My 5 year old son informed me that he didn't like ANY of the computer games I had found and they were all boring yesterday. Time to begin another internet search for "fun" games. We stumbled upon
"Teach Your Monster to Read" which was created by The Usborne Foundation. My kids really enjoy our Usborne books so I decided we should give it a try. I asked my 5 year old what he thought about it and well he was less than excited because it was a learning game until he started playing it.
Teach Your Monster to Read teaches letters, sounds and is COMPLETELY FREE for the computer version. They do have an app available for 4.99 which they charge for to help pay for creating new games. It was easy to register.
Setting my son up was simple. Just had to put his name in. I can add as many players as I want. On the HOME page I can check the stats, see what my son is working on, how he has done with the other sounds, so much information is available to help ME teach my son. I can also download a printable poster of his monster which he can name.
I was able to choose a level for my son. I got to choose the level for my son using the information the site provided below. I could look at what they would learn in each level to help determine where to place him. It's solely based off a parent placement, not placement tests, just what I felt was best. I chose level 2 for my son, which started with the ch, sh, sounds which is about where he is. You can only start at the beginning of a level so if your child already knows some of the information it's a good review and allows them the chance to learn how the games work before adding learning new content AND trying to learn how the games work which can become very confusing for kids.
Like I said earlier at first my 5 year old boy was not excited but that was more due to him being in a bad mood then him not liking the game because once he got started I had a hard time getting him off. He got to design a monster character to play with which he thought was awesome. The monsters were cute and there were so many options. You could change just about anything using their pre-made options.
He then started playing the games and was very excited to learn some new sounds and review some he already knew. It began by introducing a sound, asking them to say it, then finding it in words. When the game asked him to repeat the sounds I told my son that his monster could hear him so he'd actually do it, the game can't really hear them but it sure got him participating. Things happen on the game after they say the sound, a door opens, they get to gather stars, or play a new game. It's very interactive.
This is an awesome site and I recommend it for kids who are showing interest in learning their letter sounds which is usually anywhere from 4-6 year olds. If you start with level 1 and work your way through the whole program at 20 minutes a day (their recommendation) you'd finish all three levels in about 43 weeks. Another great thing about this program is you can go at your child's pace. The game remembers them and where they left off so if you don't want to do 20 minutes 5 days a week you don't have to. If your child is read to move to another level you can change that level on your HOME page instead of having to create a new player for them.
This site DID NOT have any other ads on the sides that would lead kids to dangerous places which I love! There are also a ton of free resources in the classroom section. You can find this by clicking on the teacher's area. I honestly just keep finding more and more exciting things with this site. The Usborne Foundation has done an awesome job creating this for new readers. 
