Educational app Write to Read isn’t brand new, but we’ve been meaning to write about it all summer, and have only just managed to sit down to actually do it.

Developed by a teacher in Denmark, the iPad app has apparently been a huge hit with parents and teachers there, with its interesting philosophy of teaching children to read by getting them to write, and create their own stories.

“Using Write to Read and a little help from an adult, children learn to spell and read in a relevant and meaningful way by creating and writing their own texts,” explains its App Store listing.

“The child writes a sentence using his or her current level of written language and the adult ‘translates’ the child’s writing into proper or correct text. When the child compares his/her writing with the adult’s, the child begins to observe, assimilate and learn words and syntax.”

We wouldn’t claim to be experts on the science, but we do like the fact that the app is designed to be used by parents and children together, rather than a set of reading exercises for kids to work through on their own.

We also like the social aspect, where the stories that your children write can be shared by printing them out, emailing them or sharing them to social networks from within the app. And the keyboard, which uses letter sounds, is clever too.

It’s aimed at a wide age range: 3-10 year-olds, with scope for older children to write longer and more ambitious stories to keep it interesting. We think it could catch on here just as it has in Denmark, especially if teachers get hold of it and think it’s worthwhile.

Write to Read costs £4.99 for iPad on Apple’s App Store. Here’s a video demo: