Teaching kids to read can be a trying task. Ask a child about their experiences and they can offer that it’s equally as exasperating working with an adult trying to sound out letters and hoping that they are patient with you. The right tools are needed to help kids understand the concept of reading, grasp the notion of the sound that go with the symbols they are looking at and then put it all together to make a sound that is a word.

Word Reading Magic is an app that helps kids learn to recognize letters, understand what sounds they make and combine the two to sound out a word. With pictures of items to help, kids complete a variety of activities and games to learn the concepts that are essential in reading. Because the learning occurs in game format, it’s not a chore and it’s not hard. It becomes an activity that kids look forward to, which is what you want – repeated exercises to help cement strong reading skills.

Most of us started off learning to read simple three-character words like mom, dad, cat and dog. These are what are considered CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. The app uses the CVC acronym and also considers reading to be “decoding”. Which, theoretically, it is, because you are looking at symbols and decoding the final output of what they sound like based on the ordering and interactions between each symbol.

The app has exercises on learning sounds of individual letters to start, which is important, because letters are the foundation of words. Once they have mastered these exercises, they move on to games and exercises for sounding out words. Once they have mastered this level, they can move on to sentences. The app does a good job of sequencing and building upon previous lessons, so kids stay on track and remain engaged.

Once kids get to the level of learning words, the exercises entail matching words to pictures. There are exercises that also require children to match up pictures that start with a certain letter. The variety of activities is endless, which means kids will keep coming back for more.

I really like the layout and sequencing of activities. Parental controls are in place so kids stay safe while playing and they cannot get into anything that they should not have access to. I would like to see a less bright color scheme as the current one looks like you are looking into a pool.

As an effective tool that helps kids master phonics and learn how to read, Word Reading Magic is definitely an app worth trying.