下列文章转自The Thinking Mother BLOG.
I have blogged and talked about these Leap Frog videos ad nauseam, at least it seems that way to me. But I think it is time to talk about them again. I’ll tell the whole story here.
I had never heard of these Leap Frog children’s videos until 2004 until a homeschooling mother gave my younger son two Leap Frog videos for his fourth birthday. At that time my older son was nearly seven and he could already read. However, both children loved to watch the first Leap Frog video cartoon whose main purpose is to teach letter names and letter sounds. That video is called “Leap Frog Letter Factory”. The video does a good job of mixing real entertainment and songs in with educational content. The bottom line is that children do learn, my children and other children learn from them as well.
The second video that he received as a gift back on his fourth birthday in 2004 was taking the letter sounds and blending them into words. You know, c-a-t put together spells cat, and so forth. That second video covers short vowel sounds. Immediately that son was blending words on his own with ease. That second video in the series is called “Talking Words Factory”.
Both of my boys begged to watch the video over and over. I was fine with letting them watch both of them. I have gone on to recommend these videos to anyone who asks me, “What can I buy or do with my children to help them learn to read?” Since that time I can’t tell you how many parents who followed my advice to buy the videos echoed the same thing about their children and these videos, how the children learn instantly and love the videos.
When that younger son of mine was aged 4 and 3 months it was September and time for me to get back to homeschooling my older son (primarily). However the plan was to do what my younger son wanted as well and what he was demanding to learn was to read all the words, not just the easy ones that the video and our casual conversations taught him to read. I then used a phonics curriculum with my younger son and he picked up everything and was reading fluently at age 4.5. (We used Sam Blumenfeld’s Alpha Phonics, a cheap, intensive systematic phonics methods of reading instruction that any parent can use with little or no training.)
Leap Frog has a third reading video which covers more challenging blends such as “ch” and “sh”. It also covers adding the e at the end of a word which makes the vowel become a long vowel sound. I have again heard many kudos for that video. We don’t own it because I don’t even think it was released back when we would have needed it.
Those videos were handed down to my cousin who has to children, aged one and three.
Out of the blue, two days ago, my cousin emailed me to thank me profusely for giving her the Leap Frog videos. The videos were in VHS format and they don’t own a VCR so she had put the VHS videos up at my grandmothers and they watched them while there.
She said that she showed them to her three year old son who formerly didn’t care about the alphabet or reading. However just from the video, he learned all the letters to identify them by name and the easy letter sounds (short vowel sounds for the vowels). He loved the videos so much he wanted to watch them more so she went out and bought them in DVD format from her local Target and they watch them at home now.
She was elated and said that he begs to know how to read everything and wants to see objects in their home spelled out. Presently they are labeling objects all over the house with signs to give their names. She is overjoyed to see how easy it was to teach her son something and she loves seeing that light bulb go off and learning happening with joy in their home. (In case you were wondering this boy will probably attend preschool at age four and will go on to public school’s Kindergarten; they have no plans to homeschool as I do.)
I then had to explain how the next time they visit our grandmother the videos won’t be there as I took them and was giving them to my nephews.
She did not know about the third Leap Frog reading video called “Talking Words Factory 2 Code Word Caper” and after I told her she said she’d get it on the Internet as it was not at her local Target (where she found the DVD version of the first two reading videos).
She also told me that Leap Frog also makes math videos now. She said her son loves the one that they own which teaches counting from 1 to 100, and he is now counting up a storm.
It is one of my nephews’ birthdays this week, the one who just turned eight who has autism and is non-verbal and is not yet reading. I had recently given them the first two Leap Frog reading videos, and I just ordered the third Leap Frog reading video on DVD format and the first of the Leap Frog math videos as one of his birthday gifts. My other nephew is five and is not showing all the signs of reading readiness yet, and they have delayed his entry to public school Kindergarten until he is more academically ready.
I am praying that my brother and sister-in-law allow their children to watch these educational videos so that both of my nephews can learn from them.
I highly recommend these Leap Frog videos to families with children aged three or four. Although any aged child would watch them (probably a one or two year old would love them too), I feel that combining the video watching with the right time to learn their educational message is a wonderful and easy way for a child to begin to learn to read. It doesn’t get much easier than buying a set of videos that can practically entirely teach a child to read.
If you are a parent of a young child or if you are buying a present for a three or four year old I highly encourage you to buy these videos. Just do it, it will be worth it, believe me.
Leap Frog Letter Factory video
