My son is in the throes of pre-reading mania. He reads letters on everything from milk cartons to street signs to his vitamin tablets. He points to the words on a book cover and moves his finger along, saying the title. He’s not actually reading it yet; it doesn’t work if he doesn’t know the title in advance. Still, the connection is there, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
One site I’ve been using to encourage his budding skills is Starfall.com. I forget who suggested it to me, but I’m glad someone did. (Parent Hacks covered it last October, but I know we were using it before that.) It’s full of well thought-out games and exercises for pre-readers and early readers. The animations are done with stock photos, clip art, and simple tunes, just enough to be entertaining without having the whiz-bang graphics overwhelm the message. For those of us tired of the constant barrage of character-branded children’s games, this is a refreshing alternative, at once homespun and technologically clever. There are even some downloadable worksheets to print and use offline. It’s also free—truly free, with no advertisements to seduce or distract. (One page on the site has some low-cost books and games for sale, but it’s separate from the online game pages that kids will be using.)
The site was founded by Stephen Schutz, his wife Susan Polis Schutz, and their son Jared Schutz Polis. The husband-wife team are the founders of Blue Mountain Arts Publishing. Those of you who have been around the Web as long as I have will also remember bluemountain.com, one of the first electronic greeting card companies, which they launched with their son in 1996 (and later sold to American Greetings). They’ve got another winner here.
After such a glowing review, I should add that I’m in no way connected with Starfall. I just think it’s a great example of an engaging children’s site that puts the focus where it should be—on pedagogy and fun—rather than on character’s catch phrases and sales of branded products. Computer games aren’t all I do to build my son’s reading skills (mostly, I read to him), but I’m happy to throw a few good ones into the mix.