If your kids are expressing interest in learning how to read, or if they’re just struggling to catch up to their peers, you are going to love these sites and apps to help teach your children how to read!
Please remember, there is no substitute for an active, engaged parent. So while these resources are fantastic aids, I do suggest you still interact with them. Sit with them while using the websites listed here in order to help when there are struggles (which there inevitably will be).
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Teach Your Monster To Read
Teach Your Monster To Read was the first online reading program I had experience with. It is completely free on the desktop and laptop, but there is a small fee to download it on a mobile device. I absolutely love the different levels. It starts out simple, with single letter sounds, and slowly progresses to reading complete sentences!
This is a British program and therefore some pronunciations have made things a bit more difficult. For example, they say “zed” instead of “zee” for this letter: z.
The first level of the program is very basic, and quite repetitive. While this may be annoying to adults or older students, it is perfect for young children who are just learning to navigate screens.
The second and third levels are much more engaging in my opinion. So much so that my 10 year old (who is an avid reader) still enjoys playing around on the site simply for fun.
I also really like the fact that parents may choose extra practice if kids are struggling more with certain sounds or words.
It should also be noted that Teach Your Monster To Read has recently introduced an early math program as well!
Reading Eggs
Reading Eggs and their other program, Fast Phonics, have been the ticket to reading for my middle child! We struggled with numerous curriculum, games, apps, and more. As such, I did not see anywhere near as much progress as I did from this site. She went from struggling with CVC words to being able to read small books in about 2 months time!
Reading Eggs and their other programs allow kids to take placement tests and places them in the correct levels based on their abilities and knowledge. It uses games, videos, and miniature e-books to help them improve their skills. At the lowest levels it starts with letter sounds and then progresses from there. Reading Eggs focuses primarily on sight words, with some phonics thrown in, while Fast Phonics is flipped around the other way.
This program also offers Reading Eggspress for older children (up to age 13). This one focuses on reading comprehension as well as mathseeds which teaches math skills.
Each of these programs have rewards systems where kids earn points (eggs, or acorns) that they can spend to buy new outfits for their characters or furnishings for their homes.
The cool thing is you only need to purchase one subscription for all of these programs for up to four kids in one family. You can’t beat that!
As mentioned in the beginning of this article, I do strongly suggest you sit with younger kids and actively engage with them to check their comprehension, as it is very possible for them to just click through to earn points without really learning anything.
But if you sit down with them and help them along the way, I can almost guarantee you, you will see positive results from this program!
Progressive Phonics
Progressive Phonics is a free reading program compromised of downloadable e-books. It begins with teaching the alphabet and progresses to approximately a 3rd grade level. Because it is simply a download, it is not interactive as the other programs are, however I absolutely love this resource!
It is essentially a set of dual-readers which allows a parent to read the “more difficult” words while children are given increasingly more difficult words that they are expected to use.
While this is considered a phonics program, I personally view it more as a sight word program. It does teach some phonics, but not enough in my personal opinion. That being said, if your child already understands phonetical concepts, these are GREAT decodeable readers, and that is why I enjoy them.
Kids like being able to read actual stories, and that’s exactly what this allows them to do.
Homer
Homer teaches several subjects including reading, math, social and emotional learning, and more. While I appreciate all of the lessons, I must say, the reading program is fantastic! It follows a similar pattern as the book Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons in that it gets kids reading words and then sentences quickly, rather than on spending a ton of time on individual letter sounds.
To explain further, consider this. While some curriculum and programs teach all of the letters and sounds prior to teaching words, this program may teach the a and t sounds and then shows children how they can put them together to make the word at.
I love this approach because so often my kids have gotten bored and not understood the importance of individual letter sounds. The ability to put the sounds together quickly gives them a better understanding of the use of words. It has helped them to stay motivated and excited about learning how to read.
I also appreciate Homer because it records the children reading the words. This makes it harder for kids to just skip ahead as they may do in some of the other online programs.
Homer costs approximately $5 per month and includes up to 4 children per family.