McGuffey Reading app Review

My young kids really liked reviewing the iOS app:

Phonics and Reading with McGuffey by LiteracySoft

It worked out great since Alex is just starting out learning his blends and how it all goes together to make words. Tori needs a bit of review. Helping Alex was great for her and he loved the attention!

It was the cutest thing hearing Alex praise Tori for saying the right sound. She beamed.

They did the first few lessons together. Then Tori moved on her own as it got into reading and she needed the review. She was able to work at her own pace and it was wonderful.

Kate loved showing off her skills.

All three kids think the little animated graphics at the bottom of the screen when an answer is correct are adorable. The dancing banana is a favorite.

And how appropriate this lesson is for this week!?

And our Kate is delighted that she’s the “star.”

And, oh my, but lessons 22 and 23 are about cows, Kate’s favorite animal!

And maybe you’re wondering what in the world are those lines and dots symbols above and below the letters? Those are phonetic symbols. They tell us about lips, tongue, teeth, and breath placement for the proper pronunciation of the letters.

Kate just mostly ignores them, but Tori uses them to help her remember the “rules.” I love it and teach her what they mean. Everything is science and math to Tori! See them in action. Below is the International Phonetic Alphabet. The Americanist notation is a bit different.

Most lessons consist of 9 components {some later lessons are just reading practice and sight words}:

1. Letter Sounds
2. New Words
3. Phonics Flashcards
4. Phonics Blender
5. Lesson Illustration
6. Reading Practice
7. Quiz
8. Spelling Practice
9. Sight Word Drilling

Kate and Tori liked building silly words.

This app includes:

• All 52 McGuffey Primer lessons
• All 44 letter sounds of English and their graphemes
• 60+ letter sound animations
• 400+ practice word vocabulary
• 9000+ nonsense word audio dictionary

You can try Phonics and Reading With McGuffey on PC risk free for an unlimited time. There is a lite version which you can try for free on iOS. The first 10 lessons are free!