Review: The Critical Thinking Co.™ Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software

Phonics is something that can take a lot of practice.  Both my 1st grader and Kindergartener are working a ton of phonics lately in our homeschool.  We were thankful to have been given the opportunity to review  Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software – 2-PCs Win Download which is part of the Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic Before Kindergarten!™ software bundle from The Critical Thinking Co.™.

About the Product:

Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software – 2-PCs Win Download is a downloadable comprehensive reading program that can be used by multiple students in your home.  With the license, you are able to add it to two computers.  This program is geared toward children in preschool through second grade.

The program emphasizes sound/spelling patterns, vocabulary, and comprehension, not memorization, which comes in handy for children who aren’t great at memorization.  The focus is more on vowel isolation in order to read.

You can check out the video below to see more:

The app is composed of these four sections:

• Section 1: Teaches children that words are made up with sounds. Activities include beginning sounds, ending sounds, vowel sounds, and words that rhyme.
• Section 2: Teaches children each short vowel sound and the letter that makes that sound.
• Section 3: This section teaches consonant-vowel coarticulation, so children learn that each consonant uses short vowels to make different sounds that are used to form words that are read.
• Section 4: Teaches children to combine their new knowledge of consonant-vowel coarticulation and ending sounds to read their first words.

Right now the program is only available for Windows computers, but an iPad version coming soon.  Due to the large amount of audio files involved in the learning features of this program, the installed Windows program requires approx. 500 MB of disk space.  You can purchase this program for $29.99 on The Critical Thinking Co.™ website.

My Thoughts:

I like the program.  During the review period, my daughters were working on beginning and ending sounds and what is similar in various words.  It keeps phonics basic, however my little girls were not really thrilled with it.  It seemed more like a chore and/or work to get them to work on the program through the week.  They did do the program, though.

My Kindergartener had trouble getting pass some of the quizzes.  She would get frustrated having to play lessons over and over again, but I liked this feature.  So many other programs will just move my children along even if they aren’t able to finish the quiz.  I like that this one makes her redo the lesson.  Even though this program says it is for preK through 2nd, I don’t think I would recommend starting it before Kindergarten unless you have an early reader.

My 1st grader did well with it.  I like that it is reinforcing what she has already learned in phonics so far.  Getting a review is always great!  I know as she progresses, it will move along to lessons and topics that she hasn’t learned so far.

Overall, I like the Fun-Time Phonics!™ Software.  I can see that they are learning and making strides.  I will keep them on the program to get more phonics practice.

For More Information:

For more information, please visit the The Critical Thinking Co.™ website.  You can also find more on Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+.

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