I am well aware of how kids are being taught to read in schools... and it’s all WRONG (listen to the ‘EDUCATE’ podcast, and you will see just how bad it really is!) Anyways, when my son was about 16 months I introduced him to Hooked on Phonics. This. Changed. Everything. By 19 months he could recite his ABC’s. By 21 months he would rearrange the fridge magnets with the entire alphabet. By 24 months he would SPELL things to me like when he wanted water, he would literally SPELL out ‘W-A-T-E-R’ as well as other things like ‘ I LOVE YOU’. Today, he is now 3.5yrs old, my child is reading level 5 books. There is not a single word that he cannot decipher. He isn’t just reading, he is actually COMPREHENDING the text. I encourage parents to use HOOKED ON PHONICS. It is also critical to understand how schools are teaching kids to read (see podcast ‘EDUCATE’ on NPR.. it is an award winning podcast,) & to look at the actual SCIENCE behind how children are learning to read. Hooked on Phonics is absolutely vital in a child’s journey to becoming a good reader. I cannot express to parents just how important it is to teach your child PHONICS first and foremost. I suppose you don’t need to take my word for it, just see the science for yourself!!

We have so enjoyed watching our now almost-5 year old son become a reader during quarantine using only this App and the related practice packs mailed to us. He went from reading words like ‘cat’ and ‘mat’ in March to reading full stories from our shelf, and he is loving the freedom it gives him to explore books in a new way. We have used the program inconsistently over the last 5 months depending on our family’s bandwidth, but it has been easy to move at our own pace and review areas where my son was not quite confident by revisiting sections of the App. He loves the songs (and so does his little bro), and they like the silly animals and their antics, particularly the rhino on the bulldozer and the strange but funny meerkat. There was a period where we saw problems with the App loading, and we reached out to customer service and they told us the developer team was working on it. This most recent update fixed any issues we were having and all seems to be in order. We can’t wait to finish the program as we start homeschooling more officially in September! We’re on the beginning of first grade now, so it won’t be long!

My five year old son had been in “Phonics” after school class two times a week for a few months for just 30 mins each session. I found that he was making very little progress and the activities he was doing did not hold his attention. Then after his school shut down due to COVID in April, I got him all sorts of learning books in order to prepare him for Kindergarten. He wasn’t too much interested in those. I decided to download the Hooked on Phonics app since it was just $1 for the first month. Let me tell you, I was a bit skeptical at first about the claims they were making that my son would be reading in a month. But to my amazement within three weeks he was reading. Now he’s reading everything and is definitely ready for Kindergarten and I couldn’t be happier. I must admit that some of the reviews almost made me not give the app a try, but I’m glad I did. Thank you Hooked on Phonics.