Veritas Press: Phonics Museum (Homeschool Review Crew)

We discovered Veritas Press several years ago, and love their self-paced history and Bible courses. I've heard about their Phonics Museum course when the little boys were learning to read but hadn't really explored it because there is so much other stuff out there.  I'm always looking for ways to reinforce educational ideas through app-based programs, so I was excited when we had the opportunity to test-out their new, virtual version of it, the Phonics Museum App.  I downloaded it from iTunes onto my phone, and we set off on our adventure with William, Percival, and Miss Biddle.

William is a child whose parents are "forcing" him to spend a day at an art museum.  He is pretty sure there is nothing in the building that will interest him, and it's going to be a wasted day.  Percival,  a suit of medieval armor come to life, engages with him and shows him lots of great things he can learn about art.  We meet his friend, Miss Biddle, a little further into the program.  She's quirky museum curator who becomes our teacher.  Together they lead William through the museum as he learns to read and write through the museum's collection.

If you're a family who has used Veritas Press' self-paced programs, this premise might sound familiar.  It echoes the presentation by a teacher, learner, and animated sidekick.  (Miss Biddle toggles between live person and animated character, depending on the activity.)  Each lesson is ten to fifteen vignettes that encompass one day's lesson.   Finally, although it's not called a "memory song" here, there is an interactive "learn your phonics sounds set to music" song that repeats with each day's lesson. (Memory songs work...I can still sing the Old Testament Bible song from Jude's lessons two years ago!)

Phonics Museum is suggested for students as young as three (up to age seven), which makes it a great option for little brothers and sisters who want to do "schoolwork" like the big sibs but aren't really ready for a formal "sit down and do" program. It can be used as "learn through play" reinforcement for a student using a traditional pen-and-paper phonics/writing program, but it's one I would generally only use with the youngest of students or ones who really weren't grasping the fundamentals and needed a wholly different approach.  It starts with the absolute basics, with "choosing a hand to write with" and other prewriting skills.  I can see these activities making the program seem "too babyish"  for kids who already have a grasp of basics.

That said, I think it might be ok for ESL learners because it is so basic. The short lessons wouldn't feel overwhelming, and many ESL students don't know the "Latin" alphabet so it would give them experience in working with a new shape.  (I recently tried to learn Greek, and an app to work on tracing letters would have been really helpful!)  Instead of clip art graphics, art used for demonstration the program ranges from Ancient Egyptian sarcophagi to Warhol, giving it a "not preschoolers only" feel.

 Even though he wasn't sure of the name of the painting (Jude named it from another children's show they watch that highlights art and music), Damien recognized Van Gogh's Starry Night lurking in the background.

Specific and well-known works of art are on display and highlighted.  For example, a and apple are depicted by Cezanne's Four Apples, while an archetypal Degas ballerina illustrates d and dancer.

As an app, the program works beautifully.  It's pretty seamless, with little lag between activities - necessary when you're dealing with short attention spans. The curriculum teaches the student to form letters via tracing on the screen. While the tracking is very smooth, it does require the user to keep a steady hand and follow the lines being traced.  This on-screen drawing allows a student who may not yet have the fine motor skills for pencil-and-paper writing to still succeed and learn to read and form letters.

 I liked that each scene/activity starts with the user tapping on it, rather than automatically segueing.  An entire lesson takes about fifteen minutes, but if your child has a shorter attention span, you can do two or three activities and take a break.  You can also go back and re-do activities, either in the lesson or in a special game zone.

It's also very intuitive.  There are minimal directions in the beginning: tap the elevator to go to a museum floor,  tap the number to go to the floor you'd like, tap left or right to go in that direction. When you "exit" the elevator, there is a sign that shows you what letters are on that level. You may need to tap different numbers if you don't recall what  "floor" something is on (they're not in ABC order, but rather grouped by usability/frequency/difficulty of writing), but you don't have to slog through screen after screen to work on writing a specific letter.  It's also difficult to get "lost" -- prior lessons are framed with one color, the current lesson with another, and future lessons are locked off until you're ready for them.

The one major shortcoming I think this program may have is purchaser perception.  When I first explored the program on iTunes' App Store, I saw it was a free download, but requires an in-app purchase to fully use.  This didn't really bother me, as it's a pretty standard business model for lots of apps.  However, pricing is $9.99/mo (billed to your iTunes account) for up to three children, with a "pre-pay for a year" option of $99. I remember thinking "WHOA!  That's a lot of money for an app!"

Now that I've had a chance to use it, I realize it's not your generic "something productive to play with on Mom's phone." It's really just an app-based presentation of a full curriculum, with pricing on par with their other self-paced programs. If you're approaching this app as a curriculum choice from Veritas Press' catalog pages, you'll easily see the value.  If you're coming from the iTunes App Store, this isn't clear and any mention of it being based on the traditional curriculum is buried at the bottom of the description after a lot of scrolling and after the sticker shock. I would encourage Veritas Press to try to revise the information in the "details" section of the App store page to highlight this is an e-version of a tried-and-true curriculum.

Overall, this app is a quality program, and exactly what I'd expect from Veritas Press.  It's  developmentally appropriate for a young child, without becoming insipid. While its focus is on learning phonics and writing, the exposure to so many artists and their works helps broaden a child's perspective on what art can be.  I'd definitely recommend this to mom and dads of young children who want something that will entertain their child yet still provide a good educational foundation.