Writing
What we have learned
Answers to the questions parents actually type, written by the people who built the practice. Where the evidence is thin we say so, and where a competitor is the better choice we say that too.
- My child knows all the letter sounds but can't blend them into words Knowing the sounds and blending them are two different skills. Here is the exact sequence that fixes it, in the order to do it, with a script you can use tonight.
- My child guesses words instead of reading them Guessing from the first letter or the picture is a taught habit, not a reading problem. Here is where it comes from and the word-for-word correction that stops it.
- How to teach letter formation at home (and why tracing alone does not work) Stroke order, start points and the teaching order that prevents b/d reversals — plus why most tracing apps let a child draw a letter backwards and call it correct.
- Do memory games make children smarter? What the research actually says Working-memory training has been tested exhaustively. The honest summary: it improves the trained task and essentially nothing else. What to do instead.
- Teaching a child to count: why saying the numbers is not counting A child who can recite to twenty may not be able to count six buttons. One-to-one correspondence and cardinality are separate skills, and here is how to teach each one.
- Starfall alternatives in 2026: an honest comparison What Starfall still does well, where its free tier now stops, and seven alternatives compared on price, phonics method, offline use and ads — including when Starfall is still the right answer.
- What should a child know by the end of kindergarten? A checklist The reading, math and handwriting a child is expected to have by the end of kindergarten, with the standard code for each one and free practice for every line.
- Kids learning apps that actually work offline Most "offline" learning apps are not. What offline really requires, which products deliver it, and how to check before you pay.