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Talk It Out:
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"Check out
Abeka.com. The Abeka program is great. I currently have 2 children in
a local Christian School and the Abeka concept of phonics is
wonderful. I don't think you will find any toys but their workbooks
are awesome. We usually buy a Summer Workbook so that no skills
are lost over summer break. Also, I don't think you can go wrong with
any of the Leap Frog (battery hogging) systems. Invest in rechargeable
batteries and a charger around $20.00 it is well worth it." ~
Barbara
"The Leap Pad
products are great. My two kids have learned lots from theirs (I got
them each one last January for $13 each). My daughter who was
three got one that was for K-2 age kids. My son who was five got
one that was for 3-4 graders. Sure they were too old for them.
So they have grown into them. My son has learned a lot about the
presidents, parts of speech, and weather systems. Now that is
not something kids in school learn at that age, but he has learned a
lot and enjoyed it a lot. It is a great item to have if you take
road trips as well. It beaks up the monotony of travel." ~
Sara "My son, who just turned four, just received a LeapFrog Plus Writing for his birthday from his aunt. I thought similar thoughts as you...Great another electronic noise making toy that won't get played with. But after reading the guides and working through the two included books with my son, I realized this is a GREAT gift. My son already knows his letters and their sounds, numbers and counting, etc. but he has trouble with his fine motor skills (like holding a pencil or drawing lines). This toy has a "magic pencil" that lets him really write on the book, and it comes with an eraser, to let him do it over and over again. He could work for an hour just on one book! He loves it. And when he gets bored of writing, there's games that test his knowledge for each lesson in the book. There's many many books available to buy for the LeapFrog. And it covers a ton of subjects preschool through 3rd grade. I would recommend this toy to anyone. I've been really impressed with it." ~ Angie
"My homeschooled son is 11 now, so the Leapfrog products weren't around when I taught him to read. We used the book, 'How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.' It is $20 and available at Amazon and lots of other places. It was a great resource for us. I found it to be very parent-friendly. When you flip through it, you may be put off by the letters. They start off very large at the beginning and then become normal size by the end of the book. The author uses a few unusual tricks such as teaching a child that the 'e' in make doesn't get pronounced; when she sees the word spelled out, the 'e' is much smaller than the other letters. Also, to teach sounds like 'th', those letters are touching each other to show that they combine to make a sound. It may sound very strange, but by the end of the book all of the letters are printed normally. My son had no trouble transitioning from the unusual print to regular print. The author says your child will be reading at a second grade level by the end of the book. I have spoken to a few parents whose children did not like this method, but most of those I spoke with were very successful. Lots
of homeschoolers ask grandparents for zoo or museum memberships,
or perhaps extra lessons such as art or dancing."
~ Diane "We got a Leapster for my 6-year-old last year for Christmas. The games can be a little pricey, but we looked for some on sale and I also found some on eBay. Batteries were a concern of mine also, so we bought the recharging pack. It has been a really great gift for her." ~ Becky "Here is a Yahoo search for those educational toys question. Check it out if you have time. Good luck." ~ Deb "My
son has loved StudyDog (free off the web at studydog.com)
-- this won't be for them, but for your child! If
terms of a gift, our son has loved a series called Living
Books which are stories for CD-ROM which are also games --
but the story (each line of words highlighted) has to be
read in order to play the game." ~ Annie "I can't say much for writing, as I've been putting together my own system for that, however, we also homeschool and used an on-line program to teach our 5-year-old to read (phonetically). It is called 'Headsprout.' It is not too expensive considering how much homeschool items go for, but it runs $99 for the first child and $50 for subsequent children in the house. It is at www.headsprout.com and they offer a trial period free for the first 3 lessons to see if you want to use it. They also send you some little mini-books to go with it and a progress chart. The only 'downside' to it is that our son didn't finish using it because he passed into reading longer books so quickly! Now at 6 he just finished reading, 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' on his own!" ~ Melissa "You mentioned in your newsletter that you
were looking for good gift ideas for your daughter. I'm hoping
people get my kids experiences for Christmas--horse riding lessons, a season pass to the zoo, a trip to a
museum, etc. Also, books! I have four kids (we
also homeschool) and have found that the Leap Pad type toys are fun for a while, but they get set aside like
everything else, and they really aren't all that educational. They aren't BAD, but I'd rather people
spend the money on books for my kids. You can set up a wish list at Amazon.com, and probably Barnes and
Noble and other bookstores, so you can choose books that are age-appropriate and ones that she doesn't
already have. Oh, and of course there are lots of neat, educational magazines--which can be passed on to
friends when she is through with them. Another thing I always appreciate is craft supplies. We go through
a ton of construction paper, drawing paper, pencils, colors, glue, glitter, Play
Doh, etc. Since it's consumable, it gets used and you always need more.
Computer games are nice--we like Reader Rabbit and JumpStart.
My niece got some games for her birthday that looked neat. One was about parts of speech--I
can't remember the others. Oh, and last year my kids got a science set, a solar system set, and some models
of the human body (nothing graphic or gross)--those are really neat."
~ Caroline
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