Built an Android app to help kids learn to read — looking for honest feedback from real homeschooling parents
Hi all — I'm a solo dev (and new dad) who built an early-literacy Android app called WonderMax (Android only for now, sorry iPhone/iPad families), and I'd genuinely like feedback from people who actually teach reading day-to-day, which describes this sub a lot better than it describes me.
The idea was to follow the actual science-of-reading sequence — letter sounds and formation first, then phonological/phonemic awareness, then blending into CVC words, then sight words and fluency — rather than a generic pile of tap-to-match games. A dog character (Max) carries the narration so it doesn't feel like a worksheet, but the underlying structure is meant to be a real curriculum progression, not just "fun."
A couple of things that might matter for a homeschool routine specifically:
- Speech recognition for reading/pronunciation practice runs entirely on-device (offline), so it works without wifi and nothing gets sent to a server
- Parents can add custom word lists — if you're already doing your own spelling/sight-word list for the week, the app can fold those in instead of only using its built-in words
- Progress tracking is per phonics-skill, not just streaks, in case that's useful for your own record-keeping
Honest question for this group: does the phonics sequencing above actually match how you teach reading, or does it clash with a method you're already using (Orton-Gillingham, etc.)? That's the feedback I care about most.
It's on the Play Store — the Letters phase and the rhyming/phonological-awareness phase are free with no subscription needed, so anyone can actually try it with a kid before deciding anything. Happy to share a free trial code for the rest of it in the comments if anyone's interested, no pressure either way.
Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wondermax.app