Montessorium: Intro to Letters App Reviews

My 4 years olds kindergartens follows the method of Montessori, so when I found this apps, I am quite excited. My wife also bought a set of physical Montessori tools but we seldom play with my kids. But with this apps on my iPad, it is much more convenient. Actually, after a fews days, he could play it by himself without guidance. The only thing I want to improve is about the user interface. Its great but my kids need to wait until the voice is finished before he could drag the letters. It made him a little bit confused because he couldnt wait and started to drag. BTW, I think I will buy more apps if they make it.

This ap, along with intro to numbers are the most fantastic, beautiful, useful, and most used on my iPad. Our 3 year old practices daily, and would for hours if we allowed her. As a parent I appreciate the calm voice, beautiful interface, and pleasant sounds. The one and only application that provides letter sounds that I have found. Lower and upper case lessons make this a long-lasting application. Proof that you dont need cartoony characters, loud annoying audio, or dumbed-down content to capture the attention of a child. A wonderful companion to her Montessori education. Please, more applications Montessorium!

I downloaded this for my 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, both of whom are in a Montessori program. My daughter loves the sandpaper letter "tracing", which is much more difficult on an iPad than in real life, so it keeps her interested. Even the sound/letter recognition, which she knows backwards and forward, keeps her engaged because shes on the iPad. For the most part, its a bit junior for her, though. Shes ready for the "next level", which I hope will come out soon. You know...WORDS not just sounds. (The only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is that I thought it should go one more level to create 2- or 3-letter words, at least.) The 2-year-old has been introduced to the sandpapaer letters in school, but he doesnt have the manual dexterity required to be succesful at in on the iPad. Within the next couple of months, though, this will be great for him. I definitely recommend this whether or not your child is in a Montessori program.

My 4 year old really likes the numbers game, but has gotten pretty bored with this letters version pretty quickly. He knows all his letter and sounds and is already doing some reading. This isnt challenging enough for him to keep him engaged. I thought there might be some ordering or short words involved. If thats what youre looking for, Id suggest waiting for a words-based app rather than just letters. My two year old likes it though--shes just beginning to learn her letters.

My daughter grew up in a play-based preschool and never learned letters before kindergarten. Weve found the work sheets in kindergarten to be painfully boring. And now she is behind. So, we turned to an app. My daughter really likes this app and her interest continues. It has good audio feedback (though the drawing sounds irk my 9 year old) and the tracing is fun for her once she got the hang of the touch screen. I like it because there are no singing farm animals, just straight forward, good design letting the letters speak for themselves. My husband and 9 year old want to do it too, but my kindergartner wont share. Also, Im a UI designer and its a beautiful product on many levels. (Note: this is my first recommendation. My second will be their Math product - also excellent).

I am inspired to write my first review ever. Combines a focused beauty with creative learning. My only complaint is that it is a bit hard for three year old to start the tracing process.

We have this app and the math.......my daughter loves them....she goes to a Montessori school and I have struggled to find apps that teach the Montessori Method......Great great great apps...cant wait to see more apps by Montessorium!!!!

For $5 I am disappointed... There are free apps with better quality than this. My daughter is 4 years old and within the first 10 mins of playing with this game said "Why is the tracing sound so loud? I cant hear the sounds of the letters..." when playing the game myself I soon realized the phonetic sounds of the letters are a whisper compared to the overbearing sand paper tracing sound. Perhaps just a glitch with volume levels... With that said dont pay 5 bucks for this app!

I love intro to numbers, but this one does not compare. Tracing is nice but there could be so much more. Sorting is a strong aspect of the learning method. I would like to see another component at this app price.

My four-year-old is enthralled with Numbers, but isnt very interested in this app. In particular, the recording game needs a lot of work. All the instructions are written instead of spoken - do you expect the user of "Intro to Letters" to be able to read written instructions for sound recording and playback controls? Even after explaining them to her, theyre quite difficult to use correctly. Stick with the number game until this one gets some more polish.

Ok the concept of this application is perfect for what I wanted to work with my 4 year old pre-schooler. Unfortunately the tracing algorithm is so bad it is hard for me to get it to trace the letter let alone a 4 year old with 4 year old coordination. Im using this on a 3GS that has no problems with other drawing/painting programs. It often wont follow my finger causing you to wonder why it isnt tracing the letters. On a minor note the volume seems to always be set to max and doesnt turn down even when you turn your iPhone volume down. I havent tried it on my iPad yet but it proved to be so frustrating for both me and my child that Im posting this review and regret spending 99¢ on this worthless app. Again, the concept is great. If they fix the tracing I might try it again.

The biggest problem with this app is that I have 3 kids and 1 iPad, and they all fight over the iPad so they can use it! My 4.5 year old already knows his letters but enjoys tracing them anyway, whereas my 19 month old and 3 yr old are actually learning from it. I debated between getting this and alpha writer, but at 99 cents each I decided to get both. They compliment each other; this app is better suited for younger kids, whereas alpha writer is better suited for older kids. That said, this app seems more solid than alpha writer. Update: I was not aware that this app also supports French! Our kids are learning French and Spanish at home so this is incredibly useful for us. Would love to see a spanish version as well!

Had high hopes for this beautiful app, but this and Intro to Math are terrible flops. The game is almost completely unresponsive and achingly slow. The only interesting aspects are the visual design and I like the module that allows you to record the sounds, otherwise a complete waste of money. Such promising design with failed execution.

This is a very high quality app, and is the best one Ive seen thus far that combines early letter recognition and formation with the Montessori methodology. It avoids cheezy animation that other apps resort to. Im using this app to reinforce concepts for my kindergardener, and to prepare my 4 year old for a preK Montessori classroom. Both love it! Note that the recording feature is difficult for them to use independently. Would love to see higher level Montessori apps to progress with...maybe some word ladders?

The formation taught for letter y is completely incorrect. The letter t has a tail on it.

As mentioned in another review, the y is completely wrong. I wish they would fix it. It makes it hard to tell my 3 year old to "just make it this way for this game." Ugh

As a Montessori teacher, I was ecstatic to find this app. However, I too am very disappointed when the "y" and the "t" come up because they are not correct. Please fix this because I would like to not take the iPad away when these two letters appear on the lesson. Otherwise, love it!

I found things in this app that need improvement to make for a more comfortable & intuitive user experience. For example, when tracing letters, why cant you flick your finger to move onto the next letter? When I finish A, I want to do B next, but in order to do that I need to go back to the main menu & choose B? That process is so convoluted. Why on the main menu are the options not titled or graphically more descriptive? As Im learning how to navigate this app (or eventually my child does it solo), you expect me to automatically know what "a, oy, rR, and E" mean in terms of where these buttons are going to take me? For a graphic example, you could include arrows on the letters which denote tracing activities and maybe a speaker icon on activities where you just listen. I also suppose this app isnt marketed toward those unfamiliar with Montessori. Its a little strange in how it connects letter sounds to their letter counterpart in the "rR" section. The lowercase "a" slides across the screen and the voice reads the short "a" sound. Then the uppercase "A" slides across and the voice reads letter name, which is also the long A sound. I understand that for your program the lowercase "a" means were going to do sounds and the uppercase "A" means were going to say the letter name. But why not have both the letters slide across together, say the sound then say the letter? I do like the recording feature for sounds and letters. And I like the tracing practice. But its all fairly boring…nothing interesting, just plain tracing or listening to sounds/letters. *Im the mom of a preschooler. Im only mildly familiar with Montessori philosophies. I have experience in teaching middle school language arts & ESL.

I was very disappointed with this app as the sounds are not correct. Example: The app says that "b" says /buh/ when it actually only says /b/. Slight but very important difference. This occurs with other letters a well. Hopefully I will be able to receive a refund as I cannot use it with my child.

Love its simplicity and design. The kids like it also. Highly recommend!