Bottom Line: Children starting to read will get a lot of enjoyment while learning their sight words with Bob Books characters -Sam, Dot, Mat and friends. In this latest release from the Bob Books family, users are treated to the simple but engaging sentences and illustrations that require input from the children to come alive while progressing through four levels of activity from placing letters, choosing words, tracing letters and rolling correct combinations into place.
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iPhone/ iPad ($3.99)
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This app has no ads, no in-app purchases and has parent-protected external links to other Bob Books titles.
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Bob Books were a huge help here when all three of my kiddos were starting to read. By the time my youngest was learning to read, we were lucky enough to enjoy the Bob Books apps and it's nice to see that they are still going strong. The biggest difference I noticed between Reading Magic Sight Words and previous Bob Books apps was the intuitiveness of the set-up. The illustrations and music are the same and feel like an old friend coming to visit.
Bob Books Reading Magic Sight Words opens to the home screen where parents read about Bob Books, explore other titles or change settings. The settings options allow parents to to turn off or on the background music, sound effects. the hint option and making the tracing easier. Settings also has the option to reset levels which comes in handy for multiple kids or when you feel a child needs a little more work in previous levels.
When your child is ready to read, just click the arrow and start the learning. There are ten pages in this app. Each begins as a colorless line drawing. The only color is the red sight word which users are prompted to touch and begin the hands-on experience with that word. After the game has been played for the sight word, the narrator reads the sentence and the illustration is colored in while the characters become animated. Each page has three options available at the top of the screen: the home button, the pause button and the pages button. When users click the pages button, they can view thumbnails of all the pages and also see how many levels have been attempted on each page. By pushing the pause button, users can easily switch game levels. There are four levels. Level one has children place the sight word letters in the sentence in any order. Level two requires users to trace each letter of the sight word. In the third level, children can adjust rolls of letters (similar to a combination lock on a suitcase) to spell the word and finally, users are given several words and they must choose the appropriate word for the sentence.
While playing, I experienced no bugs or technical issues. The only thing I was a little shaky about understanding was how a level is considered mastered. As a reviewer, I played through the whole app first, then I reset the levels and just changed levels in each page to compare how the options work. On pages that I went through all of the options, I would only have one or two of the levels checked off as complete. I mention this because If you are a parent or teacher that likes to check in on how work is going, it may not accurately reflect a child's progress. Of course, it might if you don't tinker with everything too, but tinkering is what I get paid to do so you don't have to.
Overall, I love Bob Books and I think the apps are a lovely addition to the program. Bob Books Reading Magic Sight Words is no exception. The app offers 30 sight words plus some fun little characters and simple sentences to inspire a love of learning in little minds.
Ellie has made one of her fabulous app demos for you to see how Bob Books Reading Magic Sight Words is in action. Don't forget to show her some love by giving her a YouTube thumbs-up and clicking "subscribe"!
*****
Cynthia is currently counting down the days until her kids go back to school (22 days). Holy frijoles. *Smart Apps for Kids was paid a priority review and video fee for this post.
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