scratch. | Video | Link |
| Content | Lerner Sports Encyclopedia | Lerner Sports explores the backgrounds, career-defining moments, and everyday lives of popular athletes. Accessible directly through the LightSail platform, the Lerner Sports module helps children develop research skills and citation experience for reports or simply provides a child-friendly space for pleasure reading. | Video | Link |
| Features | ChildSafe Content Controls | All content in LightSail has been rigorously assessed to ensure that it is both educational and appropriate. We automatically filter content for each child’s reading level and age. But we haven’t stopped there! LightSail has created revolutionary ChildSafe Content Controls . Our team reads and evaluates every book based on dozens of maturity and values factors. Then, we give parents complete control over each child’s access. Parents no longer need to read each book in advance to know what potentially objectionable material it contains. | Video | Link |
| Features | Parental Control Suite | LightSail gives parents peace of mind with complete oversight and control over all of their children’s content and activity. Our suite of parental control features let parents monitor and control content, assessments, media, features, chats, and more. | Video | Link |
| Features | Features for Struggling Readers | LightSail’s one-of-a-kind Personalized Reader tool helps struggling readers unlock the magic of books. Whether a child’s reading difficulties are due to dyslexia, ADHD, CVI (cortical visual impairment), or simple distraction, Personalized Reader by LightSail allows them to fully customize their reading experience and access the content in ways no physical book or static e-reader can. | Video | Link |
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We're here to help!
Find answers to frequently asked questions or contact us for more support.
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How do I know what books are right for my child?
LightSail takes the guesswork out of choosing books for your child by tailoring each child’s library to their precise reading level.
By honing in on a child’s precise LexileⓇ reading score, LightSail can match them with books that are at that “just-right” level to promote optimal reading progress.
And because LightSail contains such a wide-ranging array of content, there is always a vast selection of books for any topic or interest.
What ages/grades is LightSail for?
LightSail’s Premium and Standard subscriptions are designed for children in grades 3 through 12 (ages 8-18).
We also have a World Book Kids subscription for grades 1 through 2 (ages 5-7) and a World Book Early Learners subscription for PreK through K (ages 2-5).
Is LightSail different from an Amazon Kindle or other e-readers?
Unlike static e-readers, LightSail doesn’t just offer children books.
Every book and article in LightSail contains 6 layers of added features that let your child experience books.
By adapting to a child’s precise reading ability, offering them content that is at that “just-right” reading level to promote literacy growth, and providing a fully customizable, rewarding reading experience, LightSail unlocks the magic of reading in ways no physical book or static e-reader can.
What types of parental control do I have over my child’s activity and content?
In short, complete control.
LightSail contains an entire suite of parental control features that govern every aspect of the platform from video viewing, to chats, to what content can be seen and accessed.
Additionally, LightSail’s revolutionary ChildSafe Content Controls lets parents screen and block content according to dozens of nuanced subcategories based on maturity factors, family values, and religious topics.
How can I make reading fun for my child?
LightSail incorporates gamification features into every aspect of the platform, especially reading!
By integrating badges, goals and milestones, social sharing options, motivational messages, and the ability for parents to add customizable gift rewards, LightSail incentivizes reading, writing, and learning just like kids’ favorite games.