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Free vs Paid Kids Reading Games: Pre-K through 5th Grade
Reading is a skill that quite literally lasts a lifetime, so it's important to start out with the right tools. But do you really need to pay for them to get ahead? Here's what we found.

Table of Contents
Best app for comprehensive learning
Khan Academy Kids is a truly fantastic app with a great user interface, fun and interactive features, and a kid-friendly design that is clear from the moment you open the app.
Why we chose Khan Academy Kids:
- Completely free to use, this app is fantastic and has a wide range of learning tools available.
- Can work at the right level for your child, from pre-school to 2nd grade.
- Very easy-to-use, which means your kids can learn independently.
- Cool graphics and interactive characters make this game fun and engaging to play.
- Huge variety of games and activities to help teach and test your progress.
- 8 key categories that your child can use to learn in almost all of their school subjects.
Khan Academy Kids is a great app that provides you with a comprehensive way to help your child learn. They can learn at their own pace, with fun games and or challenging activities, and you can adjust the level as they improve.
Read Khan Academy Kids' Full ReviewBest App for All-Round Skill Mastery
A great app that teaches your kids to read following the same structure teachers use in school.
Why we chose Learn to Read with Tommy Turtle:
- Incredible value at only $2.99
- Extremely child-friendly with visually stunning graphics.
- Great for blending words!
- Super easy to use, so navigating the game is simple, even for very young ones.
- Creative way of learning as you build items to progress in the game.
- Follows the same structure that kids are taught in school.
It’s great for blending words and it uses form fun and creative strategies to make the learning fun. Not only will your kids learn to read with this game but they’ll have fun as they do it.
Read Learn to Read with Tommy Turtle's Full ReviewBest app for game-based learning
This super fun and engaging app is a great way to teach your ‘monster’ to read. The app uses bright and colorful visuals and fun interactive features to make learning interesting.
Why we chose Teach Your Monster to Read:
- At only $4.99, this app is a great way to teach your little one to read.
- Very interactive and with bright colors and fun features, such as the ability to create your own monster, which makes this app more enjoyable
- Uses a story to keep the kids engaged and make their learning fun
- Very easy and simple to navigate the app, whether the kids are playing alone or with parental support
- Has both reading and spelling available to give your child more support in their learning
- 3 ability levels, so you can ensure you’re working at the right level for your child
There’s a variety of levels and different in-game tasks that will keep your child interested as they play the games, conquer different levels and learn how to read.
Read Teach Your Monster to Read's Full ReviewEverything We Recommend
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Our PickOur award-winning app is thoughtfully designed by experts in early childhood education to guide young learners on a delightful journey through key skills in math, reading, phonics, writing, social-emotional development, and more. It includes thousands of lessons, activities, books, and games that are age-appropriate for preschool through second grade. With catchy songs and yoga videos, your littles will also have fun moving, dancing, and getting the wiggles out.
The app is perfect for learning at home or in school. Parents can choose lessons from the app’s library for their kids or use the personalized learning path that automatically adjusts to each child’s level. Teachers can quickly and easily find lessons by standard, make assignments, and monitor student progress through a suite of teacher tools.
Khan Academy Kids is completely free, forever—no ads and no subscriptions necessary. And we’re always adding new content to keep kids engaged, including books, songs, and videos from Super Simple Songs®, Bellwether Media, National Geographic Young Explorer Magazine, and Alo Gives.
Download today and let the joyful learning begin!
We’d love to hear from you. Please visit us at khanacademykids.org, or drop us a line at khankids@khanacademy.org.
Here’s a sample of what you’ll find in the app:
HUNDREDS OF NEW LESSONS
• We’ve added all-new second grade lessons and a plethora of other delightful educational content to help littles learn their ABCs, discover space, practice mindfulness, and more.
AWARD-WINNING CONTENT
• Editors' Choice—Apple App Store
• Common Sense Media—5-star Educational Value, 5-star Ease of Play
• Children's Technology Review Editor's Choice Award for Excellence in Design—100% Rating
• Parents' Choice Foundation Gold Award
ROBUST CURRICULUM
• Reading and literacy—phonics, letters, spelling, and comprehension
• Language—vocabulary and parts of speech
• Math—counting, numbers, addition, subtraction, shapes, and measuring
• Executive function and logic—focus, memory, and problem-solving
PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCE
• Adaptive learning path allows each child to learn at their own pace
• Children learn independently in the Library—a collection of activities, books, and videos
• Kids can read books on their own or follow along with recorded audio narration
JOYFUL LEARNING
• Five whimsical characters encourage children to think and learn
• Highly interactive educational games and activities
EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
• Social-emotional—relationships, self-control, and empathy
• Creative expression—drawing, storytelling, and coloring
CREATED BY A TEAM OF EXPERTS
• Developed in collaboration with experts at the Stanford Graduate School of Education
• Aligns with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and Common Core Standards
ABOUT KHAN ACADEMY AND KHAN ACADEMY KIDS
Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy Kids was created by experienced early learning experts who have created 22 other top-selling titles and received 22 Parents’ Choice Awards, 19 Children’s Technology Review Awards, and a KAPi award for Best Children’s App at the International Consumer Electronics Show. The Khan Academy Kids team is a passionate group of engineers, artists, designers, and educators who joined Khan Academy from Duck Duck Moose, a maker of popular educational apps for kids. Khan Academy Kids is 100% free, without ads or subscriptions.
ABOUT SUPER SIMPLE SONGS®
Skyship Entertainment™ is the creator of the beloved children’s brand, Super Simple™. Their award-winning Super Simple Songs® combines delightful animation and puppetry with original and classic kids’ songs to help make learning simple and fun. With over 10 billion views and 10 million subscribers on YouTube, their songs and videos are favorites with parents, teachers, and kids around the globe.CostFreeFreeIn-App PurchasesNoNo -
Runner UpAlready enjoyed by over five million families, Learn to Read with Tommy Turtle is a delightful game that invites preschool-aged children to blend sounds into words, read and form simple words, identify spoken words and learn word families.
Its six sections include:
★ Magic Letter Bridge: kids learn to blend letter sounds into words by moving Tommy the Turtle across the letter bridge
★ Skateboards and Helmet: children practice reading as they are asked to fit Tommy's animal friends with skateboards and helmets
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★ Turn the Blocks: kids make words in a way that's fun by turning real-looking blocks with letters on each side until the word is spelled out.
★ Word Ball: children learn to identify spoken words by helping Tommy bat the right ball
★ Word Magic: kids learn about word families as they fill the corresponding pot with potion and watch magic happen
★ Rocket Words: children get to practice word families as they assemble and launch a rocket into space
If your children do not know the alphabet sounds yet, we recommend our Learn Letter Sounds with Carnival Kids app. And if your kids need to learn or practice the names of the letters, try our Learn ABC Letters with Captain Cat app.
Every section is designed to let children enjoy success time after time and receive positive reinforcement from the likable teacher, so they want to keep learning. Once your child is involved and happy, you can relax, with the assurance that he or she is having a great time - and learning.Cost2.992.99In-App PurchasesNoNo -
Also Groovy
Teach Your Monster to Read: Phonics & Reading Game
4.6 Ratings 11K+ Reviews 500K+ DownloadsBAFTA-nominated, government approved and played over 300 million times by over 30 million kids.
Teach Your Monster to Read is an award-winning phonics and reading game that’s helped millions of children learn to read.
• Parents have seen significant improvements in their children’s literacy within weeks.
• Teachers claim it’s a wonderful and captivating classroom tool that helps their students learn to read.
• Kids love making their monster and teaching it read. They learn through play.
Children create a monster and take it on a magical journey over three extensive games - meeting a host of colourful characters along the way and improving their reading skills as they progress.
• Covers the first two years of learning to read, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying little books.
• Designed in collaboration with leading academics and game designers.
• Complements all synthetic phonics programmes used in schools.
• Suitable for school and home use.
• Includes all 3 educational games! First Steps, Fun With Words and Champion Reader!
The game is rigorous and works with any phonics scheme so it’s perfect for use in school and at home. It’s developed in collaboration with leading academics at the University of Roehampton and has been approved by the UK government as part of the Hungry Little Minds campaign.
This educational app is commonly used in preschool, primary school, kindergarten and first grade as an interactive teaching resource.
PROCEEDS GO TO THE USBORNE FOUNDATION CHARITY
Teach Your Monster to Read has been created by Teach Monster Games Ltd. which is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation. The Usborne Foundation is a charity founded by children’s publisher, Peter Usborne MBE. Harnessing research, design and technology, we create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health. Funds raised from the game go back into the charity, to help us become sustainable and build new projects.
TOP FEATURES
• Complements Phases 2-5 of UK Government-approved Letters and Sounds and other major systematic synthetic phonics programmes.
• Absolutely no in-app purchases, hidden costs or in-game adverts. Perfect for kids!
• Suitable for ages 3-6.
• Designed in collaboration with reading experts from Roehampton University.
REVIEWS FROM TEACHERS AND PARENTS
"This game is the absolute best quality phonics game I have come across for educational and fun value."
Marie Lewis, Rochdale
“My class have reaped loads of benefits from using the programme and the difference in some of their reading skills has been dramatic."
Maria Andrews, Foundation Phase Teacher
"This is a fabulous game. I'm not kidding when I say that my daughter essentially learned all her letter sounds using First steps, with relatively minimal input from me! Great for parents to practise their letter sounds too."
Eleanor Jones
Teach Monster Games Ltd is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales, charity number 1121957.Cost5.995.99In-App PurchasesNoNo
The 411 from our Appventurer
How we tested?
I began by searching for the most popular apps that were designed to help young children with their reading. I was looking for apps that could not only help them learn, but I also wanted to find apps that used games to make the learning more fun.
Once I found the top 7, I downloaded them onto my phone and tested them over the next 10 days with my kids. I wanted to know which apps could support their education, but also if there was a huge difference between the free and paid apps.
I took note of how my kids interacted with the apps and how much they liked them. Some of the apps we tested had more of an emphasis on the games than the actual learning, whereas others had good information but weren’t engaging enough to keep the kid’s attention.
I didn’t set a time limit for this; I just let my kids explore the apps because I wanted their experience to be an organic one, but we generally tested for approximately 30 minutes a day. Although, they wanted to test for longer on the weekends.
I sat with them as they played, and I made sure the learning was set to the right level with the right amount of challenge. I also focused on how much learning was taking place, how much fun they were having, and if they were being taught in the same way they are at school.
On top of this, I also wanted to know how they could progress and, in the case of the paid apps, whether or not the paid versions were worth the investment over the free apps.
With such a comprehensive testing system in place, I was able to get a good understanding of all the apps and compile my list of the top 3.
Why get the app?
Mobile learning apps are an essential way to support your children with their learning outside the classroom. It's clear that kids respond well to screens, and so learning games are a great way to ensure their screen time is used in a productive, healthy, and fun way.
Not to mention that learning to read for the first time, especially in English, is a big undertaking for little ones. Using phonics, blending words, and knowing what tasks to do with your child to help them learn can be difficult, but with a mobile app, you can take some of that pressure off because you know it’s been specifically designed with their learning abilities in mind.
By using a mobile learning app, you’re able to find the right level of challenge and difficulty for your child. The best part is, they can use them wherever they go. Whether they’re doing some extra work at home, or they’re playing and learning when you go on a long journey.
More About Khan Academy Kids: Our Pick
Khan Academy Kids is a fantastic app that covers every base to help your child learn. Everything has been designed with kids in mind, and your child will love the characters, animations, colors available, as well as the overall design and structure of the app.
It’s a very child-friendly app, and there are lots of interactive features that will engage your child and create a fun learning environment. You can create and customize characters and do different tasks with them, which your child will love.
When you get into the actual games, content, and activities available, you’ll be shocked at just how good this is for a free app. There are a wide variety of subjects available, in addition to reading and spelling, but as we only looked at the reading and spelling section, we will start there.
This app covers ability levels from pre-school to 2nd grade, and there are literally hundreds of different tasks, games, and activities available to use, and that’s just for reading and spelling. You can select the ability level of your child, and once you do, whether you need help identifying letter sounds, practicing sight words, or reading fiction or non-fiction books, Khan Academy Kids has you covered in every way.
The games and activities are all fun and engaging, and with so many choices available, your child will never get bored of what’s on offer.
There are different games available to suit every learner, and it’s clear that they’ve put a lot of detail into every single one. This app gives you a truly comprehensive way to learn and has more than enough options to help your child consolidate their learning on any topic that they’re struggling with.
However, the best part about this app is that it’s free. We tested some games that were clearly designed to make a profit, whereas, from the moment you first open Khan Academy Kids, you’ll see that their only intention is to help your child learn.
Snags but not drags:
It’s difficult to find fault with anything in this app; however, if there was one thing we’d like to see improved, it would be a more consistent teaching style.
With such a huge worldwide reach, it makes sense that different parts of the world may do things slightly differently, and we did notice one or two things that were a little different from how our kids are taught at school.
We must stress, this isn’t a deal-breaker by any, and the few times that this happened, it wasn’t hard to correct, but it’s just worth noting that some topics may be taught slightly differently from how your child is. They will still learn and get vital information, but they may take a different route to get there.
More About Learn to Read with Tommy Turtle: Runner Up
What grabs you immediately about this app is the child-friendly design. It uses big bright colors that are sure to capture your child’s attention, and they’ll instantly fall in love with the cartoon design and animations.
Once you start the game, it’s just as engaging, and your child is sure to have fun as they help ‘Tommy the Turtle’ to build different things. You can build bikes, pogo sticks, skateboards, or even more advanced items like cars and motorbikes, with these bigger items requiring more pieces, and therefore more learning to complete.
To get a piece of whatever you’re trying to build, you must complete a range of activities, and each one is slightly different, which we loved because it ensures your child is practicing all of the essential components and not just the areas they are strongest in.
For example, to get one piece, you may have to read aloud, whereas to get another piece you may have to identify letter sounds, and get another, you may have to practice blending words. This is such a good feature because it really does cover everything, and it also helps to consolidate learning.
You can’t complete the design until you have all the pieces, and you need to practice these skills no matter what you’re trying to build. So while on some games, you may be able to move on before you’re truly ready, it’s much harder to do that in this app.
We also found that it uses the same methods that are children are taught in school, which is another great feature. The blending games, for example, used the exact same methods, which makes it easier to learn when the methods are consistent.
Overall, this is a great app that could be a fantastic resource to help your child read.
More About Teach Your Monster to Read: Also Groovy
Teach your Monster to Read is a great app that kids will love. It engages them immediately, as you’re asked to design your own monster to use in the game, and everything about the app is kid-friendly and fun.
From the colors and design to the exciting user interface, this app will grab your kid’s attention immediately, and from that moment on, you can expect lots of fun as your monster goes on an adventure to get back to its ship.
The app is straightforward and has just the right amount of challenge that your child can play and learn independently without having to guess, which means you can be more confident that they’re actually learning.
We did a lot of work around the different letter sounds, but you can find a variety of topics to help your child learn, whether they’re brand new to reading and need help identifying their letters, or they’re further along and are just beginning to work on blending their words so they can read more effectively.
You’ll find lots of mini-games and activities that help to reinforce learning as your child both practice their letter sounds and their reading skills, and there are lots of fun features that will keep them motivated and excited to play, such as being able to collect coins which you can use to buy accessories for your monster. You can also collect different sounds and words in the game, which is a fun feature.
If there were one area we’d like to see improved, it would be the pace of the game, as sometimes we noticed it was possible to move up even if you weren’t fully secure in an area, but as parents, that’s when you would step in to give your child some extra support.
Other Apps Considered
This app was well designed with good colors and a user-friendly interface; however, we feel there are better options available. We felt that the instructions of what to do weren’t very clear, and we also felt that the learning games were limited as the app didn’t offer enough options to keep you engaged.
We found this app quite basic to use and not very user-friendly. The loud clicks whenever you tap on the screen were annoying, and we also found the app slow to respond when we played the games, which resulted in us quickly getting bored and losing interest.
We didn’t enjoy this app. Much of the letters are hidden behind a paywall, and unfortunately, you’ve got to spend the money before you really know what you’re getting. We also found that there wasn’t enough variety in the game. We feel there are better free apps available.
We found this app a little slow at times and not the smoothest to work with. Changing between screens was often very slow, and we found the same in the games. It’s a shame because the app overall was pretty good. But it’s easy to see how some kids could get bored if the pace doesn’t increase.
Anton Mark
As a freelancer, I use all types of different apps so that I can manage my time and remain organized with ease. I’m always on the go so I love anything that can help me to stay on top of my tasks but for fun, I love playing games or watching movies.
I’m a huge sports fan so I’ll usually be checking the latest scores or following up on my teams and I also like to expand my mind with audiobooks and podcasts. Using apps allows me to get through so much more in a typical day that I simply wouldn’t be able to cover otherwise and I love it.
Being able to write about apps is pretty great as I get to research the best apps out there and find the hidden gems that people may not know about then share that information to help others discover their new favorite apps.
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