How We’re Using the Homer App

For the past year or so, I’ve been hearing about the Homer app, including lots of messages asking what I think about it.

Since I hadn’t tried it out. . . .I’ve had zero opinions.

But I finally downloaded a few weeks ago and my younger girls have been using it and I thought I’d share how we’re using it and why I like it.

What is Homer?

Homer is a learning app that’s specifically designed to teach reading skills for kids from 2-8. It’s ad-free and you can try it for 60 days for free here! 

After that, it’s $9.99 per month or $59 for a whole year (which saves you about $5 per month over a month to month plan).

You guys! I’m so impressed.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an app that’s so well-designed to help your child learn to read. You can start at the very beginning or jump into longer words, blending, sight words and more.

It’s really incredible and a perfect tool for my almost-kindergartner who is getting to be a decent reader and my 3 year old who wants to start learning her letters and sounds.

And my 7 year old likes using it too for brushing up on sight words and reading simple stories.

(And yes, you can have multiple profiles in one account so I can easily toggle between Tally’s profile where she’s learning recognize letters and the sounds the make or Star’s profile where she’s sounding out words and practicing sight words. This is a MUST for me on any educational app).

How we use the Homer App

On Mondays through Thursdays this summer, Ani (who is going into second grade) has a Zoom conference with her reading tutor for about 25 minutes. While she does that, I practice reading with Star with the 4 Weeks to Read set.

I originally downloaded Homer because I needed something that felt special to Tally so she wouldn’t incessantly disrupt Star while we practiced reading.

She LOVES having about 15 minutes to play on Homer (she calls it “those special levels”) and then later in the day, Star does it for 15 minutes or so while I work with Tally on her letters with some simple letter magnets or giant flash cards.

Homer has a learning path where it’s tailored to your child and adds new activities that teach letters, sounds, words, etc as they progress.

You can also have stories read to your or play dozens of different games that help your practice reading skills in different ways, including matching games, puzzles, hidden pictures and spot the difference.

To me, it feels comprehensive but not overwhelming (do I need 10,000 games? No, I probably don’t).

I don’t expect Homer to single-handedly teach my children to read, but in combination with working with them myself and Savvy Reading, it’s a TERRIFIC tool for adding in some fun daily practice, keeping skills sharp, and creating familiarity with letters, sounds, sight words, and other reading building blocks.

I HIGHLY recommend it!

Homer App versus ABCMouse

Every time I mention the Homer app, I get a bunch of questions about how it stacks up to ABCMouse.

I like them both!

Homer is specifically focused on reading skills, while ABCMouse is a more general curriculum with math and science too. They’re the same price and we use both. I’d say ABCMouse is a little flashier and has more broad options, while I think Homer is better for really focusing on reading skills.

So really, it just depends on what you’re looking for.

My best recommendation would be to do a free month long trial for each of them (the Homer free trial is here and the ABCMouse free trial is here) and see which one is a better fit for your specific child and then you can stick with that one instead of paying for them both long term (or keep them both!).

Have you tried the Homer app? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought!

If it sounds like something that would be fun and useful for your family, you can get a free two month long trial here!

And if you have other questions about Homer that I didn’t answer in this post, leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

 

If you liked this post about the Homer reading app, you might like these posts too:

• The tools I’ve used to teach my children to read
• 5 tips for helping your child learn to read
• How we’ve done preschool at home

Photos by Heather Mildenstein