Penguin’s Ladybird: I’m Ready for Phonics was a polished app for children learning and practising their first letter sounds. Now there’s a follow-up for the next step: spelling.

It’s called, sensibly enough, Ladybird: I’m Ready to Spell, and was released today for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, with a similar space theme to its predecessor.

The app includes three games, each with three levels for children to work through, according to their age and spelling ability. They’ll be spelling words against the clock, unscrambling letters to form words, and filling gaps to complete words too, with easy-to-understand drag’n'drop controls.

If you’ve got more than one child, they can each have their own profile in the app, to ensure that they don’t lose their place when their sibling wants a go.

Also useful for parents: you can add in your own spellings, if your children’s school has a set list, or if there are particular words that they’re struggling with.

Ladybird: I’m Ready to Spell costs £2.99 for iPhone and iPad on Apple’s App Store, and it’s coming out for Android devices too – we’ll update this story with the link as soon as it goes live on the Google Play store. The app will also be on its way to Windows devices soon according to Penguin.

Oh, and while we’re here, we hadn’t realised before that some of Penguin’s other apps are available on Android: picture-book collection Ladybird: Read it Yourself; that phonics app Ladybird: Ready for Phonics and Ladybird: First Words included.

Buy Apps Playground’s 100 Best iPad Apps of 2013 e-book – £1.99 from Apple’s iBooks Store