Everything parents need to know about Phonics Race.
Phonics Race is an educational game that teaches children ages 4–7 to read through phonics. Children pick a world, Cars, Dinos or Unicorns, and spell words by tapping letters. Every 3 words they win a new race car, hatch a dinosaur from its egg or meet a new unicorn friend. It's reading practice that feels like play.
Phonics Race is designed for children ages 4–7 who are beginning to learn letters and sounds. It covers phonics skills from basic 3-letter words (cat, dog, sun) through consonant blends, digraphs, and long vowels — typically covering pre-K through early first grade reading skills.
Free to download, with no ads. The first series in every world is free to play for as long as you like: Classic Racers and Monster Trucks in Cars, Baby Dinos in Dinos, and Rainbow Unicorns in Unicorns. One $4.99 purchase, "All Series", unlocks every series in all three worlds and every series we add in the future. It is a one-time payment: no subscription, no coins, nothing else to buy. Family Sharing is supported on iOS. Families who played before version 1.1 keep every series free on that device.
Phonics Race is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets. It works in both portrait and landscape orientation and automatically adapts its layout to fit any screen size.
No. Phonics Race works completely offline. Your child can play in the car, on a plane, in a waiting room, or anywhere without Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Each round shows a picture (like a cat or a bus) and scrambled letter buttons. Your child taps the letters in order to spell the word. Correct taps move the race car forward. After spelling the word, they see a celebration and move to the next word. Every 3 words, they earn a new car.
The app progresses through 6 levels:
Level 1: CVC words (cat, dog, pig) — basic letter sounds
Level 2: 4-letter words (fish, frog, star) — common patterns
Level 3: Silent-e words (cake, bike, wave) — the magic e
Level 4: Consonant blends (truck, brick, snow) — two consonants together
Level 5: Digraphs (ship, chain, whale) — letter pairs with new sounds
Level 6: Long vowels and bigger words (beach, tiger, piano)
There are three worlds, each with 38 friends to collect over the same six phonics levels. Cars: Classic Racers, Monster Trucks, Brick Speedsters, Supercars, Emergency Fleet and Off-Road Beasts. Dinos: Baby Dinos, Plant Eaters, Armored Dinos, Long Necks, Sky and Sea Reptiles and Big Hunters. Unicorns: Rainbow Unicorns, Cloud Ponies, Starlight Unicorns, Moonlight Unicorns, Crystal Unicorns and Baby Dragons. Every 3 words your child spells correctly wins the next friend in the current series. Completing a series unlocks the next level with harder words and a new series to fill. Your child can switch worlds any time from the Home screen, and each world keeps its own progress.
Each word has a hint button (the lightbulb icon) that reveals a verbal clue like "Says meow" for "cat" or "Flies with wings" for "plane." This helps your child figure out the word without frustration.
Yes. Each finished series has a "Play again" button, and replaying earns up to three stars per series. Your child can also visit the collection (Garage, Dino Park or Unicorn Meadow) and tap any friend to see it up close.
Congratulations! Your child has practiced 120 words covering all major early-reading phonics categories. Each world has its own words, so switching to Dinos or Unicorns brings new words to spell, over 350 across the app. We're working on more series for future updates.
No. Phonics Race collects zero personal data — no names, no emails, no device IDs, no analytics, no tracking of any kind. Game progress is stored locally on your device only and is never transmitted anywhere. See our Privacy Policy for complete details.
No. Phonics Race is completely ad-free. Your child will never see banner ads, pop-up ads, video ads, or sponsored content of any kind.
Yes. Phonics Race complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and international children's privacy regulations. We achieve compliance through the strongest method possible: not collecting any data in the first place.
No. The only purchase screen is behind a parent gate: a multiplication question a young child cannot answer. There is no virtual currency, no loot boxes and no pop-ups during play. When the next series is locked, the child sees a card with the cars as silhouettes and an "Ask a grown-up" button; nothing nags. Apple and Google also apply your own account's purchase protections (Ask to Buy, password or fingerprint).
Yes. Phonics Race says each word when it appears and whenever your child taps the picture, reads the hint, and announces each new car. It uses the voices built into your phone, so it works offline and nothing is sent anywhere. You can turn it off under Settings → "Read words aloud".
Yes, within the same App Store or Google Play account: open Settings → Grown-ups and tap "Restore purchase". On iOS it also works for your Family Sharing group.
The free-for-life grant lives on the device, so a delete-and-reinstall can lose it. Email support@theforwardalpha.com and we will send you a code.
No. Phonics Race has no web browser, no links to external websites (except this support page), no social media integration, no chat features, and no user-generated content. The app is a self-contained, offline educational game.
On the Home screen, tap the gear icon (⚙️) in the top-right corner. Tap "Reset Progress" to clear all progress and return to Level 1 with an empty collection. The app will restart fresh.
Currently, the app supports one player profile per device. If multiple children share a device, you can use the Reset Progress feature when switching between children. Multiple user profiles are planned for a future update.
Check that your device volume is turned up and the device is not on silent/vibrate mode. In the app, tap the gear icon (⚙️) on the Home screen and make sure the "Sound Effects" toggle is turned on.
Make sure you're running the latest version of the app from the App Store or Google Play. Close other apps running in the background. If the issue persists, try restarting your device. Phonics Race is optimized to run smoothly on most devices from the last 5 years.
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at support@theforwardalpha.com with a description of what happened. Please include your device model (e.g., "iPhone 15" or "Samsung Galaxy S24") and operating system version if possible. Screenshots or screen recordings are very helpful.
We welcome ideas! Email us at support@theforwardalpha.com with your suggestion. We read every email and use parent feedback to guide our development priorities.