SpellingCity app review: activities for kids of all ages

Introduction

Vocabulary and spelling are some pretty hard tasks for kids to take on so when you come across a tool that can help them, why not take advantage? The SpellingCity app is an education tool for kids four and older, meant to help them master their language skills.

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All Ages Welcome

In this app you’ll find activities for kids in Kindergarten all the way to Grade 12, making it an incredibly versatile app. Simply tap on the correct age category of your child and you’ll see the activities available to them. I have tried a number of the different age categories and there are some really entertaining and challenging activities. I did find the app a bit finicky to use, however. I certainly wouldn’t call it kid-friendly unless your child is older.

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Not all the activities are available in the free version of the app.

Some of the games actually give encouragement as they play, helping to motivate your child and build up their confidence. I really like this aspect and I can see how it would help make the child want to continue on.

 

A Wide Range of Activities

The app offers a wide range of educational activities that use touch, sight, and sound to help kids learn about spelling and vocabulary. They are simple but effective activities that are easy to understand and don’t need all kinds of instructions. Activities include sentence unscramble, word unscramble, figure out the missing letter, hang mouse, and a spelling test.

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Now the user interface is a whole other topic. While I am impressed with the quality of the activities I’m left disappointed with this user interface. The main menu is just horrible, with no interest to it whatsoever. It’s not an appropriate representation of how good the content actually is in this app.

When you’re playing the games many feel lacking, like there could have been a bit more attention paid in making the games appear more engaging to kids.

You won’t find any extra features here; it’s very bare-bones and to the point. It’s a no-fuss, no-muss offering of educational activities, no more and no less. I do find the app suffers a little bit by not offering additional features. It could have done with a little extra polishing and finesse as it comes across as dated.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• A wide variety of educational activities for kids from Kindergarten to Grade 12
• Plenty of free content
• Many of the games offer encouragement as kids play
• Helps kids with their spelling and vocabulary

 

Cons

• Not all content is free
• The user interface feels stale and dated
• No extra tools or functions to speak of

 

Final Thoughts

I know this one gets quite a lot of positive reviews so I feel bad that I’m not in agreement. I just feel that the SpellingCity app is very dated in looks and feel and since there are so many other great free educational apps out there, developers have to offer more than just the content.