SightWords Pro

 

 

Bottom Line: Another terrific app by developer 24x7 digital. A must-download if you're working with your child on sight words.

Every week, Lily's teacher sends home a little plastic bag of flash cards with cut-out letters and basic sight words for her to study. They are all from the Dolch list for her age and my wife and I review them with her, placing the ones she doesn't know on the back of the pile to review again.

But there's an app for that! There's an app that does far more than that!

Using Sightwords Pro, the parent can display each word on the screen, ask the child to read it, and then touch either a star for the correct answer or a flag for the wrong one. Words which were answered incorrectly (flagged) can then be loaded by themselves into a set of their own for additional work. Lists can be randomized by shaking the device.

The beauty of the app is it's depth. Instead of working with Lily on 5-10 letters/words a week, we can work with her on the entire Dolch pre-primer list at once or one of 74(!) included word lists. The app contains over 1,500 sight words, including Dolch, Fry, Pinnell-Fountas, UK, Australia Color-Coded and other high-frequency word lists. Additional word lists can be imported.

The number of preloaded words and sets is what distinguishes the app from many other reading/spelling apps I have reviewed, where adding your own lists is the primary feature and included sets a secondary one. Each word list can also be modified by removing certain words and/or adding them from other sets.

In addition to the word sets, the apps includes upper and lowercase alphabet, numbers 0-100, colors, animals, shapes and months. The narration is done by the same woman who voiced "Mimi Mouse" in the TeachMe series, so I know it will be familiar to Lily.

This is why 24x7 digital is one my favorite developers and why their apps are frequently in the education top 10: They build these great, really deep apps and then price them at 99 cents. 

The only feature the app needs is the ability to create your own word lists in the app without having to import them. Also, a button for randomizing the lists (like the one that SpellBoard has when you start each test) would be helpful since I didn't notice the shake-to-randomize option at first.

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If you would like to purchase SightWords Pro please use the links provided. The cost is the same, but Smart Apps receives a small percentage. Thanks for your support!

iPad/iPhone ($0.99):     U.S.     Canada     U.K.     Australia