Resource Description
Starfall offers both a free online phonics/reading program and a (fee-based) reading/language arts curriculum that is "magical, creative, sequential, integrated, and combines content area instruction in Social Studies and Science - that's kindergarten, the Starfall Way. Starfall uses fantasy as a springboard for motivating children to use their natural sense of wonder and curiosity to enhance learning. Children interact with Starfall characters in the classroom as well as through stories, songs, rhymes, practice books, writing journals, and activities online." More.Starfall.com is a separate membership area of the site that extends available offerings to include customizable worksheet generators, lesson plans, math games, more extensive phonics games, and more.
Website: Starfall (may contain affiliate links)
(46 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Outdated and don't learn anything.
Grades Used: 2nd and 3rd grade
I don't really like it, the game is outdated, and you don't really learn anything, it just keeps teaching the same thing over and over again, I hate it.
My son went thru it with in 2 days
Too easy for him
And now there's nothing new for him to learn
Paid $35 for that????!!! Not worth it
Cons: Not a fan of the math
Grades Used: pre-k
We absolutely love Starfall in this house! We are a Montessori family, so my children learn primarily from working with those materials, so that says something!
Cons: The progression organization of the site
Grades Used: 2 years to 6 years old
The organization of the material is still confusing for me even after I have used Starfall off and on for about 8 years now. Most of my review is my explaining what has worked best for me to organize our journey through the material.
I have been very pleased with Starfall, but it took me a little while to decide/learn the order to present the materials. *******I do wish the site was organized differently to help me know how and when to skip around. I think an avatar working his way through a reading map and suggesting a logical progression would be very useful*****
First I get my children used to "doing preschool" by learning the colors at about 2-3 years old.
Then depending on my child's readiness we have started the ABC section as early as a late 2 or as late as 4 years old. I sit with the child and make sure that we learn a letter or two before I let him have free play. They next day I review what we have already learned and then we do a few more. I have learned that it won't do any good to move more quickly than the child is ready for so until you see the signs that your child is ready, you just keep playing in the ABC section. I put him on my lap and try to make it fun. The I let him play on the activities after we are done.
Then at some point the light switch will go off and the child will be ready for blending sounds. The word machines are my next stop. In the beginning I sit with the child, with the volume turned off and with my hand over the picture of the word, and I work with my child to sound out the word. Later, they race the machine to read the word before the picture comes down the pipe.
As soon as I can see my child is getting the hang of blending the sounds then I take him to the first 5 of Backpack Bear's books. Here he will learn some sight words that he will need. I focus on teaching them that some words can be sounded out and that you have to memorize other words. One of my kids flew through that whole section. The others have spent more time. Sometimes depending how he is progressing we take an easy day and go back to word machines or to the first few books in unit one of "more phonics".
Then we can go back to the "learn to read section" because now that my kid has some sight words down, he'll be ready for the first five lessons there. I have tried this without spending some time on the sight words and it is too big a jump from word machines to reading these lessons.
Then I go back and do the rest of the lessons in "Backpack Bear's books." By the time we get through those, my kids start hitting the wall where they fight me more about doing preschool and they get tired because it has become work. Two of my kids really welcomed the break when we moved on and started with the "short vowel pals."
Then we start going sequentially through the "more phonics" section. The first few sections are waaay easy. I am sure they could read those sooner, but I am already skipping around in the other sections so I just deal with it. Then I just help them as the the books get harder and harder.
I use some of the printouts to work on letter formation and handwriting but I am not as consistent with that.
I have recommended starfall to many people over the years because it really has a lot of great content and I have had great results using it.
I used it to teach my now 10 year old and my 8 year old to read before they went to kindergarten. I am working with my twin boys to learn to read before they go to kindergarten in the fall.
My twin five year olds are working through Backpack Bear's books. My 8 and 10 year olds were reading a couple of grade levels above their peers by the time they went to kindergarten. No one is brilliant or anything, we just spent time working on it before each of them went to school.
Cons: Geared toward classroom, difficult to adjust to homeschool
Grades Used: Pre-K
Pre-K homeschool package- very much set up for a classroom. A bit difficult to wade through and change for one child alone at home. I like the materials but not all that homeschool friendly. The website is great.
Cons: Very classroom centered around a group when i bought it it was close to 1000 not a good program for struggling readers
Grades Used: K two years ago
long story...... I homeschooled my now third grader(still homeschooled) only because she was closed out of the registration to the private school where we send our kids. I wanted a good schooly program i could trust. I bought the whole curriculum with all the bells and whistles. I think that it cost close to 1000. First ( or second day) focuses on all the beginning sounds of the kids names in the class and getting to know them. There was also a focus on school rules. We had to modify it a lot. My daughter also has a reading disability and it was way too much at once for her. We used it for a month or two. Later we did use all of the books and workbooks. I was about to throw out my two big bindres of the downloaded curriculum but when I looked at it I decided that there are many good parts to it. I am going to use some of it for my new kindergartener who is going to be homeschooled on purpose this time. Bottom line is there are some nice points to it ,but it is meant for a classroom. It was very pricey.