Your child’s first and best teacher will always be you. That can sound scary, especially if you are not in the teaching profession. But don’t worry, you don’t have to do it alone. In a technology based world, there are so many resources out there to help you. You just have to know where to look. Here are some of my favorite FREE apps that I used in my classroom with my students. They all stem from Starfall, a website, as well as a series of apps that are fun and educational for kids.

1. The most basic is the Starfall ABC app that teaches the ABC’s to your youngest learners. Simply open the app, click on the letter you want to learn about, and the app takes you through learning the name of the letter, its sounds, and words that start with the letter. Best of all, there are blinking stars that show you where to touch next to move to the next screen so it’s easy for your toddler to figure out. Plus, there are a few other activities on the app as well that will help your child learn their colors, numbers, and patterns.

2. The Starfall Learn To Read app has 3 different categories that teaches kids about short vowels, long vowels, and phonics and chunking through fun activities that promote reading and use fun little songs. There is also fun animation to go along with the stories and the songs.

3. The Starfall It’s Fun To Read app is for beginning readers. It teaches them how to read using fun things like tongue twisters, music, poetry, riddles, and more. Each category has a couple of things for your child to choose from and everything is either read or sung aloud to them as they follow along.

4. The Starfall I’m Reading app is for your older readers from first to third grade. This app has stories that are separated into 5 categories:
Plays, Fiction, and Nonfiction
Comics
Folk Tales
Greek Myths
Chinese Fables
Your child can click on a category, then select a book from the menu. The book will then open up and read aloud to them as they scroll through. It highlights the sentence it is reading and then your child has the option to have the page read to them again or move onto the next page. When they are done, they can pick out another book!

All of these activities can also be found on Starfall.com, however, not every activity on the website or on the apps is free. If you want to access certain ones, you must pay for a subscription. But the best part is that there are so many free things to do that you don’t need to pay for a membership, or if you would like to, you have already been able to try out so much that you know if you will like it or not.

For a quick look at the Starfall apps watch this short video!