AimeeM Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Dear Tad and Family, While you made me feel like a thoroughly inadequate teacher, by teaching my son all of his letter sounds in less than a week, with mastery and instant recall, I do sincerely thank you for doing so! Letter sounds - check. Moving on. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 :lol: I spent 3 LONG weeks trying to teach my middle son letter sounds, and he just would not learn them. I popped in the frog, and in 3 days, he had them all solid. Craziness. I let the youngest learn from the frog, and I always recommend the frog to anyone with preschool aged children that haven't figured out letters on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraidycat Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Dear Tad and Family, While you made me feel like a thoroughly inadequate teacher, by teaching my son all of his letter sounds in less than a week, with mastery and instant recall, I do sincerely thank you for doing so! Letter sounds - check. Moving on. Lol. :) don't feel bad. You're not nearly as colorful!... I assume, unless you've got some sort of Mimi make-up going on. Parents are so much more boring than t.v. Just ask my kids, they'll tell you! LOL I made good use of the frog when my kids were little, too. :) we had the fridge magnet machine(s) for letters and words with uppercase and lowercase letters, along with the videos. ;) Sorry for the lack of capitalization, some days my iPad and I don't get along very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 :lol: I spent 3 LONG weeks trying to teach my middle son letter sounds, and he just would not learn them. I popped in the frog, and in 3 days, he had them all solid. Craziness. I let the youngest learn from the frog, and I always recommend the frog to anyone with preschool aged children that haven't figured out letters on their own. <facepalm to leapfrog> He even does the adorable hand motions for the sounds - like for M, he says "Mmmm" and rubs his belly; for Z, he says "Zzzz" and pretends to nod off. Gah. That frog is much more fun than Mom. I saw somebody else mention the Word Factory - we have that too (it came in a 3 DVD bundle - Letter Factory, Word Factory, and some Ready for School DVD, from Costco). I keep pulling out Phonics Pathways insisting he use that too, though, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 The frog is the bomb. My oldest was frogless--he suffered through with me. But the rest of my boys were frog-taught for letter sounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linguistmama Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 You are not alone! I bow to the superior powers of the frog. With my younger 2 I will not even attempt teaching those first sounds, they'll get the dvd right from the start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2TheTeam Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 It's like magic! My oldest would NOT learn his letters. He was 5, almost 6, and I was seriously frustrated when I found out about Letter Factory...a friend told me. Within 3 or 4 day he knew them all and so did his 3 year old twin siblings. All my hard work trying to teach him was such a wast of time. :glare: I pop that DVD in periodically for my 2 year olds now. When they get a little older, we will have Leap Frog boot camp and be done with learning letters! No reason to waste my time trying when The Frogs are obviously superior at teaching letters than I am. :thumbup1: We have the Talking Word Factory too. We like it and it has helped, but it wasn't as magical as the Letter one. We have a couple others too...Math Circus and one other about reading using Fairy Tales...nothing holds the same magical powers as Letter Factory even though we do like them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmomma1203 Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 Can anyone tell me more specifically how you used the dvd? My 5 year old still doesn't have her letters down. How often did you have your children watch it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 10, 2013 Share Posted August 10, 2013 I was sorely tempted to buy it after reading here but realised having my son read with an American accent would probably be a problem. :-) Oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share Posted August 10, 2013 Jmomma - nothing specific. We picked up the dvds and he was excited about them from the get go. Every time he asked to watch television, I popped them in. After a few days of that, it just clicked. We purchased Letter Factory, Word Factory, Word Caper, Match Circus, and a couple others. Letter Factory has been magic - and I swear, all he does is watch them. Now, our set also came with some awesome visual aid flashcards that we use too, but he LOVES them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amselby81 Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 I didn't use it for my oldest, and we did struggle. I think this thread has convinced me to buy the DVD's for my youngest. But I have to say, things seem to come easier for my youngest. Like with colors. I did so much with my oldest. I sang songs, I'd draw rainbows and hold up the colored crayons as I'd sing the songs, I read lots of books about colors, pointed colors out in the real world, etc, etc. My youngest? I haven't done a thing with her for colors. I felt bad. Then some ladies from church came to me and just kept telling me how smart DD3 is, and how she knows most of her colors. I was like, "Well, thank you!" But inside I was like, "How the crap did she learn her colors?!?" More than likely she's learned most of what she knows from her big sister. I think she might be more of a reader than my oldest too. It's a bit too early to tell, but I read a lot of toddler and picture books to DD6 when she was 3. Now I'm reading short chapter books, and my 3 year old sits in my lap and just eats it up. I don't read any toddler books to her! It's very common to see her just chilling on the floor, looking through a book without pictures. I'm not sure how she finds it entertaining to look through a book with no pictures, but she just does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 I was sorely tempted to buy it after reading here but realised having my son read with an American accent would probably be a problem. :-) Oh well. My kids, BIL and SIL's kids all did not pick up any accent. The only confusing part was Z but they learn both UK and US pronunciation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 Can anyone tell me more specifically how you used the dvd? My 5 year old still doesn't have her letters down. How often did you have your children watch it? I'd have any kindergarten-aged kiddo who didn't have basic sounds down watch it daily until they did. It won't take long--my kids all knew them within about a weeks' worth of frog-watching. LOVE letter factory! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StartingOver Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 The Frog is awesome, we have every single DVD he has ever starred in ! LOL I adore him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 Love the frog here, too! Both my kids had their letter sounds down by the time they were about, oh I dunno, three? My only beef is that I'm having to de-program the "r" sound for my kids - they have picked up "er" from Leap instead of "ruh" (without the uh! Not sure how to type that sound!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grover Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 frog fans here too, although he came along too late for the big kid. I've recommended him to so many people now, it's ridiculous. No accent troubles either... we're used to translating "american" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof2littles Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 Another frog fan here, too. There are a few of the other DVDs available streaming on Netflix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 I was sorely tempted to buy it after reading here but realised having my son read with an American accent would probably be a problem. :-) Oh well. I used it for my kids...but they have a Canadian accent anyway thanks to their Dad lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 My only beef is that I'm having to de-program the "r" sound for my kids - they have picked up "er" from Leap instead of "ruh" (without the uh! Not sure how to type that sound!!) We didn't have to de-program "r" but we did have to work on "l" and "h". Mine wanted to say "ul" for "l" and stick their tongue out when making the "h" sound (panting, like they do in the show). It's really hard to sound out a word with an "h" in it when you stick your tongue out! :lol: But still TOTALLY worth the time it saved me teaching basic letter sounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted August 11, 2013 Author Share Posted August 11, 2013 We didn't have to de-program "r" but we did have to work on "l" and "h". Mine wanted to say "ul" for "l" and stick their tongue out when making the "h" sound (panting, like they do in the show). It's really hard to sound out a word with an "h" in it when you stick your tongue out! :lol: But still TOTALLY worth the time it saved me teaching basic letter sounds.We're having a difficult time with the "l" as well. Same gig - he wants to pronounce it as "ul". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 My kids, BIL and SIL's kids all did not pick up any accent. The only confusing part was Z but they learn both UK and US pronunciation. What's the UK pronunciation? I have a UK (on-line only) friend whose name starts with Z & we call her 'Z'. Now I wonder how I'm butchering her name. My ds#1 picked up more of the letter names than their sounds with Leap. The boys ask to watch it, but I don't put it in very often. (I did it daily for a week or so until I realized it was being counter-productive.) We have the three-pack PP mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 What's the UK pronunciation? I have a UK (on-line only) friend whose name starts with Z & we call her 'Z'. Now I wonder how I'm butchering her name. In the UK, the letter Z is called "zed" not "zee". (Really sounds funny at the end of the ABC song!) Same in Australia, where I grew up. And now here I am in the US, teaching phonics to my American kids! :lol: It gets interesting sometimes, let me tell you! I'm blessed to have a very dear friend who I can call up and ask "How do you say [whatever]?" and then she just laughs at me when I tell her it's all wrong!! The accent thing is pretty interesting when it comes to little kids though. My kids have been unconsciously correcting for my accent since they could talk. I don't pronounce my "r"s as strongly as Americans, so they put them into the words for me - even when they don't belong. For example, one night I told my dd we were having tacos for dinner, to which she replied, "Hooray! Tarrrcos!!" It took a lot of talking to persuade her that my pronunciation was actually correct for once!! :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrunchyGirl Posted August 11, 2013 Share Posted August 11, 2013 Some major skills have been developed via iPad apps around here. I used to feel guilty but when he mastered multiplication tables in like 2 weeks with zero pain and suffering, I decided to let go of the guilt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmomma1203 Posted August 12, 2013 Share Posted August 12, 2013 Some major skills have been developed via iPad apps around here. I used to feel guilty but when he mastered multiplication tables in like 2 weeks with zero pain and suffering, I decided to let go of the guilt. We love our iPad! Would you be willing to share some of the apps you think have been the most beneficial? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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