Teach Your Monster to Read 4+

Amazing!

I’ve been using this app with my 3 year old, partly for his speech, but to also give him a head start on reading. He’s blasting his way through the app and loves showing everyone how far he’s got and inviting them to play with him. He’s able to recognise letters and match them with the sound and vice versa, and carries this through to every day life when he’s beginning to try to read words he sees.

One criticism is that it’s too easy to add additional players to the game, meaning that he has made the maximum amount of players, which leads to him playing the same sounds over and over instead of working consecutively through the game if i’m not guiding him to the main one that is the furthest on. Adding the need for an adult to oversee new players being added would cut down on this.

All in all, a brilliant app that has helped with speech difficulty, helped concentration and coordination and makes learning extremely fun for a bright 3 year old.

A good game but needs some tweaking

Firstly, can I say a big thank you for your dedication in helping children to read. It’s such an important skill for children and adults. I love that it’s a charity and not just a money making scheme and the thought you have put into this is amazing. I have some feedback which I hop you will take on board.
1. The duck pond game and the flower game are too difficult for little fingers to do easily and cause frustration. My daughter knows which pond the ducks need to go in and which path the flower tells her to go down but getting the ducks to got into the pond and the monster to take the right path causes a meltdown.
2. Can you put a limit on how many times you can dress your alien after each game is completed. My daughter can spend a good 10 minutes swapping and changing the clothes after each game that she gets more excited about doing that than doing the games to learn the words/letters. Maybe allow 1 dress change per after game and then automatically move them out of the closet?
3. I can’t access the Letter, certificate or book from the Alien. I log into the game from the website and it accepts the password but just gives me a completely black screen. I’ve sent a message on twitter but haven’t had a reply yet.
Everything else is superb!

Developer Response ,

Hi Dan, thanks for the review and we're pleased your child is enjoying teaching her monster to read. In reply to your questions:

1. Feedback taken on board! Some kids love these games because of their controls (especially the flower game) but we understand they're not for everyone - for this reason, we introduced a brand new first minigame which was well received by all the kids who playtested it. We'll be bringing in plenty more minigames as well as improving existing ones to make the more fun and educational at the same time.

2. Again, feedback taken on board. Thanks. We like to give kids some freedom over the world and feel we've got the blend just about right, but we appreciate this and will definitely bear it in mind.

3. Hmmm, ok. Are you trying to login on our website to see your kid's certificate, letter and ebook? First, are they logging in on the app, or just playing on a locally created player? If they're logging in using a player name and player password you created on our website, then you will receive emails when they have got a new certificate, letter or ebook to read. You can login on our site to get these, using your email address and password (not the player login details).
We advise logging in on a desktop PC or laptop for this.

Hope that helps and thanks again for the review.

Alex

This is a fantastic resource

.... and my daughter is really loving this now she is 5. I might be a bit of a wally but we actually both found the gameplay a bit frustrating when she was younger and didn’t look at it from age 3 to now. The platform game can be really tough to get the hang of, and also rounding up the animals can be a bit frustrating. I wonder if you could have some tips in the game if people are struggling, like “get behind the animals” or “tap where you want to jump to”. I’m still not sure we’ve got it right!
I also agree with the other user who said it would be great to have some sort of timed usage or stop point, it would really aid in managing use in a homeschool situation. Not sure how you do this without ripping kids out mid-game. I usually let her finish the “planet” she’s on at the moment...
Another small piece of feedback... when you get to the later games, it says (eg) “you already know “ch” looks like xxx, it also looks like xxxx” - it should say “sounds like” if it’s where a particular letter or set of letters can make more than one sound