Kids learn best when they’re having fun.
Reading is a skill built on practice and recognition. Reading to your child daily, letting her play with flashcards or letter magnets, and identifying letters on signs, labels, and logos (environmental print) are essential.
If your child spends her screen time engaging with apps on a tablet or smartphone, choosing games that let her have fun with reading can be another part. But which apps are the best?
As a homeschool parent, I’ve used many apps to teach my children to read, and these are the best I’ve downloaded over the past decade.
Hooked On Phonics
Hooked On Phonics is my favorite app for learning to read. The first time I decided to try the subscription for one of my kids, he was reading new words within the first hour. That kid is now a teen, and we have the app again for my youngest.
The best thing about Hooked On Phonics may be that the first month is only $1, so you can decide if it’s worth your money before paying full price, and it includes physical books and other materials by mail. My daughter’s first shipment included two books, a workbook, and a pack of alphabet flash cards.
The app immediately starts teaching your kids to associate letters with their sounds and that those letter sounds come together to make words. The videos are cute and entertaining, and the games make letter sounds and word-building a hands-on experience.
COST: $7 per month for the app and about $10 per shipment of books, including taxes and shipping and handling (these come once a month by default, but frequency can be adjusted)
ABC Mouse
ABC Mouse is not strictly a reading app, but has excellent reading materials, along with coloring pages, printables, math games, and more.
For reading, ABC Mouse offers activities in English and Spanish, starting with learning letters and their sounds, then moving on to word building and recognizing sight words. It also has interactive books to read along with.
As your child plays, she’ll earn ‘tickets’ to use in other activities, like building a fancier cage for her virtual hamsters.
COST: $14.99 per month, OR $29.99 for 6 months, OR $45/year
Duolingo ABC
You may already be familiar with Duolingo’s language-learning app. They also offer this excellent app for learning to recognize letters, read, and write.
The first step with DuoLingo ABC is to input your child’s name, which she’ll learn to spell as she goes through the program. Like the language-learning app, there’s a path with steps for your child. The app reads a book to your child and then engages with related activities, like spelling words from the book and matching letter sounds.
It’s a fun and engaging app; you may even find yourself peeking over your child’s shoulder to read along.
COST: Free
Khan Academy Kids
I have adored Khan Academy since I started homeschooling more than a decade ago, and it continues to improve. In 2018, they added an app for kids, and it absolutely lives up to the Khan Academy name.
This is another app that does much more than reading, but we’ll focus on the reading aspects.
The games center around the five main characters, and your child can follow the learning path or visit each character’s room for different activities. The games are similar to other learning apps — your child will trace letters, pop the balloon with the correct letter, and drag letters to build words.
We really love the characters and the flexibility of skipping the lesson path to visit each character’s room for their games. Another cool bonus is setting up a teacher account to monitor your child’s progress.
Cost: Free
Teach Your Monster To Read
Teach Your Monster To Read is an interactive app from the Usborne Foundation that starts with your child creating their own custom monster to play with.
Then, they’ll move through steps to practice blending sounds, recognizing letter sounds and phonemes, and learning to read words that don’t follow the standard phonetic rules. Kids enjoy the engaging monster characters and the interactive reading activities.
If your child enjoys the program, the Teach Your Monster series also offers Teach Your Monster Reading For Fun, Teach Your Monster Number Skills, and Teach Your Monster Adventurous Eating. Want to try before you buy? The games are available on the website for free, although the app does cost to download.
COST: $8.99 for the app (or play for free on the website)
Homer
Homer is a fantastic app that combines reading skills with thinking, creativity, math, and social-emotional learning.
The program has five levels, starting with the Toddler level for your 2-year-old and going through the Growing Learner level for ages six and up. It comes from BEGiN, the same company that brings you Little Passports subscriptions and CodeSpark to teach your kids how to make their own games.
One cool aspect is that as your child moves through the levels, they can also create their own stories and practice following directions with multiple steps.
COST: $12.99 per month OR $79.99 for an entire year.
Reading Eggs
Reading Eggs is one of the most popular apps for homeschoolers teaching their kids to read.
It’s designed to encourage kids to love learning and to love reading. One subscription allows access for up to four kids, so you can let your toddlers play letter games while your preschooler learns phonics and your elementary schooler practices blending sounds and spelling.
There are also thousands of books in the app’s library for your child to enjoy, and they can move seamlessly from using the app on a tablet or phone to the desktop version (for when you really need your device back, and they still want to play).
You’ll get progress reports to track what your child is working on in the app, and there are printable certificates to congratulate them for success.
COST: $9.99 per month, OR $69.99 for a year. If you choose the Reading+Math combo subscription, it’s $13.99 per month OR $83.99 for the first year.
The United States is facing an illiteracy crisis, and these apps can help ensure your children don’t fall into a pattern that is being witnessed too often.