Flash Action Software: Phonics Made Easy (Windows, Mac)

Learning to read is a challenge for many children. FLASH ACTION SOFTWARE: PHONICS MADE EASY is a straightforward way to provide phonics drills in an entertaining manner. The program is most appropriate for children who already know their letter sounds and are starting to read.

The main menu is a tablet-like screen where kids work and play. Along the left side of the tablet are tabs for four content areas covering letter sounds, vowel sounds, rhyming families, and blends and diagraphs. As children work their way through these content areas, they earn rewards in corresponding play areas that appear on the right side of the tablet In the content areas, youngsters will find a wide variety of challenges, including finding objects that start with a specific letter sound or matching objects that have the same vowel sounds.

The play areas are exceptionally inventive because they use the phonics concepts just learned to create animations. Here, children can generate moving kaleidoscopic pictures using blend sounds, or they can create animations with rhyming families that spin, twist, and move to funky music.

This software is so effective because it makes phonics drills fun, and it provides help in all the right places. Scrolling over words, letters, or objects on the screen activates a verbal prompt, so kids can always hear the letter sounds and identify words and objects. If the child answers incorrectly, the software shows the child the correct answer before moving on.