{Review} Phonics Museum by Veritas Press - From Crayons to Keyboards

Are you looking for a fun an engaging reading app for children ages 3 to 7? My youngest two children, Train Buff (5) and Munchkin (almost 4) have been enjoying the Phonics Museum App by Veritas Press! Train Buff and Munchkin reviewed Phonics Museum on both an iPad and an iPhone.

The app is available in iTunes. Phonics Museum is compatible with iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches with iOS 9.1 or later. The Phonics Museum subscription is $9.99 monthly or $98.99 annually and allows up to three children per account. You can try Phonics Museum for two weeks for free before subscribing and you can cancel your account at any time.

Setting up the kids was a breeze! All I had to do was add their name and choose an avatar and they were ready to go!

Phonics Muesum begins when William goes to the museum with his family. He wants to go somewhere “more exciting” than a museum like a toy store. He thinks he is going to die of bordem. William meets Percival (a talking suit of armor) and Miss Biddle (person in charge). They tell him how much can be learned from exploring the paintings in a museum.

Children jump into a painting and complete various activities. Once all of the easels are completed the frame of the painting will change colors. It is easy to find your child’s last completed activity. You go to the first painting that doesn’t have a colored frame and jump into it. Then go to the first easel that doesn’t have a star and jump into it. There is a progress tracker to show child how far along they are in the activity, along with a pause button. A star will appear on the easel once the entire activity is completed.

A sample of activities from one of the paintings:

Video with Miss Biddle
Music – A song about Percival and a boy who came to see the art.
Video with Miss Biddle – Talking about gift of words to share via reading and writing. Introduces short a sound.
Game – Tap the jack in the box when you hear the short a.
Video – Miss Biddle and Percival. Talking about a covered painting then next game.
Game – Tapping the lettter a on a lily pad
Video – Miss Biddle and Pervical talk about apple starts with the short a. Talks about the other words that begin with the letter A. Introduces writing the letters both capital and lower cases. Then asks child to pick out the letter A.
Game – Tapping the letter A – Birds and when correct the bird goes into the bird bath.
Video – Introduces the capital and lowercase as both the computer and written version.
Game – tap the letter A. Flowers in a field and then they grow out of the vase when correct.
Video – Miss Biddle trying to figure out what the painting is.
Game – Practicing tracing the letters.
Video – Miss Biddle reveals the painting that was underneath the cover.

When opening the app, the last student to be logged in is logged in. It is simple to switch students. There is a safeguard in place to switch students as well as access the settings. For most young children this will keep them from changing to a siblings account or changing a setting.

Our thoughts

Train Buff and Munchkin love Phonics Museum! They ask to play it every day! In the photo above you can see Train Buff showing one of his older sisters how he can trace the letter A.

We did run into a couple of minor glitches. In a couple of the games the activities required the kids to select words that began with the letter a and move them to a specific item. Sometimes they could do it without any issues but other times the items would just stay attached to the mouse and collect other items in the process. It just took tapping the home button and swiping the program closed to resolve the problem. It would work as it was supposed to when we opened the program up again.

I liked that the app kept them engaged and learning. Train Buff will sing some of the songs even while he is not playing the game. While the iPhone screen is small compared to an iPad it doesn’t seem to bother either of the kids when they are using the app on my phone. I also like the fact that the app doesn’t have to have an internet connection in order to be played.

If you are looking for an engaging educational app, I recommend trying out Phonics Museum by Veritas Press!