Lemon Lumberjack's Letter Mill

Clever alliteration emphasizes letter-sound recognition, and silly graphics and cheerful music make it fun, but the gameplay leaves something to be desired. Hearing the narrator name characters (and seeing those names in text) such as "Bella the beautiful blooming blossom" and "Jet the jolly jam jar" gives kids a nice review of the power of letter sounds. The gameplay itself is a little less appealing. Essentially, kids do the exact same thing over and over again by dragging the correct items (be they letter or object) to their matching characters. Though there's a purposeful and logical increase in difficulty from one level to the next, the last levels make a big jump and aren't entirely clear. It would be helpful to see the target word prominently and permanently displayed as kids work on finding the right objects. Also, some verbal instructions would go a long way to preventing frustration, as would a way to slow the conveyor belt and a bigger area to make a correct match for kids without stellar fine motor skills. Despite the app's flaws, it's worth checking out the free content to see if it's a good fit for your kid.