Many families now are coping with having family, work, and school all under one roof. Homeschooling is now the new normal, but many students and families were not prepared for the transition so quickly. Luckily, technology has many tools that can help. Students can make the best of homeschooling by using app to help read and spell, so that when schools return they will not be behind.

Spelling and reading are important skills that can help your child’s academic success in the future. The two skills rely heavily on one another. If your child improves their spelling skills, they are likely to recognize words better when they are reading and come across unfamiliar vocabulary. In turn, if they are reading better, they can recognize spelling patterns easily. 

What apps can help my child spell better?

Spelling is an integral skill to master to help improve reading. Being able to spell and learn spelling patterns can help your child learn new and unfamiliar vocabulary. It can help them with guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words in a reading thus helping them with increasing their fluency. Here are some of our favorite apps to help improve spelling for different levels of readers:

Spelling Monster – Spelling can be boring for young readers to learn and practice, but Spelling Monster turns practice into fun, interactive games. Your child plays mini-games to get practice with spelling on the app, which uses fun graphics to keep them engaged.

Sight Words – By the time your child is in third grade, they should be able to recognize over 300 sight words. Sight words are the most commonly used words in a language and the more sight words your child knows, the better they are able to read. The app Sight Words helps build your child’s vocabulary and helps them to learn how to spell words that they are most likely to come across.

Chicktionary – This fun and interactive game helps your child learn to spell while having fun. The object of the game is to unscramble the chickens to make words and when you get it wrong the chickens make a squawking sound until you get the word right. Your child will get a kick out of this hilarious game while also learning spelling skills that can help them to improve their reading skills.

What apps can help my child read better?

Improved spelling can lead to being able to read better. Your child can best improve their reading skills by basically reading as much and as often as they can. Here are our favorite reading apps that make reading fun and interactive:

Storyline Online – This award-winning app has a collection of audiobooks that are narrated by actors such as Eva Longoria, James Earl Jones, and Chris Pine. Your child can enjoy classic children’s books read by their favorite actors and actresses. Each audiobook also has some activities and exercise suggestions that you can use at home.

Reading Rainbow – The classic television show beloved by generations is now in app form. The app houses over 100 books and several video “field trips” that can get your child engaged and excited about reading. Through a series of themed islands, your child can take a virtual journey through reading books and solving puzzles.

Readability – Readability is an all-around great app for improving reading. This reading app has several different features that can help your child improve their reading skills. The app essentially acts as a virtual private reading tutor for your child. It uses A.I. and speech-recognition technology to help give your child feedback about their reading and also provide you with progress reports. Your child can read through the app’s vast collection of original stories that are constantly being updated with more reading material. They have the option of having the app read the story to them as they follow along, or they can even read the stories aloud and the app listens to give them instant feedback and error recognition. This app is great for your child to use when you are not available to help them with their reading practice.

Reading and spelling are skills that go hand-in-hand. In order to improve reading your child should improve their spelling, and yet spelling improvements can help improve their reading skills. Learning these skills at home can be difficult without the proper structure and instruction from a teacher, but apps such as Readability can help bring the classroom to your home.