Hooked on Phonics Reviews 1,212

Great experience. My grandchildren enjoy reading the books. I see a change in their reading.

My almost 5 yo daughter loves it. She’s always asking if she can do “schoolwork.” Hooked on Phonics has helped her with remembering her letters and the sounds they make.

We love the lessons! The price is too expensive.

The app is extremely uninteresting. The animal characters are ugly and strange looking, you can barely tell what they're supposed to be. The games are so repetitive it makes it extremely boring for children. My daughter is 5 and she gets bored after about 5 minutes, 10 minutes max. The work books they send are short and boring also. The activities they say to do are also boring, I can come up with better ways to do crafts with letters myself. Shape a lower case letter a with apple pieces? Right... Then the songs on the app are startling and pointless. They're supposed to teach the sound of the letter but there's so much going on you can't even tell what sound they're saying the letter makes! Then it also uses different objects to make the letter sound. Please tell me why they chose a ghost for the letter "g"? That is scary for a young child that may not even know what a ghost is. What happened to using a goat or a goose? Very strange. And last but not least, the reading books they send are not appropriate for a beginner reader and not interesting and barely make sense. I believe we got to step 4 before I just cancelled the subscription because it's not getting any better. They sent the book called The Cereal Box. The book has hideous art and the story barely makes sense. Supposedly the kid is using his imagination but it's just really off the wall. No thanks!! I'm extremely disappointed with this company. I really had high hopes and my child has not an inkling how to read yet after almost two months. This is total bummer especially since I decided to homeschool and I thought this would be my base curriculum. Who designed the app? They did a horrible job. Takes a long time to load, the characters are ugly and it is so slow and repetitive. Then there is the math app. Once again the songs are pointless and confusing.

Hooked on Phonics has been great so far. We are able to take our time, and all of the material (app & book) are exciting. It has made learning fun for my son

I was a primary school teacher before homeschooling my children these past few years. My specialty is actually teaching kids to read. It’s a super power. Except with my youngest. I was struggling so much. We read every night for a year and we started with phonics a year before that. I was starting to think there might be a learning disability. Well…. Within a month and a half of hooked on phonics my daughter is at grade level (grade 1) and I am just so happy for her. She wanted to read very much. I wanted to be a good teacher for her. I was and am very patient when it comes to teaching children how to read - something I have done countless, literally countless times, so I know it can take time, but there is something in the way hooked on phonics builds each lesson that made it FUN and easy for my daughter. We still read each night (not a lot- just a few pages a day typically) and she’s progressing well. I highly recommend. And I also recommend this tool to people I talk to. It doesn’t replace one on one attention and most of all kindness and patience with your child, but it does put things in an order of lessons so they can retain the information. Definitely give this a try!

I signed up for Hooked on Phonics and used only two weeks and cancelled. I was charged $1 and should have not been charged any more. They charged me an additional $15.98 and will not refund my money. This company is not honest. They do not care about their customers.

My daughter purchased hooked on phonics. I liked the program however when we finished level 1 tried to find level 2 and couldn't find in the package.
My husband ordered level 2 and paid almost $30.00 after a few days we received level 4, called many times over the phone to no avail, so I tried online and finally chatted with someone who stated we ordered the wrong level. I checked my order and sent her the picture of the order which states level 2, but to make it short she refused to exchange. I should have the level 2 for free because it was missing in the package to begin with. Now my granddaughter and I are stuck and can not continue. The error is on the Hooked on Phonics not me. Very poor customer service.

Back to basics. The program is not over-built like many programs are today. It is easy to follow, understand and has really helped my son learn to read.

We really enjoy the reading and math packets!

I love the way the app is so easy for my grandson to use on his own. He loves the books and the animals that appear when he answers the questions. The sound effects when he is correct are awesome and make it so much fun for him. He just turned 5 and is in Pre-K. He has a look of excitement when he reads a word!!! I love the workbooks!!

I tried and tried to sign in and cancel my subscription but their site locked me out. I tried to get reset password emails sent to me...but none came through. I emailed for help and no response. Finally after they billed me for the month I was able to sign in. They're still taking my money! I tried to get help through their IG account too and they won't help at all. I want a refund! Horrible, horrible way to do business. Beware!!!

I want to cancel my subscription and cannot. I've tried logging in many times and can't. I can't contact hooked on by phone or message. This feels like a rip- off.

There needs to be more options if different things to do...

I was having a problem understanding how the whole system worked. I chatted with a customer service agent named Cassandra. Cassandra was more than helpful, and very patient with me. Cassandra got me straightened out, so now I am getting ready to embark on a reading literacy journey with my 6 year old grandson who is currently failing reading. He is super excited about the new "game app" that I downloaded on my phone for him. He's also super excited about the "books" that will be coming for him. He loves to get "mail". I'm trying to keep it very light, and very fun sounding. So, we'll see how we do. I believe the guarantee is Reading in 30 days. 30 days will start tomorrow due to a scheduling issue tonight that won't allow for me to sit down and work (I mean, "play games") with him. December 8th is 30 days, I will check back then and let everyone know how we're doing. Until then.

There is enough practice and content for my son to be busy with Hooked on Phonics every day.

As a grandparent raising a young grandson this program has been a blessing. His first grade year was affected by Covid and that’s the critical phonics and learning to read year. With the help of the
this program he is reading like a champ. He even won first place the Accelerated Reader contest last year for his class. He read over 200 books, many above his grade level. This was just what I was looking for to help me help him learn how to sound out his words. The program also helped him to become an excellent speller as well. I just cancelled our subscription today as we no longer need it but I highly recommend it. Thank you hooked on Phonics—-THANK YOU!