Bottom line: ReadAskChat is a brand new app designed for children up to five years of age that gives users a whole reading library for parents and children to enjoy together. By actively taking part in reading together, families can help foster a love of reading and learning. This app is free to download and try.
If you’d like to download ReadAskChat (starter pack is free, additional content available with subscription), please use the handy link provided so they know who sent you.
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No ads, subscription available through in-app purchase
Subscription pricing:
ReadAskChat comes with a free starter pack with three selections: Light of Mine (song); Animal Tails (science feature/African American folk rhyme); and The Old Man in the Tree (nonsense verse by Edward Lear).
ReadAskChat is offering a 2-week sale of $34.99/year (which comes to $2.92/month) OR $4.99 for one month. Subscribers receive a new story pack (each with three selections) bimonthly, beginning early 2018.
On December 15, the price will be $39.99/year (which comes to $3.33/month) OR $7.99 for one month.
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ReadAskChat is a collection of digital stories for kids aged 0-4 designed to allow parents the opportunity to read the stories to the children and interact along with them, helping them to develop and interest in reading and a love of learning. There is a starter pack of three stories available with the free download to give parents a chance to try out ReadAskChat before signing up for the subscription service.
By signing up for a subscription, parents will open up a world of content including categories like “Big Ideas” and “Indoor Mischief”. There are also Math and Science sections to pique the curiosity of children with varied interests. For families with subscription services, content will be continuously updating to keep things fresh.
Within the beautifully illustrated storybooks, there are multiple ways that the stories are presented. Some of the stories are presented in rhyme or song and offer the option of hearing an attached audio file to go along with it. Some of the stories are text and picture only and must be read by parents and/or children. There are illustrations with no text that give families an opportunity to be creative and to tell the stories in their own words.
With every story there are conversation starters available for parents to give them suggested activities or helpful hints on how to present stories to kids to best help them learn. When parents set the appropriate age and learning level of their child, the suggested hints in the conversation starter box will adjust accordingly, giving families more opportunities to interact on a meaningful level at each stage of development.
I always love any app that stresses the importance of reading. Whether it is reading to your children, with your children, or letting your kids read independently, reading is the foundation that all other learning is built upon. I know that the research behind this app is focused on parents reading to and with their children, but I do wish that there were and option in all of the stories to hear audio so that kids could also use this app independently. I understand that the option was intentionally left out (and I understand why), but personally I think that it would be a welcome addition to the app.
Overall, I think that ReadAskChat has tremendous potential as a learning tool for preschoolers. The free content is enough to give parents a taste to see if they are interested in the subscription service, and there are multiple levels of subscription available. I’m giving this app four stars.
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Kelli lives in Alabama with her family on a small horse farms. She desperately wants to get chickens. Smart Apps for Kids was paid a fee to review this app in a timely fashion.
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