Best Phonics App for Kindergarten Early Literacy Skills
schoolnest is passionate about authenticity in sharing quality homeschooling resources. This post is sponsored. I received access to HOMER Reading and was compensated for my time. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions are authentically my own. View my disclosure policy for details.
We are easing our way into a fresh school year and it’s the first year I’ll be teaching two school-age children! It’s an adjustment to learn to juggle the needs of multiple learners when both want undivided attention and have different learning styles. My youngest is five, and though I believe that the most important thing she can do is PLAY and get deep into her imagination, the attention that her older sister gets with school lessons is something she now asks for. We are starting to focus on phonological and phonemic awareness, since she picked up letter recognition during her preschool years. HOMER Reading is an early literacy app that caught my attention due to its focus on phonological and phonemic awareness, crucial skills in reading achievement!
“…a child’s level of phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten is one of the strongest predictors of future reading success.” - ldatschool.ca
She does reading lessons with a phonics curriculum 2-3 days a week, and on her off-days while I am focusing on more involved lessons with her older sister, our five-year-old gets special time on HOMER Reading. I really like that it actually supports my goals for her early literacy work, and though it’s cute and funny and makes her laugh, the pedagogy behind the app is solid and reinforces skills we work on in our reading lessons. It makes the “juggling” feel less difficult, because during that time, both kids are engaged in quality learning even though my attention is on one child.
“Down-Time” in Our Day, But Make It Educational
Since we are spending so much time at home lately, I need to build pockets of time into our day where the kids are engaged in projects or activities that don’t require me to be by their side. I’m a homeschool parent and a work-at-home parent! One can not do all the things, so I have to be smart about getting time to get things done while still giving them an enriching environment. Setting out non-messy art projects with some music on, establishing an hour of quiet time in the afternoon where they can use educational apps like HOMER or watch a kid-friendly documentary, challenging them to make something out of paper scraps or blocks, and daily time outside are all things that help me have a few minutes to myself.
Allowing them time to be bored, to explore their own interests, and to form the habit of choosing their own educational activities are all things that are good for them. My kids both love when I challenge them to come tell me what they discovered once my working time is over. If they’re learning on an app they might come tell me what story they read or what new thing they discovered. Kids are proud to share what they know if we show genuine curiosity in what they have to say! I love that my 5 and 8-year-old can both use HOMER customized to them, and they both find it engaging. The reading lessons are easy for my 8-year-old, but she still loves the stories and other activities within the app. The lessons are right on my 5-year-old’s skill level.
Turn Learning to Read into Play
Why is it that teaching a child to read feels so intimidating and serious? Probably because it is THE most important part of their education. No pressure. But if learning is most effective when done through play, we might be most effective in reading instruction if we make it playful and fun! In our reading curriculum, we are often hopping like frogs around the room to read the sounds of phonograms, throwing a paper airplane back and forth with spelling words on it, drawing silly pictures on the dry erase board as we learn punctuation. Happy brains learn better!
I knew I officially loved the HOMER app when I heard both girls cracking up during their afternoon quiet time (a little iPad time in their room while I worked). I went in to see what was so hilarious, and it was a sight word video for the word “CAKE”, where the little character would read the word in front of him (which happened to be cake), and every time he did, someone would serve him a piece of cake. But he just kept reading the word because it was there, and more cake was served until it piled up around him to his delight!
Make Reading Interesting
I don’t care how old you are, if the content you’re reading isn’t interesting, you aren’t going to be thrilled to read it. As adults, if a news article isn’t engaging, we skim or skip it. If a novel doesn’t grip us a few chapters in, why waste our time? We want to read within our interests and curiosities! Now add in the hard work of decoding words, practicing new phonics rules, trying to understand inconsistencies - but make it boring. It’s no wonder some kids don’t think it’s fun to learn to read. But if we can let them choose topics they are genuinely interested in, now they’re doing all that work for a purpose! HOMER gives you the ability to customize the content topics based on the child’s interests. This gives them videos, books, and lessons themed to fit the topics they chose! Some of the topics are things like princess and dinosaurs, but then they have more academic and interesting topics like history and science (Egypt! Amphibians!).
Teaching Reading the Right Way
Is there a right way to teach children to read? Don’t many children just pick it up with consistent exposure to a print-rich environment? Yes, there are proven methods to reading instruction, and no a majority of children do not just naturally start reading. I am pretty passionate about this topic, so I’m picky about choosing reading curricula and supplements that align with modern research on reading instruction. When I looked deeper into the HOMER methodology, I was really amazed to see the reasoning and research backing up their program! It is not just a simple ABC sounds and sight word app. I’m totally comfortable using it as support and practice alongside our homeschool reading curriculum.
You can read about their pedagogy here in The Research Behind Learn With HOMER.
Curious about HOMER Reading?
You can try HOMER out for 30 days for free, which is plenty of time to do a 15-minute lesson a day with your child. Sit with them to engage with the lessons alongside them and see for yourself how it works and what they’re learning. After 30 days, the special offer price is $45/year (for up to four children, not per child!).
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