Wow, has this summer just flown by! It’s already that time of year again: time for the kiddos to go back to school! If you’re searching for a list of reading apps to help get your child back in the groove of reading, Reader Bee Apps may just be your one-stop solution!
Before diving into the many Reader Bee apps available, let’s first discuss the company behind the apps. The company was developed “with unsurpassed care and attention to detail.” The process follows a severe discipline of the Honeycomb Reading method, which is a “new, simplified method used to teach children how to read in a more effective, fun way.”
The goal behind each carefully crafted app is to make the process of learning clear, fun, and engaging. The company’s mission is as follows:
Our mission is to help children around the world learn to read even when the adults in their lives are too tired or burdened to carry on.
Reader Bee is only the first of our apps aimed at helping the child understand and enjoy one of the most important activities they will ever engage in.
6 Reader Bee Apps:
1. Reader Bee and The Story Tree
The developers behind the Reader Bee app have done thorough research and discovered that “kids get just the right information at the right time for their growing brains to take in sounds and shapes of letters.” This app (and other Reader Bee Apps in the series) chunk this information in a way is more effective, by helping children learn with their eyes, fingertips, and ears.
Reader Bee and the Story Tree App Overview:
- 30 fun and interactive learning activities
- 6 books for children to read at their own pace or follow along
- 6 spelling games where children will have fun making words
2. Reader Bee’s First Story Maker
With Reader Bee’s First Story Maker, children’s stories come to life with “magic pictures that transform into words and back again with a tap!” Children will have fun drawing pictures in the app, too! The Honeycomb Keyboard within the app allows younger children to see and write simple words (e.g. cat, hat, sat, etc.) with one swipe through letters, helping them learn to read, as well as write.
Reader Bee’s First Story Maker Overview:
- Children can browse through dozens of pictures to inspire their tale-telling and jumpstart their spelling
- “Once kids drag a picture of an octopus, a strawberry, or a violin into the story, tapping the picture changes it magically into the spelled word, ‘octopus,’ ‘strawberry,’ or ‘violin.'”
- Children can also spell out words (e.g. H-A-T) and a hat will appear where the word was! Magic!
- The Honeycomb Keyboard from Reader Bee allows children to swipe through the most common English words (the, it, in, and, is, etc.)
- Children and adults can also use this keyboard outside of the app to write emails, notes, messages and more.
3. Reader Bee’s Runaway
This is one of Reader Bee’s newer apps. It is an app designed to help beginning readers split off the first sound in words, and match that sound to a letter. “It’s a new and fun way for children to learn and practice phonics for all 26 alphabet letters.” In the app, children will catch a marching toy along a path, and drag it to a matching letter, or “give it to the rabbit” if it doesn’t match.
Reader Bee’s Runaway Overview:
- There are 260 toys within the app (10 for each letter) so there is a variety to keep children entertained.
- Once a “daisy” set of letters is completed, children win a prize ribbon with an animal ranging from tiny (ant – beginner) to large (eagle -mastery).
- The ribbons are “an elegantly simple assessment that motivates children to keep playing until they reach mastery for all letters.”
4. Reader Bee Sophie Stories
There are four different stories in the Sophie Story Series for young children. In each story, the page is read aloud and children are prompted to tap on the blue words to trigger surprising animations. Each animation illustrates the word’s meaning or cause “Wizding letter people to dance the sounds of words.” Within the app, children are introduced to simple CVC words (e.g. “red,” “hen,” etc.) one sound at a time. Each story in the Sophie Series introduces children to the alphabetic principle (that letters make sounds, and sounds gain meaning when they come together to make a word.)
Reader Bee Sophie Stories Overview:
- 4 different stories available, each sold separately:
- Introduces children to the alphabetic principle
- Builds phonemic awareness
- “Unlike workbook pages so common in school work, Sophie provides a delightful context for playing with sound. Children like to hear the whole story from beginning to end, then on a second reading, play with the blue words.”
- By highlighting the blue words, it makes early reading more fun and easier, and much more manageable.
5. Reader Bee Presents Letter Pairing:
In Reader Bee’s Match Big and Little Letters Game, children match capital and lowercase letters while Wizding letter people play tag. The letters come in “daisy sets” of 7 or 8 letters to keep the conceptual load narrowed. Children will focus on a big letter and choose one of the 3 little letters to match it.
Reader Bee Presents Letter Pairing Overview:
- Children will focus on one big letter at a time, and be prompted to select the matching lowercase letter.
- Clues will appear during play to help children match capital and lowercase letters more easily.
- The app assesses children’s accuracy while they play and awards one of five ribbons for each daisy set, then brings children to play until they’re fluent with all sets of letters.
- Up to 5 children can log in using their name and picture.
6. Reader Bee Presents Big Letters:
Reader Bee Big Letters is an early learning app developed to guide children in forming capital letters, and learning one use for the big letters: beginning a sentence. Each word in the sentence uses only one sound per letter, and all words are short so young learners can read the sentence.
Reader Bee Big Letters Overview:
- Children learn how to write capital letters and what situation(s) they’ll use capital letters in (e.g. starting a sentence).
- Children can swap out one of three picture words to make a new silly sentence by dropping the picture into the sentence.
- Then, children can color illustration and even have the option to print it!
- The app teaches:
- Capital letters and one of their main uses
- Simple words
- How to write sentences
- The developer states, “Weaving silliness into the activity is key in encouraging children to enjoy mastering early literacy skills.”
To learn more about Reader Bee Apps, be sure to check out their website here!