Leap Frog Letter Factory

by Jenifer Scharpen (Subscribe to Jenifer Scharpen's posts) Nov 29th 2006 3:55PM

Categories: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kids 5-7, Media, Education, That's Entertainment

Last year, Stefania wrote about the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD and said that watching it had taught her daughter all the letter sounds. I just ordered it, here, for my own daughter on the advice of her kindergarten teacher.

Sophia loves to write notes to her friends and family, we read books daily, and she likes to sing the alphabet song and other letter-centric songs that she's learned at school. But, she's still having a little bit of a hard time identifying some letters.

Her teacher recommended this program because it brings the individual letters to life and gives the kids lots of memory triggers to use until identifying the letters becomes second nature. For example; the letter C is cold, so it chatters and says something like, "I'm c-c-c-c-c-cold!"

Speaking of cold, my daughter is trying to sneak some ice cream out of the freezer while I am on the computer. I'll let you know how effective this DVD is for her, and I'll also be honest about whether or not it irritates me. (Kids' shows that make me cringe include, but certainly aren't limited to: Dora, Bob the Builder, anything Barbie, Care Bears, and the Rubberdubbers.)

Comments (10)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Marsha 12-01-2006 @ 1:48PM

My kids love the LeapFrog movies. My 3 year old knows the whole alphabet because of them, but my 6 year old isn't too old for them either. There's more advanced videos too, creating words and then complex words. That is, if they're not too annoying for you, mine wanted to watch them all the time. Good luck!

waterbug24 11-29-2006 @ 6:54PM

As a PreK teacher, I own the video, and we watch it at least 2 times a month. I also recently won the letter magnets that sing the song also, and have incorporated that into our daily letter work! Love it! And it's not irritating to me, as long as you don't mind the repetitiveness of the songs-but that's how kids learn!

Pamela Russo 11-29-2006 @ 5:45PM

I can't begin to tell you how wonderful this DVD is - I bought it when my son turned two, and eight months later he is using what he learned from it to spell short words. For several months it was his favorite "movie", and I actually enjoy it too. I've bought other Leap DVD's, but none of them hold his interest like this one does - he walks around singing the main song from it all the time. This is the one DVD I purchased that I find myself recommending over and over to other parents.

momma2mingbu 11-30-2006 @ 7:39AM

We have the whole series of Leap Frog DVDs. They are great!

mamatulip 11-29-2006 @ 8:02PM

My three-year-old daughter is a HUGE fan of this video; it really helped her learning how to start to sound out three-letter words. When we realized what a big hit it was, we bought her the Word Whammer for Christmas and both she and my one-year-old son love to play it (my son prefers to dance to the ABC song, but my daughter loves to put words together). We have the Math Circus video as well, which is also a big hit.

Bonnie Leach 11-29-2006 @ 8:09PM

Yeah, the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics are the bomb! We found this one http://www.amazon.com/LEAPFROG-Fridge-Phonics-Magnetic-Alphabet/dp/B000GUOGKY at Costco a few months back for $19 and gave it as a gift, because we already had this one http://www.amazon.com/Fridge-Phonics-Magnetic-Letter-Play/dp/B000096QNK which you can easily find this one at any Target or WalMart for $15. We tried watching the Letter Factory but my son just didn't have the attention span for the whole video, but he sure loves the Fridge Phonics.

Jen 11-30-2006 @ 10:05PM

I'll be adding this to my 2 1/2 year old son's Christmas stocking. First of all - LOVE all of leapfrog's products. My mom is getting him the Word Whammer (helps to spell three-letter words) for Christmas. My son loves his letters and can already identify all but maybe two or three - and tries his hardest to sing "the song". I'm sure he will love this DVD. He tends to learn better from educational videos in conjuntion with my reading to him, than from my efforts alone. He learned how to count to ten from listening to a Wiggles song!! ;)

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High School Teacher 11-30-2006 @ 5:00AM

When I taught the lower elementary grades at my school, one of my students brought this in along with the Math Circus video and they were a hit. Both videos caught and sustained my attention and I really enjoyed watching them. I highly recommend these to all parents of young children AND those who are developmentally or academically delayed.

Cynthia 12-23-2006 @ 6:35PM

Does anyone know if there is Leap Frog counting DVD that is equivalent to The Letter Factory? My son loves this DVD and has learned his ABCs in a week. I was hoping he could learn to count next.

Lisa 1-02-2007 @ 10:11AM

My daughter(3) and son(1) love the entire series. I happened to metion to my daughters teacher @ Thinkertots when she was 2 that she was having trouble wioth learning her letters. she knew only about 10-15 well. Her teacher told me to get the letter factory, went out the next day and WALLAH!! In no time my daughter knew each letter and it's sounds. To my suprise i thought i heard my one year say a letter. so i decide dto test him well it seems that he knows some letters and may not be able to say the letter but he knows the sound. I think it's great and i have gone to amazon.com for Christmas and they had a 2 disk special with a plush leap doll. This is my new gift idea for 2007!!! Happy New Year to all. And for counting the Math Circus is great too!! BTW there is a 5 disc special on amzon as well!!

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