App Review: Spelling: Squeebles Words - Helps Kids Practice Spelling Words and Rewards them with Playtime

Reviewed by Elena – I’m a SAHM who is trying to homeschool my 18 month old. I have a BA in Computer Science and Information Systems. My professional background is in quantitative analytics.

Details

Spelling: Squeebles Words lets you create spelling tests, track progress and it rewards playtime for multiple profiles. There are no built-in tests. You create custom word lists from scratch. For each word you enter, you can record an audio clip. I recorded myself saying the word and I used it in a sentence. It also lets you specify if the word is case sensitive. I found it fairly simple to create tests and manage profiles.

In player settings you can assign spelling tests, record a personalized message, track progress and set levels of difficulty. You can adjust the difficulty by allowing a visual aid; the player can be permitted to see the word to be spelled for two to five seconds, for as long as desired or not at all. This makes the app appropriate for kids just learning words to more advanced or older kids.

Kids earn stars for correct answers and game power-ups for getting consecutive correct answers. Squeebles are earned after a certain number of correct answers overall and the stars are used to trade for different Squeeberangs. These are boomerangs that the Squeebles ride on as it is thrown in the mini game.There are 15 Squeebles and 100 different Squeeberangs to collect for the mini game. I liked that the kids had to earn Squeeberang throws with good spelling that it wasn’t just endless playtime. Also working on new tests earned bonus stars which is a good way of motivating kids to learn new material.

What Elena Liked

The graphics were colorful and really engaged the kids’ attention. The kids loved trading for different Squeeberangs to match the Squeebles they had earned. The controls were easy to navigate even for the pre-k toddlers.

The tricky words list is a great feature. This is a dynamic test containing words that were misspelled. Each kid can then concentrate on misspelled words from all their assigned lists. What I especially liked was that the incorrect spellings were listed in the parents’ zone. This allowed me to better understand how a word was misspelled without looking over their shoulders.