OMG, I have found what is very nearly the Holy Grail of iPad/iPod apps...

[silverfrog]

... well, if you are after educational, spelling/phonics apps that is

dd1 loves her iPad, and is racing awau with the (few) phonics apps she a;ready has. I have been after somethign like this for ages, as dd1's school is using a lot of photos to get her recreating sentences underneath etc, and best of all, it is FREE!

THe app is: Sight Words by Little Speller; it is developed by Grasshopperapps.

It is a simple app - it has the common sight words, written centre screen, with mini scrabble tiles underneath to drag and drop the letters onto to recreacte the word. Like a million other apps.

BUT

this one is fully customisable

so, you can re-record the american voice (which uses letter names, not phonics) if you want to - easily done.

you can choose between upper/lower case

you can choose between letting the child randomly put letters into the word/phrase, or have them spell it out left-right only.

there is minimal "wrong" reinforcement (and I think you may be able to turn it off)

you can dleete words you don't want as easily as adding in new ones you do want

you can use your own photos/images, and thus make up a new folder of useful words/phrases (yes, it even lets you use phrases - just writes the sentence under the picture; you can record whatever voice tag/prompt you want, or turn it off)

I have only had a very quick play, so I am sure there is a flaw in it somewhere, but I haven't found it yet!

I did do the trial (partly with her - she pointed, I moved cursor as only had a mousepad on crappy laptop at the time). she was not hugely interested, but I think we could work on that.

she has taken some huge leaps recently - she is far more interested, and interest-able in a bigger range of things. her questioning is throught e roof - "what is it?" is heard every five minutes - about the ingredients of my salad, about somethign she sees on the table - she is really storing up vocab like there is no tomorrow.

don't get me wrong - she stil has some very severe issues, but is in a huge growth phase right now ,and changing weekly. when she is firing on all cylinders, her langugae flows, and just falls into place. but a lot of it is still routine, and scripted to a degree (although she can be flexible abotu her learnt phrses, and adjust appropriately)

will concentrate on mouse issue - any tips for decent games/programmes to help with that? she is right at the beginning wrt knowing that the mouse moves the cursor - will swipe the mouse around, while gazing into mid-screen blankly...

Yes, I do.
Priory Woods school home page has some fun activities

ooh, thanks muchly - will have a nosey.

Re mouse control, DS1 is now completely fab with this (when it looked doubtful for a long time that he'd ever 'get it'). He started with the poissonrouge website, and then moved onto the cbeebies website (highly motivating for him). Our consultant had advised us to buy the Reader Rabbit cd rom, which she said was the best thing on the market for learning mouse control, but DS1 had no need for it in the end

hth

That's interesting re RR.
Yes, you have to have a very reinforcing set up to increase and refine use of mouse.
This topic comprised a vast chunk of my MSc.
Most interesting.
Let us know how you get on.
I'll be showing that fab clock to all my colleagues.

OMG, Where's my card, I'm SOOOOOO getting that teaching hands clock.......

My DS will adore it.

The rest of the thread is irrelevant as I don't own any i anythings, but I'm thinking of getting an iphone, - will that Little speller work on it?

Oh sorry, my last comment sounded so rude and I honestly didn't mean it like that

Moondog - slight thread hijack: in which language did your DD learn to read first? And did you let her learn in one before starting the other, or did you do both at the same time? DD is 6 and is learning to read this year in French (as you prob. know they learn to read later in rest of Europe). She is starting to figure out English but often confuses French syllables with English phonetics. Was wondering whether to restart headsprout with her or to leave it until French is really established (community language therefore important, but have noticed recently that as her French gets better her English is getting more disordered!)
Hello Silverfrog (waves). We are doing very well. DD is loving her new school. Only goes part-time (funding!!) but for the first time we have a coherent home/school program which is wonderful. TBH, more concerns about DS this year (he's NT, but struggling socially as a result of lack of community language and "bad" example set by his older sister). Is your younger one NT? How does she get on with the other kids? DS's prob is that so much interaction with his sister is physical that he forgets to speak first and act later!

fedup: thanks for the recommendation - will look into it. it is finding things that are highly motivating for dd1 (and involve mouse use!) that is the problem. she likes a lt of things well enough, but not always quite enough to get her through the "hmmm, not going as planned, bit mor eeffort than i htought - oh well, I'll read a book instead" stage...

Starlight: if you go onto the manufacturers site, rather than difflearn, you can get clock+magnetic playset for $40, iirc, - magnetic set based on same clock, but obviously more portable, and easier to use to teach with. yes, Little Speller app ok on iphone too (and at my darling daughter's reading issues being irrelevant )

Brioche: dd2 is probably not NT, no. she is looking like she is very high functioning end of AS, with some control/demand issues. she is 4 (just gone, in Feb), and started pre-school last Sept, when she was 3.7ish. we went very cautiously for a while - she did 3 afternoons (less structure ,all abut the social, but at the same time, her key worker owuld take her aside for part of it to cover what had been done in the morning, so it wasn't full on social). we worried a LOT about her. and for a while, it didn't look good. lots of playing by herself, not really able to join in with others - but gettig on excellently with the staff, and forming good relationships there. but this term she has turned a corner. she has actual friends (she coud alwys name who else was in her class, but if I asked her who she played wiht, she would reel off some names that Iknew had not been there, or who (when I checked with her key worker) she had not played with..), and seems very much a part of the class. she found it hard ot adjust form being theone who coud control everyhting (dd1 is always directed in their play together), and knew that her default action of scrrreeeeeaaaaaam if something is not going oyur way was not "allowed" with people other than her sister (I say allowed - obv we do not condone this! but she nows it will get dd1 to drop the toy, or whatever, so she does it regardless, although now diminishing after a lt of work!), so was at a loss as to how to get on socially. but being cautious and observing has worked well for her, and she seems ot have learnt a lt of the "rules" so can now fit in. but I htink we will have issues when she goes into reception (class being different, I htink her best friend is not continuing in the same school etc) so the worries are not entirely gone!

Brioche, c'etait la langue de Pays de Galles.
Their reading was okayish (early level) in this language which is very easy to read having near perfect sound/letter correspondence. Englisah is much more complex to read. As a French speaker, I can say that French easier to read than English.

None of us live in monolingual communities, do we?
All I felt was necessary was for my kids to clearly understand that letters represent sounds and that sounds are blended to make words.

What do you mean restart?
Why did you stop?
With anything, you should, once you have made a ecision, stick with it.
For Headsprout that means 3-5 episodes a week every week, if not more. I ensured we did an episode a day, even on Christmas day.

You need to email them to ask them to reset your account to the beginning if you are going to give it another go.

we started when she was way too young and didn't get past episode 3 (i.e. not past the free episodes) because it was quite clear that she wasn't making the connections (as you put it, that sounds are blended to make words) at all and couldn't even understand the instructions. Since then her language has come on leaps and bounds and she has started to read, albeit in French, so I was thinking it might be time to start, really. She's nearly 7.

Go for it!
Remember to do the 'Mousing Around' tutorial before you start (on the page)

Let me know how you get on.