The Critical Thinking Co. Vowel Sounds Song and Game Software Review

We received the Vowel Sounds Song and Game™ Software - 2-PCs Win Download from The Critical Thinking Co.™ to review. This software is for children in Pre-K to 2nd grade. The app uses the Vowel Sounds Song to teach children long and short vowel sounds. There are five songs. The first teaches the words in the song. Children learn to identify the words with vowels in them.


The software download can be used on 2 PCs ($3.99) or 6 PCs ($7.99). There is also an iOS app, Android app, and Windows app available. The software will only work on Windows computers. We used one to download the software on the laptop we use for homeschooling. At first the software didn't work and said it required a certain program to be installed on our laptop, but after trying to set it up a few times it updated and we had no issues after that.

The long and short vowel song is easy to follow and both of my kids were able to pick it up right away. The software is designed for one student to use at a time, and the game picks up where you left off when you open it. However, there is a menu that lets you choose which game you want to work on, in case you need more review. 

When you enter the menu screen, you can check on the progress of each game. It has a score to show you how much is completed, and which game you are currently on. We aimed to complete one game a week and review previous games when they needed. 

The letters are a font that is easy to read and the pictures are large. 

Some of the pictures have a red arrow, which points to the part of the picture that uses the vowel letter. So in this example, it was pointing to the egg, instead of the whole picture of the nest. Some of the pictures and word choices were confusing at first, but my kids got used to them after listening to the song a few times. For example, the word unity was used for U and that wasn't a word they have used before. 

My daughter struggles with differentiating vowel sounds, so I thought this game would help her. She enjoyed singing the song and memorized it, but even after using it for a few weeks, she still has some issue telling vowel sounds apart. Not the ones in the song, but the ones in her workbooks. But now when we are going over a sound, we refer back to the song to help her remember which sound she is trying to work on.

We used the Vowel Sounds Song and Game software three times a week, usually every other day. We will continue using the long and short vowel sounds game as part of our literacy activities. It is definitely helping my daughter, so we hope to see more improvement in the next few weeks.

The Critical Thinking Co. also has other fun apps for kids, such as the Alphabet Song Game for toddlers to 1st graders, Letter Sounds Song and Game for Pre-K to 1st graders, and Fun-Time Phonics! for Pre-K to 2nd graders. We loved using the Fun-Time Phonics! workbook last year.

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