# Word Wonder — full reference Last updated: 2026-08-25 Source: https://wordwonder.web.app/ This file is the concatenated full text of the Word Wonder website, provided for AI systems and agents. --- # Page: Home — https://wordwonder.web.app/ ## Spell daily. Score higher. The spelling app for kids aged 4+ **Word Wonder is a spelling app for children aged 4 and up.** It reads each word aloud, your child spells it on the keyboard or on paper, and 3,800 words across 16 adaptive levels carry them from first phonics to secondary-school English, one word at a time. Free to start. No ads. Works offline. Available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kids-spelling-word-wonder/id6744233069 ### At a glance - 3,800 curated words - 16 levels, preschool to secondary - 16 bosses to defeat - 2 English variants: US and UK ## How it works — three steps, one school night at a time No grade to guess at, no worksheet to print. Word Wonder finds the level, sets the pace, and keeps the reward in sight. **Step 1 — Find the right start.** A short, friendly placement test climbs in strides — four levels, then eight, then twelve — until it finds where your child actually is. Nobody starts on words they already know, or on words they cannot reach. **Step 2 — Practise eight words a day.** The Daily Challenge is deliberately small: a set your child finishes before attention runs out. Hear the word, spell it, get instant and encouraging feedback. **Step 3 — Beat the boss, unlock the next level.** Every level ends with a Boss Fight, and each word spelled right lands a hit. Sixteen bosses stand between Wriggle the caterpillar and Apex — every one of them a milestone worth telling someone about. ## Listen & Spell — hear the word, spell the word Every word is spoken aloud in clear US or UK English. Your child taps the speaker as often as they need — no time pressure, and no penalty for listening twice. - Letter boxes show the word's length, so a guess is never blind - A meaning hint is one tap away, and never gives the spelling away - Wrong answers are shown letter by letter, not marked with a cross ## Snap & Learn — real dictation, on real paper Spelling is a handwriting skill, and school tests are written by hand. Word Wonder reads the list aloud, your child writes it on paper, then photographs the page — and the app checks every word, letter by letter. 1. **Listen** — eight words, read out one at a time 2. **Write** — pencil and paper, exactly like class 3. **Snap** — one photo marks the whole page Prefer the keyboard? Typing is always an option — your child picks at the start of every word. ## Word detail — know why it spells that way Rote memorising fades. Word Wonder opens every word up: the parts it is built from, what each part means, the pronunciation, and the story of where it came from. Example — **gentleman** /ˈdʒentlmən/ - Spelling trick: *gentle* (soft and kind; not rough) + *man* (an adult person who is male) - The story: from Middle English *gentilman*, a partial calque of Old French *gentilhomme* ## Smart review — tricky words come back at the right moment Spaced repetition schedules each word for the day it is about to be forgotten. Mastered words step aside; the stubborn ones keep showing up until they stick. ## Progress — one screen tells you how it's going Words practised, accuracy trend, current level, streak — over 7, 30 or 90 days. Enough to spot a wobble early, without turning a child into a dashboard. ## Boss fights — sixteen bosses, sixteen milestones A level isn't finished until its boss is beaten. Every word spelled right lands a hit, so the reward for revision becomes a story your child wants to tell at dinner. The roster: Wriggle (Lv.1), Bubbles (Lv.2), Flit (Lv.3), Boo (Lv.4), Octo (Lv.5), Rusty (Lv.6), Puff (Lv.7), Cyclo (Lv.8), Hexer (Lv.9), Drako (Lv.10), Stinger (Lv.11), Razor (Lv.12), Rexor (Lv.13), Tempest (Lv.14), Vortex (Lv.15), Apex (Lv.16). ## The ladder — 16 levels that grow with your child One shared ladder from first phonics to secondary vocabulary. The placement test decides where your child joins it — not their birthday. **Levels 1–4 · 800 words · Early readers · Preschool, Reception, Year 1–2.** Short vowels, consonant blends and common sight words — the phonics core that turns decoding into reading. Examples: cat, sun, island, friend. **Levels 5–8 · 800 words · Lower primary · Year 3–4, Grade 2–3, KS2 begins.** Soft c, -ing endings, the un- prefix and the port root. Examples: circle, kicking, unhappy, transport. **Levels 9–10 · 400 words · Upper primary · Year 5–6, KS2, Grade 4–5.** Greek and Latin roots and the -ation suffix. Examples: photograph, autograph, transportation, imagination. **Levels 11–12 · 600 words · Lower secondary · Year 7–8, Grade 6–7.** Unstressed vowels and silent letters inside longer words. Examples: absorb, aerial, scandal, sincere. **Levels 13–14 · 600 words · Mid secondary · Year 9, Grade 8.** The subject vocabulary that starts arriving from science and the humanities. Examples: bacteria, synthetic, strategic, tolerance. **Levels 15–16 · 600 words · Upper secondary · Year 10, Grade 9.** Abstract and academic words. Examples: integrity, liability, detrimental, equivalent. Year bands are the app's own curriculum tags, taken straight from the word library. Older learners and families building English as a second language often use levels 13–16 as vocabulary groundwork long before they meet an SAT or PTE word list. ## Exams — three countries, three papers, one skill Britain's KS2 spelling paper, America's Scripps bee, Australia and New Zealand's ICAS Spelling Bee. Nothing alike on the timetable — and all three come down to the same moment: a word read aloud, spelled cold. That moment is Word Wonder's daily loop. ### United Kingdom — KS2 SATs spelling paper Year 6, every May, England. Paper 2 of the English grammar, punctuation and spelling test: 20 words in 15 minutes. Each word is read inside a sentence, then repeated on its own — dictation, in context. Sits on Word Wonder levels 5–10. Grading: scaled scores run 80 to 120. **100 is the expected standard** — reach it and your child has met it; below it is "working towards". ### United States — Scripps National Spelling Bee Classroom, then school, then regional, state and national rounds. The official study list, *Words of the Champions*, runs to 4,000 words in three tiers — One Bee for school bees, Two Bee for regionals, Three Bee for state and national. A pronouncer says the word; you spell it back. Draws on the whole ladder, levels 1–16. Grading: there is no grade. You either move up a level or your bee is over for the year — which is why the study list matters more than the practice paper. ### Australia and New Zealand — ICAS Spelling Bee Years 2–7 in Australia. 35 to 50 questions in 40 minutes, sat on the child's own device with headphones in. Audio dictation, plus the spelling rules and conventions behind the words. Sits on Word Wonder levels 1–12. Awards, ranked nationally: | Award | Band | |---|---| | ICAS Medal | Top of the region, per subject and year | | High Distinction | Top 1% | | Distinction | Next 10% | | Credit | Next 25% | | Merit | Next 10% | | Participation | Everyone else | ### What a grade can — and can't — be promised Two of those three are **ranks**. An ICAS certificate and a Scripps placing are decided by how everyone else did on the day, so no app, tutor or workbook can honestly promise your child a Distinction — the band is only ever 10% of whoever turned up. The KS2 expected standard is different: it is a threshold, and a threshold is something you can genuinely aim at. What daily practice moves, in all three cases, is the same quiet number: **how many of the words on that paper your child has already met out loud**, months before the day. ### What Word Wonder drills - **Dictation under pressure.** A word heard once and spelled cold — the exact thing every one of those papers measures. - **Rules and conventions.** Suffix rules, doubling, silent letters, Greek and Latin roots — the patterns the words are built from, not a list to be memorised. ### What it doesn't - **Proofreading and error correction.** ICAS Spelling Bee tests it. Word Wonder doesn't drill it — that one still belongs to reading and to school. - **Grammar and punctuation.** That is Paper 1 of the KS2 test, and a different skill entirely. ICAS is run by Janison. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is run by The E.W. Scripps Company. Key Stage 2 tests are set by the UK's Standards and Testing Agency. Word Wonder is independent, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any of them. ## For parents — built to be handed to a child unsupervised - **No ads, no outside links.** Nothing in the app leads anywhere else. There is no feed, no chat, and nothing to buy inside a lesson. - **Works without a signal.** The word library ships inside the app and the audio is generated on the device, so a car journey or a plane is practice time. Only iCloud sync needs the internet. - **US or UK English.** Pick one and both the pronunciation and the accepted spelling follow it — *color* or *colour*, never marked wrong for living in the wrong country. - **A pace a child can keep.** Eight words a day, then done. The app never nags for a longer session or a bigger streak. - **Review timed by the forgetting curve.** Spaced repetition, not a random shuffle. Words return on the day they are most likely to be slipping. - **Progress you can read in ten seconds.** Words practised, accuracy, level and streak — over 7, 30 or 90 days, and synced to every device by iCloud. ## Where the words come from — levelled against published curricula Not an algorithm's guess at what a seven-year-old should know. Every level is checked against national spelling curricula and word-frequency data. - English Appendix 1: Spelling — England, Department for Education - Common Core State Standards — Language and Foundational Skills - Australian Curriculum v9 — English learning area - Frequency and phonetics data — ECDICT, checked against dictionary APIs ## Frequently asked questions **What age is Word Wonder for?** Rated 4+ and built for early readers upward. The placement test sets the starting level rather than the child's age, so a nine-year-old rebuilding confidence and a five-year-old meeting their first phonics both land somewhere sensible. **Does my child need to be able to type?** No. Every word offers two ways to answer: type it on the keyboard, or write it on paper and photograph the page. Younger children who write faster than they type lose nothing. **Does Word Wonder work offline?** Yes. The word library ships inside the app, the audio is generated on the device, and handwriting is read on the device too, so daily practice works with no signal at all. Only iCloud sync and purchases need a connection. **Will it help with KS2, a Scripps bee or ICAS?** Word Wonder is a spelling curriculum rather than a test-prep course: there are no past papers here, and nobody can promise you a rank. What it builds is what all three papers measure, hearing a word once and spelling it cold, and knowing the rule underneath it. **Which words does my child get at each level?** Levels 1 to 4 cover short vowels, blends and sight words; 5 to 10 move through suffixes, prefixes and Greek and Latin roots; 11 to 16 carry secondary-school and academic vocabulary. Each level is tagged to a school year band from the curricula it was checked against. **Can two children share one iPad?** Not yet. Word Wonder keeps one child profile per device, with its own nickname, avatar, level and streak. Two children on a single install would share a level and a review queue, so separate devices or Apple accounts work better today. **Is Word Wonder free?** Free to download and start. Word Wonder Premium, an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription with a free trial for new subscribers, unlocks unlimited practice, Boss Fights and smart review. Cancel any time in App Store settings. **How is Word Wonder different from other spelling apps?** Most spelling apps quiz on screen. Word Wonder also marks handwriting from a photo, places the child by a test instead of by age, and schedules review by the forgetting curve. It has no ads and no custom-list feature, so it suits daily practice better than a weekly school list. ## Requirements Requires iOS 17 or later. iPhone and iPad. 17 MB. --- ## Guides for parents - [All guides](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles) - [How to Prepare for the ICAS Spelling Bee at Home](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/icas-spelling-bee-preparation) — What the ICAS Spelling Bee tests for Years 2 to 7, how the awards are ranked, and a home practice plan built on daily dictation and spelling rules. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/icas-spelling-bee-preparation.md - [The KS2 Spelling Test Explained for Parents](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/ks2-spelling-test-explained) — How the Year 6 SATs spelling paper works: 20 words read in sentences, scaled scores from 80 to 120, and how to practise at home from September to May. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/ks2-spelling-test-explained.md - [Spelling Words by Grade and Year: What to Expect](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/spelling-bee-word-lists-by-grade) — Which spelling patterns children meet from preschool to Grade 9, with example words at each stage, and how spelling bee lists differ from school lists. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/spelling-bee-word-lists-by-grade.md - [How Children Learn to Spell: From Phonics to Rules](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/phonics-to-spelling) — The stages children pass through in learning to spell, from letter sounds to word parts, what each stage looks like on paper, and how to help at each one. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/phonics-to-spelling.md - [Spelling Dictation at Home: A 10-Minute Routine](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/spelling-dictation-practice-at-home) — How to run spelling dictation at home in ten minutes: choose eight words, read them the way tests do, mark by letter, and schedule the ones that come back. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/spelling-dictation-practice-at-home.md - [Best Spelling Apps for Kids in 2026, Compared](https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/best-spelling-apps-for-kids) — Six spelling apps for kids compared on price, age range and what they drill. Checked on the US App Store in August 2026 by the makers of Word Wonder. Markdown: https://wordwonder.web.app/articles/best-spelling-apps-for-kids.md # Page: Privacy Policy — https://wordwonder.web.app/privacy Word Wonder is a spelling-practice app for children, published by Lubo Shang, built to be private by default: it works without any account, sign-in or personal details. - **Profile information created in the app** — a nickname, an avatar, and learning data such as current level, streaks, spelling progress and challenge results. Stored on the device, and synced through the user's own private iCloud account if iCloud is enabled. The publisher has no access to that iCloud data. - **Usage and diagnostic data** — Google Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics collect anonymous technical information (device model, OS version, app version, general region, in-app events, crash reports). Not used to identify any individual child. - **Subscription information** — purchases are handled by Apple. The app only receives subscription status; it never sees payment details. - Names, email addresses, phone numbers, precise location and photo-library access are **not** requested. - No advertising use, no sale or rental of data. No third-party advertising in the app, and no way for a child to communicate with other users or share personal information publicly. Contact: Lubo Shang, shanglb.au@gmail.com --- # Page: Terms of Use — https://wordwonder.web.app/terms - **Licence.** The app is licensed, not sold, under Apple's Standard End User License Agreement. - **Subscriptions.** Free to download and start. Word Wonder Premium is an auto-renewing monthly or yearly subscription unlocking unlimited practice, Boss Fights and smart review, with a free trial available to new subscribers. Payment is charged to the Apple Account at confirmation of purchase and renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in App Store account settings. Refunds are administered by Apple. - **Who may use it.** Designed for children, rated 4+. No advertising, no outbound links, no user-to-user communication. A parent or guardian is responsible for agreeing to the terms and for any purchase. - **Educational content.** The word library and level bands are prepared with reference to published spelling curricula and word-frequency data, and are offered as practice material only. The app is not a test-preparation course, is not affiliated with or endorsed by any examination board, and no particular examination result, grade, rank or award is promised or implied. - **Content.** Photographs taken in the app to check handwritten spelling are processed on the device. Contact: Lubo Shang, shanglb.au@gmail.com --- # Page: Support — https://wordwonder.web.app/support Help topics for Word Wonder, including getting started, the placement test, changing level, English variant, subscriptions and restoring purchases, iCloud sync, and resetting progress. Contact: shanglb.au@gmail.com