Starfall

Though at times the user experience can feel a bit slow and outdated, Starfall still does a good job of offering clear and useful early literacy lessons. The effective sound-it-out approach helps kids identify each individual phoneme, or sound, in words. When they see the word "bat," kids hear it sounded out ("b-a-t") several times, faster and faster, until they hear the whole word. Another great feature is that the experience personalizes as a kid's reading skills progress. For example, kids choose words to insert into sentences, and their choices influence the direction of the activity. 

While the activities aren't that interactive, kids do engage with the site. Kids can make simple choices, click on words to hear them read aloud, or click to advance videos. There's often a mixture of text and audio, and activities are well paced. Unfortunately, there's not an option to hear an entire passage read fluently, and some things, like songs, are missing captions. Young kids or kids with special learning needs may also face a few challenges. Many of the activities require a lot of mouse navigation, and a lot of the site isn't accessible to screen readers or keyboard navigation. And, for better or worse, kids are free to access any of the site's content at any time. Kids are very much in charge of directing their own journey through the learning material. This may work well for some kids, whereas others may need some supervision to keep them on track. Ultimately, the best implementation will involve diving into the Parent-Teacher Center and using the curricular guides, downloadables, and extras like books. With these, a clear plan, and a nice mixture of work on and off the website, Starfall could be a relied-upon tool in your classroom.

Starfall's strength lies in its literacy program, but teachers should note that there is some content focused on basic math concepts and other subjects.