Perhaps the title is a little more emphatic than necessary, but if I was to offer one piece of advice to you ( a sibling, or a best friend) on how to help your child become a good reader I would pass on the advice that my sister gave me: get Leapfrog's "Letter Factory" and Leapfrog's "Talking Words Factory".
Why?
Simply put, these videos work. They teach phonics and they do it quickly and in a joyful fashion-- and what better start can you give a child than to make gaining this knowledge easy.
It wasn't long after my daughter was born that I turned my attention to researching reading. I read about Whole Language, and I read about Phonics. I read academic papers from top universities, papers by government education consultants, and I perused the homeschooling threads, figuring that these were some families that were doing it themselves and doing it quite successfully. And, of course, I asked my sister, because she's brilliant, and because she had also researched this topic, except a few years before me.
Without going into the Whole Word versus Phonics controversy (best left to a separate post) what I found was that parents and other experts raved about this series. If you don't believe me, check out Amazon. Currently out of 600 reviews for the "Letter Factory", 98% are either 4 or 5 stars. That's amazingly positive in review terms. In addition, what I read about early childhood development taught me that the Leapfrog folks knew what they were doing; They had indeed hit upon a formula that would work for most children.
What the videos will do
What these two videos will do is teach your child the alphabet, the sounds the letters make and how words are constructed. They do this in a very entertaining fashion which is one of the blessings of this system.
My own testimony: my son is one of those kids for whom sitting is a chore. And at nearly three years of age, he much preferred to be out playing in mud or sand with Thomas, than playing with me and refrigerator magnets. Enter Leap and the gang. Within one week of watching the Letter Factory video, he knew his letters. One week... honest.
What they won't do
While you would think that knowing all this information about letters and words would make a child an early reader, that just isn't always the case. For one thing, children have to have the desire to read for themselves, and for another, because they have so much to learn in so many different exciting areas (like riding bikes and scooters) reading might actually be a low priority for them... and that's okay. Children are all different. They develop at different rates. The important thing is that they have the tools when they are ready. My son, for example, is now 6 and reads at almost the 4th grade level: 3.9 in AR terms. He didn't start reading until Kindergarten. But once he started, he really bloomed.
So... I HIGHLY recommend these 2 Leapfrog videos. And I have no trouble strongly urging you try them because thankfully they are not expensive. In fact, you can rent them at Netflix, and many libraries carry them, so you won't be out a penny.
Currently, Amazon has Letter Factory for about 12 bucks. Word Factory is even less-- about 9 bucks.(Click on pictures and you'll be whisked away to Amazon. If you get these vids through us, you can also support this site). They are also available at Target.
Other Advice:
The other BIG advice Don and I and every expert would give you to make a strong reader is to read Read READ to them. Be a big library user. You can't reasonably purchase all the books you should be reading to your darlings.
Why?
Simply put, these videos work. They teach phonics and they do it quickly and in a joyful fashion-- and what better start can you give a child than to make gaining this knowledge easy.
It wasn't long after my daughter was born that I turned my attention to researching reading. I read about Whole Language, and I read about Phonics. I read academic papers from top universities, papers by government education consultants, and I perused the homeschooling threads, figuring that these were some families that were doing it themselves and doing it quite successfully. And, of course, I asked my sister, because she's brilliant, and because she had also researched this topic, except a few years before me.Without going into the Whole Word versus Phonics controversy (best left to a separate post) what I found was that parents and other experts raved about this series. If you don't believe me, check out Amazon. Currently out of 600 reviews for the "Letter Factory", 98% are either 4 or 5 stars. That's amazingly positive in review terms. In addition, what I read about early childhood development taught me that the Leapfrog folks knew what they were doing; They had indeed hit upon a formula that would work for most children.
What the videos will doWhat these two videos will do is teach your child the alphabet, the sounds the letters make and how words are constructed. They do this in a very entertaining fashion which is one of the blessings of this system.
My own testimony: my son is one of those kids for whom sitting is a chore. And at nearly three years of age, he much preferred to be out playing in mud or sand with Thomas, than playing with me and refrigerator magnets. Enter Leap and the gang. Within one week of watching the Letter Factory video, he knew his letters. One week... honest.
What they won't doWhile you would think that knowing all this information about letters and words would make a child an early reader, that just isn't always the case. For one thing, children have to have the desire to read for themselves, and for another, because they have so much to learn in so many different exciting areas (like riding bikes and scooters) reading might actually be a low priority for them... and that's okay. Children are all different. They develop at different rates. The important thing is that they have the tools when they are ready. My son, for example, is now 6 and reads at almost the 4th grade level: 3.9 in AR terms. He didn't start reading until Kindergarten. But once he started, he really bloomed.
So... I HIGHLY recommend these 2 Leapfrog videos. And I have no trouble strongly urging you try them because thankfully they are not expensive. In fact, you can rent them at Netflix, and many libraries carry them, so you won't be out a penny.
Currently, Amazon has Letter Factory for about 12 bucks. Word Factory is even less-- about 9 bucks.(Click on pictures and you'll be whisked away to Amazon. If you get these vids through us, you can also support this site). They are also available at Target.
Other Advice:
The other BIG advice Don and I and every expert would give you to make a strong reader is to read Read READ to them. Be a big library user. You can't reasonably purchase all the books you should be reading to your darlings.
2 comments :
I can also testify that these videos really help kids learn their letters.
Thanks, Rhapsody for the confirmation. If it was up to me these vid's would be sent to every preschooler in the nation.
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