One of the most effective teaching methods for children is to use materials that the child has a natural interest in. Teaching reading to your child is no exception. Our kids (as I’m sure most kids) have a natural interest in animals. Right from the beginning we had great success using their natural curiosity and affection for animals to teach the basic formations and sounds that are associated with the letters and pictures. This naturally progressed into using the same to aid in teaching reading to them as well.
There are several children’s apps available for you that are dedicated to the animal-child connection. As our kids got a bit older we even subscribed to a couple of the apps for them. You talk about generating an interest! If your kids, are struggling to read or maybe struggling to get interested in reading, use a tool that they are naturally interested in. For us, the animal stories and apps were a great way for us to get started teaching reading.
Engaging Apps to Spark Your Child’s Curiosity and Learning
Find an app that seems to fit the age level of your child. For younger children, I recommend one that has big bright colorful pictures with interesting facts. One of our favorite children’s apps is PBS Kids. Some even have interactive puzzles and games the child can play and learn. A simple search on the internet of children + animals + magazine will turn up many choices for you.
Teaching reading to your child is 100 times easier when you employ the use of a subject that children naturally want to know more about. Whatever your choice of tools you are considering using to teach reading to your child, I highly recommend the use of some good children’s apps below.
Best Reading Apps for Learning to Read
Epic: Kids’ Books & Reading
A leading digital reading platform, Epic offers a fun, safe, and enriching space loved by kids, parents, and teachers. Kids can read on their own at any level, and parents and teachers can track kids’ reading activities and send kudos to keep them motivated. With instant, anytime access to a library of 40,000+ books, audiobooks, learning videos, and more.
Khan Academy Kids
The app is perfect for learning at home or in school. Parents can choose lessons from the app’s library for their kids or use the personalized learning path that automatically adjusts to each child’s level. Teachers can quickly and easily find lessons by standard, make assignments, and monitor student progress through a suite of teacher tools.
Hooked on Phonics Learn & Read
Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read contains 36 progressive lessons featuring leveled learning activities that cover key building blocks of reading: short vowels, simple plurals, simple compound words, beginning and ending consonant digraphs and blends, two-syllable words, and sight words. Each lesson concludes with a story specially written with the words.
Starfall Learn to Read
Your child will hear, touch, read, and eventually master this sound-spelling through a variety of engaging activities, movies, and songs. Encourage your child to play and explore! Your child will come to recognize the relationship between spoken and written language while having fun learning to read. This app is excellent for emerging readers and English language learners.
HOMER Learn & Grow
Expert-Designed, Kid-Powered, Playful Learning — Explore HOMER’s essential early learning app made to help kids build the confidence they need for school and life. Thoughtfully made for (and loved by) kids aged 2-8. Playful learning activities across subjects like reading, math, social-emotional learning, creativity, thinking skills, and more Hundreds of stories and characters.
Kids A-Z
Access hundreds of developmentally appropriate books, exercises, and other resources. Complete corresponding quizzes that ensure comprehension. Utilize interactive annotation tools that support close reading skills. Have their work scored and reported to their teacher automatically. Customize their personalized robot avatar and space rocket using the stars earned from completing activities.
Endless Reader
Kids will have a blast learning sight words and their context and usage with the adorable Endless monsters. Each word features an interactive word puzzle with letters that come alive, and then a sentence puzzle with words that become what they describe. See the word “dog” as a barking dog, and the word “up” reach for the sky!
Sight Words Sentence Builder: Reading for Kids
The game is fun and simple. Using grade-appropriate Sight Words, children assemble short sentences from given words. The player receives visual and auditory feedback indicating whether the response is correct. Once the student answers correctly, the exercise moves to the next sentence.
Kids Academy Talented & Gifted
Kids Academy Talented and Gifted The best kids’ games and brain games for our children. Our app is suitable for boys and girls! These are a variety of educational games for kids and toddlers: cool math games, and music games. Prepare your kid for success in class & beyond with our complete learning course for AGES 2 to 10.
PBS KIDS Games
Your child can play and learn with PBS KIDS in English and Spanish thanks to familiar faces like Alma, Cat in the Hat, and Curious George. Download games and play from the safety of your home or anywhere you take your device and keep the fun going offline.
Ultimate Phonics Reading App
This app is a must-try for parents, teachers, and tutors who teach reading to students of any age. It is also excellent for improving reading and English pronunciation. Ultimate Phonics is very effective for teaching dyslexics to read. The app can be used either by itself or as a supplement for Orton-Gillingham programs or other programs designed to overcome dyslexia.
I have to check out some of these sites that I have not yet used with my struggling readers. My students LOVED the Kids A-Z star challenges held in the spring and fall.