Teach Your Monster to Read vs Phonics Reading Program
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Teach Your Monster to Read
This app offers fun, phonics-based reading games for children aged 3-6. It helps build essential literacy skills through interactive play, allowing children to create their own monster and embark on a reading adventure. Designed by experts, it's a safe and trusted tool for home and school.
- Interactive reading games for ages 3-6
- Improve letter sound recognition
- Learn to read sentences
- Track player progress
- Phonics games designed by experts
- Supports UK phonics programmes
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Welcome to Teach Your Monster to Read, the award-winning app that makes learning to read fun and engaging! Our educational phonics and reading games have helped millions of children build essential literacy skills. Create your own monster and embark on a magical journey through interactive games designed for home and school use. With a safe, trusted, and highly recommended approach, Teach Your Monster to Read offers phonics-based reading games for all levels. Teaching through play is what we do best—download today and start your child’s reading adventure! TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ FEATURES INTERACTIVE KIDS READING GAMES • Take your custom-designed monster through educational games that are suitable for ages 3-6. • Improve letter sound recognition with reading games • Explore a world of phonics and educational games that teach your child to read sentences • Easily track their player’s progress to identify areas where their reader may need extra support PHONICS & READING GAMES DESIGNED BY EXPERTS • Designed in collaboration with Roehampton University and leading game designers • Phonics tools and educational games that complement phases 2-5 of UK Government-approved Letters and Sounds and other major systematic synthetic phonics programmes • 3 reading games designed for those in preschool, primary school, kindergarten, and first grade EDUCATIONAL PLAY AT NO ADDITIONAL COST • Teach Your Monster to Read is available on iPad and iPhone • Explore phonics and educational games without in-app purchases, hidden costs, or in-game adverts • Teach Your Monster to Read supports your child through every step of their reading journey HEAR FROM TEACHERS AND PARENTS WHO USE OUR READING GAMES "This game is the absolute best quality phonics game I have come across for educational and fun value." Marie Lewis, Rochdale “My class have reaped loads of benefits from using the programme and the difference in some of their reading skills has been dramatic." Maria Andrews, Foundation Phase Teacher "This is a fabulous game. I'm not kidding when I say that my daughter essentially learned all her letter sounds using First steps, with relatively minimal input from me! Great for parents to practise their letter sounds too." Eleanor Jones PART OF THE USBORNE FOUNDATION CHARITY Teach Your Monster to Read has been created by Teach Monster Games Ltd. which is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation. The Usborne Foundation is a charity founded by children’s publisher, Peter Usborne MBE. Harnessing research, design and technology, we create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health. Teach a monster today when you download our educational app! Teach Monster Games Ltd is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales, charity number 1121957.
Phonics Reading Program
A phonics-based reading program for children aged 4-7. It offers 31 cumulative lessons to teach reading and spelling skills through fun games, with progress tracking to identify areas needing support.
- Phonics-based learning
- 31 cumulative lessons
- Reading and spelling practice
- In-game rewards (coins)
- Progress tracking
- Supports workbooks and electronic tools
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This is a phonics-based reading program for children ages 4-7. There are 31 lessons that will help you teach your child the sounds and rules in a cumulative, repetitive manner. Your child will have fun practicing reading and spelling while earning coins that can be spent in the stores. As your child plays the games, progress will be saved, so you can see where your child needs help. For a more complete reading program, this app can be used with the workbooks, which contains the lessons and activity pages. This can also be used with our distance learning electronic tools. Part 1 (Book A) covers: the alphabet, consonants, vowels, consonant blends, FLOSS words, high frequency words, 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'ck', 'ng', 'nk', VCV, 'oo', 'ou' and 'ow' as /ou/. Part 2 (Book B) covers: 'ow' as long 'o', 'ay', 'ar', 'er', 'ir', 'or', 'ur', 'oy', 'oi', long vowel teams, the letter 'y', words ending with 'ie', 'ew', long 'o' words, long'i' words, 'qu', 'au', 'aw', 'alk', 'ct', 'ea' as short 'e', protecting short vowels, and past tense words. No in-app purchases, no subscriptions. The price is for the entire app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Teach Your Monster to Read at free against Phonics Reading Program's paid. Teach Your Monster to Read also leads on ratings volume (28K vs 3) and chart position (#4 vs #180). Phonics Reading Program's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.5). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Teach Your Monster to Read costs $8.99 and Phonics Reading Program $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Phonics Reading Program holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Teach Your Monster to Read has 28K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Teach Your Monster to Read ships an update every 5 weeks, Phonics Reading Program every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Teach Your Monster to Read | Phonics Reading Program |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | $8.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (28K ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 28K — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #4 — better | #180 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 96 MB | 67 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Teach Your Monster | Blast Off to Learning, LLC |
Customer experience
Teach Your Monster to Read
Phonics Reading Program
Bugs and requests
Teach Your Monster to Read
Reported bugs
2 issues- Loss of progress and collected items
- Compatibility issues on certain devices
Requested features
4 requests- Add American English pronunciation option
- Introduce more practice modes and customization options
- Implement progress tracking and parental controls
- Allow selective review of specific letter sounds/words
Phonics Reading Program
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Teach Your Monster to Read
No in-app purchases
Phonics Reading Program
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Teach Your Monster to Read free?
Is Phonics Reading Program free?
Which has better reviews, Teach Your Monster to Read or Phonics Reading Program?
Do Teach Your Monster to Read or Phonics Reading Program have ads?
Which is updated more often, Teach Your Monster to Read or Phonics Reading Program?
Which is more popular, Teach Your Monster to Read or Phonics Reading Program?
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