Want to make learning to read a fun process? There’s an app for that.
When your three year old is happy to pass up an opportunity to watch a Dora episode on the iPad and instead asks to play the “reading game” – you know you’re onto a good thing.
Reading Raven is an iPad only app that is designed to make learning to read fun and engaging.
Reading Raven covers a wide range of literacy skills like recognising and tracing letters, identifying and building words, going all the way up to reading sentences.
The Good Bits: The most impressive thing about this app is the way it engages kids. Designed like a game where kids choose their own path from a treasure map-style opening, the app moves along at pace and switches activities regularly so that kids don’t get bored doing the same activity over and over again. For example the app will take kids from a matching letter game, to tracing letters, to recognising letter sounds all with cute kid voices encouraging them along the way.
Each activity is linked and builds on the one before so you can see clear paths to building upon knowledge gained.
The Not So Good Bits: The narrator voice has quite the American twang. This is fine in the vast majority most of the game, but there is a section where kids need to record their own voice saying a word, and that’s where it can get tricky, as with some words the app can sometimes not understand an Aussie accent.
We Love: The encouragement along the way – kids get reward stickers to help decorate Reading Raven’s treehouse and kids voices that let the player know if they got it right or not – from “Awww that’s not it!” to “Keep going!” They’ve got some seriously cute sounding kids to record these and they’re quite funny.
What It Teaches: Recognising letters, tracing letters, matching letters and words, reading words, tracing words, phonics and pronunciation, reading sentences.
Most Suitable Age Range: 3 – 7 years. The lessons go from easiest – Lesson1 to hardest Lesson 5.
Tech Info: iPad only.
How Much: $4.99
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