Starfall.com

The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. Background information at the Starfall site explains: “At age 9, young Stephen Schutz was still struggling to read. What came easily for some children required many more hours of Stephen’s work, and he was consistently towards the bottom of his class in reading. Now with a PhD in physics and a successful publisher and artist, Dr. Schutz wanted to make sure that children in his situation today have a resource that can help them. He turned to the Internet and conceived a program that would be available on-line across the world for free to all children who are learning to read.”

The Starfall site, for beginning and early readers, is a completely self-directed program. The site owners explain again: “Reading is a vital part of life and we feel that no child should be left behind. That is why we are offering this on-line website for free to everyone. Our books and games offer beginning readers the opportunity to explore and interact with words and the sounds that make up those words. Decoding is an essential skill that will develop your child into a fluent reader some day. We focus on simple, fun interactivity and the sounding out of almost every word. All your child has to do is click on the screen, watch and listen!

“We know that children learn to read at different developmental stages, but encouragement and support of your child’s interest in reading is very important. Our stories and games are meant to foster your child’s exploration and curiosity with the written word. Let your child play and have fun learning! Then, ask them to read to you, listen carefully, and be patient.”

The folks at Starfall also provide low-cost writing books and journals which can be used with the site or separately – an inexpensive way to make learning to read even more fun! But there’s absolutely no obligation to purchase anything.

If you have youngsters learning to read, give this site a try – my young granddaughters, ages 8 and 9, love visiting Starfall!

This entry was posted on August 29, 2005 at 2:31 am and is filed under Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.