Letterland

Ruth has really been enjoying her Letterland Computer game. First she has to find the letter (there are 5 different scenes that they take her to). They are given a clue with the same starting sound (like Golden Girl is by the goat). Then when they find the letterlander they get to play a game with them. One game is a maze where she has to collect all the letters that are the same. Only once she has collected them all will the gate open on the other side.

Another game is where she has to catch only the one letter in the basic. I was interested to note that the letters that have this game are b,d,p and q and those are the only letters that fall. So they are really focusing on these "problem" ones and making sure the children can see the difference. It's been amazing to see how quickly Ruth has learnt this and she can very quickly see if it is the correct letter or not.
Then there are rhymes. The last word of the rhyme is missing and she has to select the correct picture to finish the sentence.

One of her favorites is the puzzle. And the one she enjoys the least is the "spot the difference". There are 7 things different and she has to click on the right picture only (to either take something away or to add something). The game is really clever because it gets the children to look at detail - something they need when learning to differentiate between the letters. And it's a great game for children to play. Ruth had never done one before so she is learning really quickly.

Once she has found them all they need to be put in alphabetical order. So this is the one time she calls me to help. I then tell her what letter to put next by making the sound. So I will say "a" (not the name A like in the song but the sound) and then "b" "c" and she selects the card and puts it in order. Each time she plays the cards are put in different position at the top. So she is learning to recognize them and not just remember an order. It amazes me that within a couple of week she has learnt them all.
I had the letterland book and cd with Rachel but have really enjoyed having this game as well for Ruth. It has gotten her to learn the computer (which she is doing really well with) and it has helped her to learn the letters really quickly.

Ruth got these puzzles out today. She got the 24 piece done in less than 6 minutes again and I was so surprised to see her get the 12 piece done in less than 2 minutes. She thinks it's quite fun to get timed and keeps asking me to time her. :-)