Parents' Guide to VocabularySpellingCity

VocabularySpellingCity Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Erin Brereton By Erin Brereton , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 5+

City of fun, clever language games is worth visiting.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 5+?

Any Positive Content?

Enjoy 3 free reviews when you get the Common Sense Media app .

Parent and Kid Reviews

age 5+

Based on 2 kid reviews

What's It About?

Created by a former game producer, VOCABULARYSPELLINGCITY.COM offers about a dozen free learning-based games and other activities that include vocabulary and spelling lists. Users need to register to save and share lists. Those who purchase a paid, ad-free membership also can access sentence and paragraph writing exercises, flashcards, and additional games. Adults can track kids' progress on spelling tests and other exercises, and kids see correct answers for questions they missed. The site also provides significant resources for teachers.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say ( 2 ):
VocabularySpellingCity.com's games are easy to figure out and, as an added bonus, typically offer more than one educational benefit. The Word Unscramble game, for example, mixes spelling and vocabulary work with logic practice; similarly, a narrator reads each letter in a word in the site's spelling lessons, which can help kids with pronounciation, reading, and usage. Kids often can get a hint if they're stuck and see correct answers for any questions they've missed, and they move at their own pace.
There are a few drawbacks. Kids need a computer with working speakers to view the site, or they'll lose half the educational benefit (and likely get confused). The free activities tend to be for younger children, and kids aren't likely to play the games multiple times because some seem to have only one level and feature the same words. Parents will have to subscribe to access more complex activities. However, VocabularySpellingCity.com's free version provides a decent sample of the site's educational activities -- enough to help kids strengthen some skills -- and the paid version can help parents and teachers track their progress.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about which games your child found most helpful. Did spelling out new words help your child remember them, or did the site's other games prove more useful?
  • Discuss any new terms your child learned on the site. Which did your child find the most difficult to understand, and why?
  • Are there any vocabulary words or historical names or terms your child is struggling with in school? Try to use the word in a few sentences to help reinforce it.

Website Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

VocabularySpellingCity Poster Image

You May Also Like...

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate