Starfall.com is a fantastic (and free!) website designed to help children learn to read. It’s primarily for first graders but I’ve found the site is appropriate and interesting for toddlers to children in third grade. Starfall.com is easy to navigate, even for children. It includes stories, games, songs, activities and movies all designed to teach children the essential skills necessary for reading. The four sections (ABC’s, Learn to Read, It’s Fun to Read, and I’m Reading) increase in difficulty beginning with letter names and sounds, then how to blend sounds and decode words and eventually on to fun stories at independent reading levels.
I would recommend this site to all parents for all children. As a teacher, I’m annoyed by how often educational shows and games mispronounce letter sounds. (Ex. the sound for the letter b is simply /b/ not buh.) This site correctly pronounces each letter sound and it appropriately first introduces short vowel sounds then separately introduces the long vowel sounds.
You will love this site and your child will enjoy it and benefit from it for years to come.
