Monday, July 14th
2025 Learn to Read Program Reviews
ABC Mouse
- $14.99 per month with 30-day free trial
- Progress tracker
- Free for educators
- Provides special tickets and rewards for students
- Kids get to create avatars to represent themselves
- Over 700 lessons
- Suitable for ages 2-8
- Recipient of numerous awards
ABC Mouse is the most downloaded early learning program for kids ages 3-8 in the United States. It was designed by education experts and its award-winning program boasts that its hundreds of games were built using proven curriculum strategies. ABC Mouse's high-quality curriculum has thousands of learning activities to support your child's education.
What is included in the learn to read program?
ABC Mouse's learn to read program was created using research-based principles focused on sight words, phonics, word families, rhyming, vocabulary and other proven methods to help kids learn to love reading. ABC Mouse also includes books to read and covers identifying letters all to reading full paragraphs. The first-grade curriculum also includes writing skills.
Progress tracker
Included with the monthly membership is a progress tracker. You will be able to see everything your little learner has completed and graphs to show the child's progress. In addition to the tracker, ABC Mouse employs a reward system. Kids get tickets as a reward for completing lessons. As your child collects tickets, they can turn them in for rewards. Parents have commented that the kids are really motivated by the virtual rewards. Another benefit of the progress tracker is it will break down where your child is in concept mastery and can help them overcome those learning challenges.
Free trial and huge annual pay discount
ABC Mouse is $14.99 per month, but if you pay per year, you can get substantial savings. At the time of this review, paying for a year up front was $45 - that's a 70% savings.. If you're worried about committing to a whole year, don't worry; you have a 30-day trial period to check out whether or not you think it's a good fit for your student.
Free for teachers
ABC Mouse offers their early learning resources available to teachers free of charge, so if you are a teacher, there is really no risk. Homeschoolers don't qualify, but ABC Mouse does offer a family account.
Awards - and some legal issues
From Mom's Choice and Parents' Choice Gold Awards to Teacher's Choice, ABC Mouse has been recognized for their curriculum. Age of Learning, the developer of ABC Mouse, has been awarded the SIIA CODIE Award for innovation in education technology. Unfortunately, there is a near-universal concern that ABC Mouse has been in litigation for auto renewing without customers being properly informed - and the company has apparently not learned its lesson from this even now. There are complaints of being charged after canceling accounts and customer service being slow to do anything until an external complaint is made. Still others said the free trial and cancellation process wasn't really clear. Make sure you know what you're doing and read the fine print before giving your personal information to this website.
Check your bank statements
From awards to glowing reviews for the developers of this learn to read program, ABC Mouse has so much for kids - and with the progress tracker and reward programs, ABC Mouse can really motivate children and help parents in assisting their children in learning to read. The games and activities are varied and exciting and will provide children with many hours of learning opportunities. If you decide to try this learn to read program, do proceed with caution: check your bank statements to make sure you are not being charged incorrectly. If you cancel, be sure to get confirmation in writing from the company for your records. It's too bad that ABC Mouse has these issues; otherwise, they'd get a much higher score than we're able to award them at this time.
More Learn to Read Program Reviews
The 12 Best Learn to Read Programs
What's the Best Program to Help a Child Learn to Read?
Choosing the best learn to read program is a daunting task because every child is unique and learns differently. But there are a few tried and true ways to narrow down your search to find a perfect program that can help a child learn to read.
While every child is unique, there are some tried and true methods to teach literacy that have stood the test of time and are pretty universal in application. These are teaching reading and literacy through a phonics emphasis (teaching letter sounds) or a sight words emphasis (teaching children to memorize common words in the English language).
Learn to Read Program FAQ
Continued from above...
Phonics tends to be easier and more helpful since children can come across an unfamiliar word and, with the help of phonics, sound it out. Sight words tend to be trickier because memorization is favored over learning. This can also be problematic in spelling, too. If children don't understand phonics, they have a more difficult time spelling unfamiliar words.
Learn to read programs can utilize these principles in tailored, customized ways that fit with the individual student, and that is where you can really decide which program is best for your child. Some learning programs focus on games while others make use of songs. Still others have a multisensory approach, which works well for children who have disabilities or problems focusing. Some programs are not just for reading but offer a comprehensive curriculum.
As you consider different learn to read programs, there are a few key aspects you'll find to be most important:
- Price. How much does the learn to read program cost? Does it offer a good value for the money - are there resources and tools, updated content, and quality that meet the price point? Is there an annual commitment? A money-back guarantee? Is the price subject to change?
- Age range. Is the program suitable for the age of the child(ren) you want to help with their reading progress? Is it developmentally appropriate for the ages it services? If you are looking for a consistent curriculum, does the program continue for older age ranges?
- Teaching method. Does it follow a phonics-based or sight-word-based approach? Is it disability-friendly? Does it utilize too much screen time, or does it offer off-screen learning as well? Is there a lot of parent involvement, or does it lean toward independent learning? Does it include any physical activity? Does it include print material?
- Reviews. What are parents and educators saying about this program? Does it have a positive or negative reputation? How long has it been around? Is it backed by scientific studies? Have there been any litigations or controversies surrounding it? Have people with similar educational philosophies and values found it to be helpful? How does it rate for children with dyslexia or ADHD? These are all excellent questions to ask when searching for a learn to read program that meets your specific needs.
- Updates. Is the learn to read program updated? How recent are parent reviews or awards? Does the website have broken links or outdated information? Are social media channels updated consistently? If you are using an app or an online platform, is it updated for security and new software enhancements?
- Spelling and writing. Does it include a program to teach spelling to your child(ren)? Is there a trace feature so children can learn to write? Does it offer printable worksheets for handwriting practice, or is it all online?
- Full program or supplemental. Does the program offer a full reading curriculum (like a homeschool curriculum)? If so, does it align with state requirements? Is it meant to reinforce other programs or help struggling readers catch up over the summer?
To help your child learn to read, Top Consumer Reviews has evaluated and ranked the top programs available today. We're confident that this information will make it simple and even fun to find a learn to read program that is perfect for your emerging reader!
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