PocketPhonics Stories (full)

Get this app, if you are passionate about your child learning to read, and your child is getting ready to start school, in reception or year 1, or older but struggling with reading.

It teaches phonics with the voice of an English reception teacher, and handwriting (including joined up) just like your local school. It has a first set of storybooks for them to read - like Biff and Chip, but written specifically for children learning to read using the synthetic phonics method of teaching reading as outlined in the national curriculum.

Your child will prefer them to paper books, because they can tap a word to get help sounding it out. You will prefer them, because the quizzes check they can read the words and understand them. The books get progressively harder, but kids don’t realise because they are getting better at reading all the time.

If your child is new to phonics, they’ll begin by being taught the first group of letter sounds, the sounds they make and how to write them. Once they’ve mastered them, they’ll tackle their first set of simple storybooks that just use those letter sounds.

If your child can already read some simple storybooks, then the app will assess what level storybooks to start them on in the app. Once they have mastered those books, it will teach them the next set of letter sounds they need to know.

Our apps are used in hundreds of UK primary schools.

PocketPhonics Stories won 2015 Best Learning Apps & Games award from Balefire Labs. Out of the 5000 education apps they reviewed, it's one of only nine apps they rated A+. It's also an Academic Choices Award Winner.

Parents and teachers can easily monitor children’s progress online. They can see what stage the child is currently at, any letter sounds they are having difficulty with and what storybooks have been read. Teachers and parents are emailed a certificate when a child completes a learning task.

Specifically, children master the following skills:

* writing letters (wide range of writing styles plus cursive options, so they can learn to form letters the same way as at school)

* recognising 72 letter sounds (e.g. ‘ch’ are the letters that make the initial sound in ‘chat’)

* blending letter sounds together to make words (e.g ‘ch-a-t’)

* hearing a word and selecting its written form (e.g. the app says, “chat”, the child has to select ‘chat’ from a group of words - some of which are similar to chat)

At home, they can easily switch from using the app on your iPhone to an iPad. At school, teachers can give them any iPad, and they’ll be able to continue from where they left off.

Order our FREE GUIDE to teaching kids to read from the app.