Paris, France – 3 Elles Interactive, an independent educational app developer is announcing the release of a major update on one of their award-winning apps: Montessori Letter Sounds – learn phonics with Tam & Tao.

Phonics must be at the heart of learning to read. As Montessori teachers and educational app developers 3 Elles Interactive understood this fact long ago. They designed Montessori Letter Sounds to give children the opportunity to play with sounds, learn to identify them in words, know their letter sounds and write their first phonetic words. “I can’t describe how amazing it is to see a child compose his first phonetic word, usually they don’t stop at one, they want to go on and on. When I was a teacher, it happened more than once that the parents had to wait at the door because their child didn’t want to put the activity away!”, says Valerie, one of the co-founders.

This app, designed to build strong foundations for learning to read, has won 2 major awards: A Gold Medal/Parents’ Choice Award and an On For Learning Award by Common Sense Media.

The Montessori Method is based on autonomy and self-confidence. Children need to learn to read at their own pace, when they are ready to do so. For some, it could be as early as 3 years old, for others it could be around 5. To ensure that children who play with the app don’t miss a step in the learning progression, Montessori Letter Sounds is divided in 4 activities, some of which are locked. As they play, children earn marbles. These marbles are counted and used to unlock the activities when children have completed each step.

Since its release in early 2012, users were requesting more images. 3 Elles Interactive have not only added over 50 words but they also decided to update the letter tracing activity and add new features to it. The app also offers cursive, script and capital letters. In the “image box”, children can learn the words in French and in the “toolbox” they can trace letters in a sandbox or in a notebook.

If you would like your children to learn letter sounds and words in French, the French version of this app called Le Son des Lettres Montessori offers a unique “French as a Foreign Language” feature. When activated, this option allows English speaking children to listen to the instruction in English while playing with French sounds and words. Having experienced multi-lingual classrooms, the developers noticed that often the problem children face when trying to play a game in another language is that they don’t understand what they are required to do. By adding this feature, English speaking children can learn French vocabulary and letter sounds and not be overwhelmed by the long instruction in that language.

“Free the child’s potential, and you will transform him into the world” said Maria Montessori who was the first woman to ever become a Doctor in Italy and who devoted her life to children’s education. 3 Elles Interactive believe that tablets are taking this saying even further.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 5.1 or later
* 71.3 MB

Pricing and Availability:
To celebrate this major update, 3 Elles Interactive is offering a discount. Montessori Letter Sounds will be $1.99 (USD) instead of $2.99 from Wednesday 22nd to Saturday 25th of January. 3 Elles Interactive will be at BETT in London on the Edmix Stand (B228). Don’t hesitate to contact them for more information or a promo code.

Montessori Letter Sounds 4.0
Purchase and Download
YouTube Video (Demo)
Time To Play Mag Review
Screenshot
App Icon

Founded by Montessori teachers who have had years of classroom experience with hundreds of children, 3 Elles Interactive is determined to offer qualitative educational apps on iPad and iPhone. Their objective is to provide parents and teachers Montessori based apps to use at home or at school. The Montessori Method relies on building autonomy and self-confidence by letting children do by themselves and offering them self-correcting materials to manipulate and respecting their individual pace. 3 Elles Interactive, fun digital learning made by teachers. Copyright (C) 2014 Les Trois Elles Interactive. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.