It is harder than one would think to amuse a preschooler (holy crap, he's a preschooler now!) in an Alaskan winter, particularly one that has proved significantly colder than normal. We're on the 18th day of a cold snap. 'Long about 11 days ago mommy was going certifiably batty with multiple "hey man, let's pway!" requests and lots of boredom-laden boys draping themselves on mommy. Connor loves Starfall.com alphabet and phonics games...if mommy taught Connor how to use a computer mouse, I could have Connor play without direct supervision of every moment and he could go at his own pace, not impatient "seriously, how many times can we review k?" mommy pace. A couple of mouse lessons and Connor was good to go! He would play all day if I let him, so I try to break up some letter time with some more advanced phonics lessons, a few books, a few flashcards and some play time with his doll house or trucks. We also go down and play pirates or trains down stairs while Timmy plays in his Jumperoo, but Connor will always want more letter time!
This video is Connor playing the letter D. It goes through a few d words, at every interval telling you that D makes a "duh" sound, and then at the end there's a letter game. This one is matching letters to the object they start...ie, heart starts with h. Connor is good at these games, though in this one he struggled a bit with g vs q. Mommy is always in the kitchen working when Connor plays so I can aid him if necessary.
This one is longer and shows Connor's progression through the letter A, finishing up with his sorting capital As vs lower case As into apple baskets. Check out those mad mouse skills!
I was torn originally about allowing him so much computer time, but Charlie pointed out we're in a very digital age where computer skills will never be to his detriment and may even help improve his fine motor...which is great if so, since he has a hard and frustrating time trying to write his letters or draw discernible objects. And if he was playing with letter puzzles or reading to himself I would have zero issue with how his time is spent...but still, I limit to some extent how much time he gets and make sure he has active play time and even indoor park time to get him up and moving and using his imagination. As a result of an hour to 90 minutes of Starfall a day, he can read 26 words at my last count...putting his reading level at a beginning 1st grade level. Pretty snazzy for an almost three year old eh?
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2 comments:
Fantastic work Connor!
We are huge Starfall fans too, very well thought out site for preschoolers. I'm sure once we get Zara's rebuilt from scavenged parts computer up and running she'll be playing at least an hour a day too.
With Connors interest in reading you may want to check out the Leapfrog Tag system, it's pretty nifty!
you're a great mom...you should do the readers on the starfall...Abbey loved them...you can click on the pictures and they become animated....fun times...oh...and EMAIL ME!!!!! When will you be in dc?
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