Before we tried Phonics Museum from Veritas Press, I had a love/hate relationship with online learning apps. Every time my children had the opportunity to use an electronic device they ended up playing a game that offered no educational value. I tried to keep our selection of educational games fresh and fun, but no matter how many learning apps we tried, the kids would gravitate toward the games and avoid the learning portion.

I wanted to find an app that the younger kids could play during transition times in our homeschool day or while waiting for a siblings, like at Ballet class. They want to learn while using the computer like their brother and sisters. I am glad to say that Phonics Museum has satisfied both of our desires. It has captured the interest of my Kindergartener and he is learning every time he plays.

The Museum is set up in a way that makes it easy to navigate. The brave knight Perceval and Mrs. Biddle, the museum curator, guide your little learner to works of art on the museum wall. As your child clicks each work of art they are introduced to a letter sound and are moved inside of the painting.

Once inside they learn and explore each letter in a variety of ways. They hear the letter sound. They identify the letter in small learning games of match and find. They even follow tracing activities, so every learning type is presented in every play time. The games are always fresh and changing so my son looked forward to each new task.

Mastery of the letter sound and form is the goal of each “painting.” Once your child shows mastery, by completing the tasks, s/he unlocks the next painting.

Unlocking each task made for easy navigation through the whole app. There is nothing more frustrating than a program your child can not navigate. That is why I love the App format for leaning games with younger children. No more having to keep coming back to the computer to get my child back in the right screen because he clicked the wrong task bar. Less frustration means more time learning.

My son always knew what to do next in Phonics Museum because there were fewer choices, each location directed him back to the learning ares of the map. This helped him to complete more parts of the app than any other game we have tried.

Don’t worry, with 900 games and activities to do, your little one is not going to burn through this game in a few weeks’ time.

I loved the ability to have multiple students use the app. You can have three children, each with their own account and history. Subscriptions are available monthly or yearly. With the two-week trial that Veritas offers, you could certainly have time to make the decision to use this all year as an early reader program, or choose to go month-to-month for a more intensive sweep through as a review for a young reader. Veritas recommended this app for ages 3-7 and we found that range to be very accurate. Though the characters are engaging enough that my nine-year-old liked to linger nearby while the little ones had their turns to play and learn.

Veritas is a long-trusted name in the homeschool community and this app has been a great way for them to showcase their excellence in teaching tools to a broader audience. If you have a beginning reader and have been hesitant to allow electronics because of the lack of educational value, you are going to love this app.

-Product review by Amber Smith, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2017