Learn To Read With Fun-Time Phonics!™ - Review
Looking for ways to help your kids learn how to read? Check out this easy-to-use phonics program.
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product for review, all opinions are 100% my own.
For the past while, we have been trying out Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software - 2-PCs Win Download that is part of the Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic Before Kindergarten!™ bundle from The Critical Thinking Co.™.
If you're looking for fun and easy-to-use educational programs for pre-schoolers The Critical Thinking Co.™ has lots of information about the importance of preschool academics and their bundle helps children learn reading, writing, and basic math.
Learning Phonics With Fun-Time Phonics!™
Fun-Time Phonics!™ is a beginning phonics program intended for children in PreK to 2nd grade. The program contains 128 lessons that are taught by 2 robots. Children practice phonemic awareness through a series of simple listen and click activities.
Starting and ending sounds. Children listen to the first or last sound in a word that is read to them. Then they are asked to click on pictures that start or end with the same sound.
Rhyming: Children match rhymes with pictures.
Recognizing sounds, children are told 2 different sounds and asked to click on pictures that have both sounds in the word.
Recognizing short vowel sounds. Children are asked to click on words that make short vowel sounds and later learn what letters make these sounds.
Children learn how consonants sound's work when combined with short vowels.
Reading their first words. After practicing phonics, learning vowels and consonants children get to practice reading simple words.
Using Fun-Time Phonics!™
Fun-Time Phonics!™ is the computer version of their workbook by the same name. Currently, the program is available for Windows only. It was a very easy process for me to download and install onto my children's computer.
My youngest daughter is still too young to use this program so I decided to try it as review and practice for my 7 and 9-year-olds. Unfortunately, the program didn't work as well for us as I had hoped.
My 9-year-old is a strong right brain learner with some dyslexic traits and struggles with phonics. Sight word reading seems to fit her learning style better but I had hoped we could practice phonics using Fun-Time Phonics!™. Unfortunately, the program was a frustration for her. The words and sounds were spoken too quickly for her to hear well and she couldn't do the activities.
My 7-year-old, on the other hand, liked the program at first but found it was too easy for him even though he's a beginning reader. He worked through many of the lessons quickly and then found the format boring.
The lessons are not really done in an animated game style. It's a rotation of 2 robots standing in the corners of the screen saying words and sounds to your child while they click on pictures and letters.
For many children, this format would work great. If your child learns best in a simple, non distracting environment then Fun-Time Phonics!™ might be a great fit for them. On the other hand, if your child needs to hear words spoken more slowly or learns best in a more interactive RPG game style then this might not be the best fit.
Although this phonics program wasn't a good fit for my children at this time The Critical Thinking Co.™ has always been one of my favourite homeschool resources. We've used some great math and science programs from them in the past you can read my reviews here:
