MorphyLearn is a vocabulary app that teaches kids ages 7–12 how big words come apart — prefixes, roots, and suffixes. It was built by Saul Steward, a homeschooling dad of five near Memphis, Tennessee, for his own kids first.
It started at our kitchen table. My wife was working through a lesson with our oldest son — handwritten flash cards, and he was picking out the prefix and the suffix on each one. Her idea was simple: if kids learn how words come apart, they don't just learn those words. They get a key to thousands more. I started building it that same day.
Her idea meant more to me than she knew. I was born in Guatemala and came to the U.S. as a kid. I failed first grade and repeated it, and I spent years quietly working out what English words meant before I was brave enough to speak them. I'm dyslexic, too. Nobody ever showed me how words are built — I pieced it together on my own, and it took decades. MorphyLearn is the map I wish someone had handed me.
I'm not a reading teacher, and I won't pretend to be. I'm a parent. Morphology-first teaching isn't our invention — it's a well-established approach in structured literacy. What we built is a simple, pressure-free way for kids to practice it: short missions, no timers, no streak pressure, no ads, and as little data about your child as we can get away with collecting.
Our five kids were the first testers. Yours are welcome next — the first 14 days are free, no card needed.
Questions? I read every message: support@morphylearn.com.
I recently wrote a guest article about one of the problems that pushed me toward building MorphyLearn in the first place: why a child can read fluently and still get stuck when words become bigger and more complex. The article looks at how understanding prefixes, bases, and suffixes can give kids another way into unfamiliar words.
Read the article on The Teacher Treasury →