I wanted to rave over the entire Starfall Program. My son, (7) was having great difficulty in learning to read. In fact, I never thought he would learn how. The combination of the printed materials, and online stories, games, and songs, have been more effective than any other program we've tried.

— Parent
   Wisconsin

I started my 4 year old with Starfall and she is now reading on her own, and she is so proud that she can read all 15 beginner books without my help! She wrote her first letter to me, on her own, using her personal dictionary with the correct punctuations and can tell you the verb, noun and descriptive in a sentence.

— Homeschooling Parent
   Pennsylvania

We are emailing to say that we think your website is AWESOME! As educators, we have found countless activities that meet the needs of our students in fun and interesting ways.

— Grace Abbott
   Elementary School
   Nebraska

About Starfall

At age 9, young Stephen Schutz was still struggling to read. What came easily for some children required many more hours of Stephen's work, and he was consistently toward the bottom of his class in reading. Now a PhD in physics and a successful publisher and artist, Dr. Schutz wanted to make sure children in his situation today have a resource that can help. He turned to the Internet and conceived a program that would be available online across the world to all children who are learning to read in English.

Founded in 2002, Starfall is made possible through the vision of the Polis-Schutz family. Dr. Stephen Schutz and poet Susan Polis Schutz founded Blue Mountain Arts publishing company in 1970 and together with their son, Jared Schutz, created the popular electronic greeting card company, bluemountain.com. The Polis-Schutz family shares a passion for education. Susan Polis Schutz was a teacher in New Jersey and New York City in the 1960s, while Jared Schutz Polis served on the Colorado State Board of Education.

Starfall is recognized and highly rated by experts. The Reading Teacher named Starfall.com one of "Five Internet sites too good to miss" (May 2006). In 2005 and again in 2008, Homeschool.com recognized Starfall as one of their top five educational websites. Starfall was the first Internet site to be recognized by Children's Software & New Media Review as the highest rated product in their Early Elementary category, Spring 2004.

Starfall is produced by a dedicated and talented team led by Brandi Chase. The Starfall team of educators, artists, designers, animators, musicians, and engineers live all over the world!

Educators
Dr. Karen Cole, Joan Elliott, Myrna Estes, Judy Goetze, Pam Ferguson, and Darla Marquez

artists and Designers
Kimberly Cooper, Matthew Baca, Dale Beisel, Marc Buchanan, Craig Deeley, Faith Gowan, Stefan Gruber, Heather Hogan, David Lebow, Debby Lee, Frank Lee, Claire Lenth, Gina and Art Morgan of AMGG, Michael Ramirez, Jared Ramos, and Triska Wasser

musicians/composers
Randy Graves, Keith Heldman and Richard James

Engineers and Quality Assurance
Kerry Dezell, Adam Griff, Tom Meyer, Steve Patschke, Larry Moiola, Troy Tazbaz, and Roger Wilson

Starfall also wishes to thank...
Karen Bidgood, Tad Elliott, and the Purchasing, Customer Service, and Warehouse teams at SPS Studios