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Our first child really, really hated learning to read. If you’re dreading teaching your own kid to read, I get it. Hooked on Phonics is the app we put on the kids’ iPads, and it took a lot of that pressure off me. Here’s exactly what’s inside, how a lesson works, and what we paid.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why we chose Hooked on Phonics
• 1:01 Inside the app: Pre-Reader and Learn to Read worlds
• 1:43 What one lesson looks like
• 3:31 The book at the end and progress tracking
• 4:12 Pricing and the first-month offer
• 4:52 App practice packs and our workbook

Why we picked Hooked on Phonics

My first child really didn’t like learning to read. The way Hooked on Phonics walks a child through reading just makes sense to me. It’s easy for the child, and it has a lot of little ways to celebrate their successes along the way.

As a homeschool mom, my favorite part is that it doesn’t need any prep from me. We open the app and we’re ready to go. We can fly through a lesson in 20 minutes or less. Honestly, I don’t think a reading program could get much simpler.

How the app is set up

When you open the app, you’ll see two worlds. The Pre-Reader world is for preschoolers. The Learn to Read world is for kindergartners and up.

Learn to Read has 24 steps, or units. Inside each step, the flowers along the bottom of the screen are the individual lessons. In step one, for example, the kids learn words that end in -at, -an and -ap.

• Steps 1 through 13 have four to five activities in each lesson.
• Steps 14 through 24 have six activities in each lesson.

What one lesson looks like

Every lesson follows the same simple pattern, which my kids like because they know what’s coming.

1. A short video. It usually runs between 20 seconds and a minute and goes over the sounds and words for that lesson, like bat, fan and map. In the higher steps, the videos also teach sight words, which Hooked on Phonics calls “helper words.”
2. Three games or puzzles. Some are just for exploring and testing things out, and the kids earn a star for trying. In others, they sound out a word before the app reads it to them. Encourage your child to say each sound, like “b” and then “at,” before putting it together. Another game has them hear a word, like “cat,” and find the right sound and word on the screen.
3. A very short, easy book. The books get longer and harder as your child moves up through the steps.

How it tracks progress

When your child finishes an activity, a little check mark shows up next to it. In a unit they haven’t started yet, floating stars show where to begin, and the activities they haven’t done are covered by raindrops.

As they finish each step, that unit gets colored in at the top of the screen. So you can always see where you left off. Kids unlock rewards as they go, and the app makes a little certificate for them at the end. I really like how easy it is to keep track of their progress.

What it cost us

When we filmed this in 2020, Hooked on Phonics was running a special where your first month was just a dollar. That offer is what my Hooked on Phonics first-month link was for.

After the first month, here’s what the options were when we bought it:

• Monthly: seven dollars a month
• Yearly: forty dollars
• Lifetime: eighty dollars

The lifetime subscription was the best value for us. You can load it onto three devices, and we have four kids, so every one of them gets to use it. Lifetime use for 80 bucks was a super steal for our family.

Practice packs and our workbook

After we bought our subscription, Hooked on Phonics added app practice packs. These are hands-on materials you use alongside the app. Each one has two storybooks and a little workbook so kids get some real writing practice, which I think is super valuable. Each pack covers two steps, and they were six dollars a pack. You could order one and see how you like it, use them for every step, or just sprinkle a few in through the year.

What’s nice about the practice pack books is that they match the lesson your child is on. For our kindergartners, we’ve used the Brain Quest workbook from my Kindergarten Amazon list for writing practice.

The kids do their lessons on iPads. Here’s the iPad we linked, plus the screen protector and kid-friendly case we use to keep them in one piece.

If you want to see everything else we use for kindergarten, I walk through it in our easy way to teach kindergarten at home.

Key takeaways

• Hooked on Phonics has a Pre-Reader world for preschoolers and a Learn to Read world for kindergarten and up.
• Learn to Read has 24 steps. Every lesson is a short video, three games and a little book.
• It takes zero prep from me, and a lesson is done in 20 minutes or less.
• Check marks, colored-in units and rewards make progress easy to see.
• Lifetime was the best value for our family because it works on three devices.
• Practice packs add storybooks and writing practice that match the app’s lessons.

What viewers say

Very helpful! Thank you!

@josiegustemahana799 on YouTube

Thank you so much. Phonics is so important to build the reading skill, and reading the the foundation of any learning.

@sammirison7755 on YouTube

I still remember going through the practice sessions of the old Hooked on Phonics books as a child. My reading became 2000% better after going through the exercises (even though I was hella frustrated trying to learn how to pronounce certain words lol). It helped turn me into a prolific reader though, and I definitely wasn't embarrassed about reading in front of a classroom full of people anymore.

@chrisf8293 on YouTube

Things we mentioned

• Hooked on Phonics first month: the link for the first-month offer
• Brain Quest Kindergarten workbook (my Kindergarten Amazon list): the writing practice we use with our kindergartners
• iPad, screen protector and kid-friendly case: what the kids use for their lessons

Thinking about teaching reading at home? Come hang out with our crew on YouTube. We share what’s working in our homeschool every week. Subscribe to The Johnson Crew on YouTube.

FAQ

What ages is Hooked on Phonics for?

The app has a Pre-Reader world for preschoolers and a Learn to Read world for kindergartners and up.

How long does a Hooked on Phonics lesson take?

For us, a lesson takes 20 minutes or less. There’s no prep, so we just open the app and go.

What’s in each lesson?

A short video of about 20 seconds to a minute, three games or puzzles, and a short book at the end. The books get longer and harder in the higher steps.

Can more than one child use the subscription?

When we bought it, you could load the app onto three devices. That’s a big reason we went with the lifetime subscription for our four kids.

Do you need the practice packs?

No, they’re an optional add-on. Each pack has two storybooks and a little workbook that match the app’s lessons, so you could try one and see how you like it.

More from our crew

• Easy Way to Teach Your Kindergartener at Home! Kindergarten Curriculum
• Easy Way to Teach Preschool & Pre-K at Home!: Do You Need a Curriculum?: Learning Goals
• 1st Grade Curriculum Options & My Review: Our Favorite Math Program

Full transcript

Hi welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Sarah and today I want to show you inside the hooked on phonics app if you are looking for an easy way to teach your child how to read I highly recommend looking into the hooftone phonics app we put it on the kids ipads and it really makes learning a lot more fun my first child really hated to learn to read and I really feel like the way that hooked on phonics works through learning how to read just makes

So much sense and it's very easy for the child and it has a lot of ways to celebrate their successes along the way and I think it works really well another thing that I as a homeschool parent really love about hooked on phonics is that it doesn't require any prep on my part we just open up the app and we're ready to just fly through a lesson and we can be done in 20 minutes or less so I feel like this program just could not get any simpler

So hooked on phonics has actually added some new items to their shop since we first originally purchased our app subscription so after we look at the app we'll take a look at those okay so here's what the app looks like they've got the pre-reader world which is for preschoolers and then the learn to read world which is for kindergartners and up so we're going to click on that so the app has 24 steps or units let's go back to the beginning so starting in step one

And lesson one you can see down at the bottom these flowers these are the individual lessons within each step so in this step we're going to learn about words that end in a t a n and a p and steps one through thirteen have four to five activities within each lesson and then steps 14 through 24 have six okay starting with step one and lesson one you start off with a video get ready to learn words like bat fan map so it starts off with a quick video usually between 20 seconds

And a minute to go over the sounds and words they're going to be learning in that lesson and as they get into higher up lessons they'll have videos that teach them their sight words which hooked on phonics calls helper words and then we have three other games or puzzles and then it ends with a very short and easy book which of course increases in length and difficulty as they progress to the higher steps so let's take a look at one of these games in this one they're really just exploring they're just testing things out they earned a star for that

And they can try again I wonder what this one does let's check out another one slide in this activity they actually get to be more involved in sounding out the word so here they have a chance to sound it out before the computer reads it to them so you want to encourage them to sound out the and then at and bat before they put it together okay let's try another one so now they get to practice hearing a word and being able to read that word

So they heard the word cat so they could look for the sound oh it's the c I think it's this pumpkin oh yay and now they have found the word cat now we're ready for the book hat cat yay and now they're all done and you can see that by the little check marks that are next to each activity and this is what it looks like when they haven't started a unit yet they can see where they need to start where the little stars are floating around

And all the other activities that they haven't done yet are covered in a raindrop and as they complete each step the unit gets colored in up here at the top so you can easily keep track of where you left off as they progress through the steps they will earn rewards and those will get unlocked along the way and then it also creates a little certificate for them at the end so I really like how this tracks their progress they are running a special where you can try your first month for just one dollar

And I've got a link in the description box below for you it's a great program to try we highly recommend it so after that first month you could either do a monthly subscription which is seven dollars a month or the much better value is to do the year-long subscription which is forty dollars and then the even better value is the lifetime subscription which is only eighty dollars that's a huge value for us because you can load this onto three devices and we have four kids

So we're gonna definitely use this for each kid and we have lifetime use for only 80 bucks so that's a super steel okay so the thing that they added after we did our original subscription purchase is called app practice packs and these are hands-on materials that you could add in addition to doing the app so it's got two story books and a little workbook so they can actually do some writing practice which is super valuable each pack covers two steps or units and they're only six dollars a pack

So you could order one pack see how you like it maybe you want to do that for all the steps or just some steps here and there to kind of sprinkle in throughout the year totally up to you but I think that's a pretty cool addition that they've made what we've done for our kindergarteners is the brain quest workbook which I'll link to below as well on amazon and that gives them some writing practice but what's cool about using hooked on phonics books is that they correlate with the lesson that your child is going through

So it's pretty cool if you want to see my complete video on how we teach kindergarten and the different things that we use to teach kindergarten I'll link to the video up here so check that out so if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up that helps out the video and if you want to hear more homeschooling tips then please consider subscribing to my channel and I'll talk to you soon