“Mommy, will you teach me to read?” Logan asked me this a while ago. I am thrilled that he wants to learn to read. So, I started thinking and realized I had no idea where to begin. I know that I learned to read at some point in my childhood, but for the life of me, I cannot remember the process.
As luck would have it, the app “Read with Phonics” was brought to my attention. I was soo excited that we were asked to try it out. This app came at the perfect time. It was just what I needed to start introducing phonics to Logan.
What is “Read with Phonics”
“Read with Phonics” is what I refer to as an ‘edutainment’ app (an app that is fun and educational). I downloaded it onto Logan’s iPad, and it was ready for him to start learning almost immediately.
The app features four different worlds: Water world, Forest world, Lava Land, and Jelly City. They work through all 44 phonetic sounds of the English language. By the end of the game, a child should know and recognize over 1200 words! Water world is the beginning and lays the foundation. Forest world starts putting two letters together so that children can identify and learn those sounds. Lava land is the shortest level and is all double letter sounds. Jelly city is the most difficult level out of all of them. It starts identifying and working through the hardest phonetic sounds. Jelly city is also the longest level in the whole game.
This game is best if played in order, although Logan had a tendency to jump around if I was not paying attention. The letters and sounds do get more challenging as the game progresses. I recommend sitting down with your child while they play this. That way you can make sure they do not jump around and be there to help. It also provides an excellent opportunity to sit and spend some quality time with together.
What We Love About the “Read with Phonics” App
- Easy to use. The first thing I noticed about the “Read with Phonics” app is that it is very straightforward and easy to use. Logan jumped right in and had no trouble figuring it out. Within just a few minutes of play, he pretty much knew what to do, and I did not need to help him at all.
- The Character is Fun. There is a little monster that is the “host” of the app. He appears on the bottom right corner and helps along the way. Logan’s favorite thing about the monster is the funny sounds he makes. If you ask him, he will tell you this is his favorite part of the app.
- This App Teaches Phonetics. As I have researched and asked around on how to teach Logan to read, pretty much everything and everyone has suggested teaching him the phonetic sounds of each letter. This app helps do that in a fun and easy to learn way.
- The Game Progressively Gets Harder. As Logan moved along through the game, the letters and sounds got a little more difficult. In fact, he flew through the first world- Water World, but then as he got to the second world- Forest World, he slowed down. He could not get the sounds as easily.
- Some Levels are Locked. I noticed when he first started playing, the first half of the letters were unlocked. Simple, straight forwards sounds like “a” and “s” and he could go through them as many times as he liked. However, some of the harder sounds were locked, and Logan had to pass the foundational ones before he could progress through the game. “Read with Phonics” gives you three little monsters at the top of the page. The monster represent three tries before you “fail” the level and have to start over. This prevents a child from progressing further than they understand or grasp. I love that it lays the groundwork and goes into that much detail to build a good foundation for reading.
- Helps Reinforce What They Learn From Parents and Teachers – I am starting to go through a reading curriculum with Logan, and this app is perfect for reinforcing what I am teaching him. It is a fun tool to help him learn each of the letters we are working on.
What Did Not Work for Us
I love this app, and we will be using it as I walk Logan through his reading journey. However, there are a few little things that just didn’t quite work well for us personally.
- Different Accent. One thing is that we live in the US, so of course, we pronounce words with an ‘American accent.’ The narrator or voice for the app, however, was British. While it was cute to hear Logan take on a British accent, it was a problem because, he knows the words, but with a different pronunciation. So, it was a little confusing to him.
- Cultural Confusion. The other issue we had is that a few of the items are called a different name than what Logan was used too. For example, a picture of a crib came up, and he knows it as a crib, but the app called it a cot. He had no clue what that was. So due to minor cultural differences, there was a little confusion on a few items.
Overview
Overall, this app is a keeper! Logan and I both loved it. It has helped him learn the phonetic sounds of letters and will continue to help him as we dive into reading. Even though there were a few issues, we will be keeping this as a learning tool. “Read with Phonics” allows children to work at their pace.
While there is no age range for this app, I would recommend your child know all their letters before introducing it. It might be a little frustrating if they do not know or aren’t able to identify what each upper and lowercase letter looks like.
So head on over and check out the Read with Phonics website. There are lots of great resources and information there. Also, it will tell you what devices the app will work with.
This is a great app for children that are just starting to learn. It is also perfect for those struggling with reading. I would love for you to try it out and let me know what you think!
We were kindly gifted a subscription to the Read with Phonics App in exchange for a review, but all opinions are our own. You can read our disclosure here.
Laura Ramnath
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I’m really impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one today.
Thank you! My theme is a paid theme but my husband set it all up and did some small customizing. Thank you for the kind words. 🙂
So great!! Such a fun time when they start learning to read. 🙂 Have a nice week!
It is fun and I get so excited when it starts clicking and I can see he’s actually learning something. I was afraid it would be hard but I’m really enjoying it. Thanks for popping in and for your kind words. I hope you have a great week too!