This app has been wonderful for my six-year-old and seven-year-old sons… We began homeschooling last year for their kindergarten and first grade years, where our concentration was mostly on reading. We used the teaching and methods found in the book “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons”. This app fits perfectly with that methodology, and into our homeschool curriculum! Especially with our 6 year old, now first grader, who is still growing in his phonics recall, sequencing of sound, and fluency… Every time he completes a level he smiles so big!! This app is the perfect balance between curriculum and fun! I do believe that his foundation rooted in the book based curriculum has allowed him to move with a greater pace than the typical beginner schedule, and this app allows an adult to unlock the next lessons as I see fit. In all, this app is great no matter the experience of the learner and the teacher (caregiver)! It’s a gem that is well worth the cost! Finally, the app suggestion and emphasis on parent involvement is so important and necessary. Knowing some families don’t have that type of culture however, this would still be a good gift for a child with a device, and could be completed with the help of an older sibling or relative!

The example sounds are great, but it could be so much better if the example word audio was linked to the slider, so the child can visualize the sound being said as the slider is moving. The reason for this complaint is that the app doesn’t help provide the most important part, which is transitioning from the individual letter sounds to saying the word in one go. Also, the slider highlight the letters itself, not under each individual letter. If the child could move their finger over the slider and see the connection with the sounds, both individually and then together, that would be good. Instead, the parent has to do it for them, and I feel this robs them of the connection the app should be helping them make on their own. The book reading is not well thought out. Level 11, there is a somewhat complex sentence and then the last word is slightly larger and not really a good queue on when the child should read their word, and at what time they should be uncovering/“revealing” the image, as you essentially have three tasks going on at the same time, so it just doesn’t work well. I’d rather go read a “hop on pop” type book with very short sentences, rather than a sentence that the child can’t read 90% of and has to unveil an image, and then gets quizzed on comprehension at the end of it all.

This app guides parents and their kids through a basic, but effective, phonics-based reading curriculum. It is not a game (although it does include some simple games for purposes of practice)—you and your kid both have to WORK to get through the lessons. That being said, I have found it very effective at teaching important reading skills like phonemic awareness, sound blending skills, sight words, etc. We have been taking it slow, because my daughter is still in preschool and she doesn’t always want to do the lessons (she knows it’s work, not play). But, having completed lesson 70 of 99, she is currently the best reader in her class of precious 5-year-olds. I recommend this app to everyone who wants to give their kids a head start on reading! The one downside: my daughter hated the alphabet song they make you play at the beginning of lessons and groaned every time it came on. Repetition is important for learning, but the kids with excellent memories may find it irritating. Luckily the app lets you skip it, which we did (although never fast enough to avoid the groan).