{Emilie’s Review}
When I heard a friend say her sons, ages 1.5 and 2.5, recognized every letter of the alphabet, I choked on my water and tried not to gasp. What? My four year old won’t even sit down and trace the first letter of his name, no matter how fun I try to make it! And when he does, he makes it backwards. I called my mom, a school counselor, to find out if it was time to get him in tutoring and after she reassured me that he wouldn’t be a kindergarten drop out, I bought this video.
Apparently, LeapFrog Letter Factory is the reason that my friend’s kids are so much more brilliant than mine. Now, I’m not one to jump on every parenting bandwagon that crosses my path. I didn’t even buy Baby Einstein. But, it seemed well worth $9 to give it a try and I’m happy to report that my kids are now obsessed with the alphabet.
Now, I’m sure it really doesn’t matter and they all can recognize their ABC’s before high school but I feel a little better about letting the kids watch this instead of having their eyeballs tweak out from a Yo Gabba Gabba episode.
LeapFrog Letter Factory is $8.99 at Amazon right now if your kids are alphabet-challenged like mine.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
My son loves this video! I got it for a great price at Costco, but I’m not sure if it is still available. In addition, he has really taken interest in Word Caper (sort of like a sequel). After watching it twice he was informing me of when a vowel is silent or long!
I know this was written with tongue and cheek sarcasm, but seriously people! Calm down about your kids being able to read by the time they leave the womb!! For heaven’s sake, let them be kids! I taught first grade and high school, and no matter what parents did, they pretty much all evened out by 3rd grade. Besides, all this pressure parents are putting on little kids isn’t helping. We have more high school drop-outs than ever before! Sorry – just a soap box issue for me! I’m sure the video is great.
I am a Full time K/1 teacher and think that any exposure that little ones have (in a fun way) to letters, sounds and reading is IMPERATIVE to their school success. I am not talking drill and kill, I simply mean that just like we talk to our kids about anything/everything in this world, it is also important to talk to your kids about letters, sounds and words. That said, I have never recommended videos for children in my class to improve their letters/word knowledge. My own children (2 years old) have an expressive speech delay, so in my mind it is even MORE important to expose my children early to letters/sounds in a fun way. On the recommendation of our speech therapist we bought this same video and my boys LOVE it. Not only do they love it, but I learned a new song (and I know a TON of alpha songs!) that we sing when we are out and about learning about letters and sounds in the real environment. My barely (July) 2 year old boys know the majority of letters/sounds by name and we are rapidly learning the letters/sounds by sight.
I HIGHLY recommend this video to all and especially for parents to watch WITH their children and learn the REAL sounds letters make. Then take this knowledge/sounds from the song to continue the teaching throughout the day!!
Maybe all children seem to level out by 3rd grade, but what parent would want their child to be the “low” kid in the K-2 class??!! In my classroom the children who come in September knowing few letters struggle ALL YEAR long to catch up to their peers. As parents we are our childrens’ first and most important teachers and everything we can do to expose our children to all academics is so very important!! (Although we have to remember to keep it FUN!) Ok, that is MY soap box! Great video, I highly recommend!