Love to Read by Pirate Trio

by Next is Great

The pirate trio is at it once again. Some of my readers might be familiar with Next is Great having developed Love to Count and Shapes and Puzzles, educational apps for imaginary pirates as young as three years old. This time your child(ren) ages 4-8 will go on an amazing adventure as they get to know words phonetically and in context. Since its launch, Love to Read by Pirate Trio has been featured in the Apple Store as a “New and Noteworthy”, “What’s Hot” and a “Staff Favorite” when it comes to educational apps. It was designed for all Apple devices running iOS 4.0 or later and was inspired with the Montessori teaching methods in mind. Like dice in a canister, Love to Read by Pirate Trio will certainly shake things up a bit.

Whether exploration occurs individually or with a parent/teacher, Love to Read’s three pirate friends will be with you along the way. There are a number of features incorporated that appeal to Applicable2U. The main menu screen is very user friendly which doesn’t overwhelm those using the application. Vocabulary is categorized across three pages and can be manipulated with ones finger in two ways: tapping or scrolling. Love to Read includes wonderful graphics which users can connect too. With 146 words, both boys and girls will be excited as they experience words ranging from transportation and machines, to home and garden, school, instruments, kitchen equipment and fruits and vegetables. It is an app that will meet their interest level and guide all types of learning styles. Through this academic adventure, children will be learning how letters have both individual and group sounds. Based on a great deal of research, this phonetic approach is said to be an excellent foundation for fluent reading skills. Not all children learn in the same manner, applications like Love to Read by Pirate Trio support this idea, through a multi-sensory approach, it certainly becomes applicable to you!

So how does the application work? Simply choose one of the six categories and let the exploring begin. Scroll through four pages, each providing six graphically represented cards. Those just learning to read can begin on any page and select the card of their choice. Once a card has been selected, players will see and hear a variety of things. Upon entering the next screen, a professionally narrated voice will say that word, visually it will be presented as an image card and the actual word is shown below. Regardless of which category or word was chosen, the goal is to shake things up as you ‘deconstruct’ words. Deconstruction of words can occur in one of two ways: shake your device from side to side or simply tapping the “device icon” in the upper right hand corner. As you shake things up, letters will magically float around the page. Your challenge is to put that word back together. Concerned that your child might need support as they reconstruct the word, no problem! Developers have included several support features. Drag and drop letters into place correctly and the newly learned vocabulary word will demonstrate the meaning and possible use of that word in a sentence. To support readers, words within the sentence are highlighted in yellow as they learn to read from left to right and make connections to additional sight words along the way. Even after the sentence has been read, words can be individually tapped to support those becoming independent readers.

With a very simple but effective approach, Love to Read by Pirate Trio provides those just beginning their reading adventure many opportunities of success. Parents or teachers have access to a check off report of those words learned, however, we would love to see multiple accounts offered within a future update. This would be beneficial for classrooms hosting a single device as a center activity or homes that have multiple children. As words are successfully learned, game play does not have to end. There is a reset option in the lower right hand corner of the reports menu. A note to the developers – might it be possible to host the reset option not on the category names page, but rather within each category. Thus allowing users to reset only certain categories at a time.

Overall, Applicable2U gives Love to Read by Pirate Trio a thumbs up! Whether you are a parent, teacher or homeschooler, this educational app is applicable to you. Through modeling, repetition and reinforcement, children will learn to love reading as they use their mobile device. If you would like to learn more about Next is Great, please visit their website here. To share the love of reading with your child(ren) today, then click here to download Love to Read by Pirate Trio today as it is on sale for .99¢ from your iTunes library.