This is an exerpt from a newsletter I prepared for JMIA as a result of a school assignment.

Educational Toys and Their Benefits!

Educational toys and games are an entertaining way to assist your child’s learning process. Epand (2009) notes that:

Studies dating back as early as 1940 have shown that a child’s IQ can be increased by more than 50 points through the proper stimulation in the first 6 years of life. Your child already has certain natural skills, but you can help further develop those skills through the power of play with the right developmental toys and educational games…improve your child’s skills such as memory retention, reading skills, motor skills, eye-hand coordination and math skills.

It has been proven that the proper educational games and toys can help your child not only learn the basics but also excel in school work. Use the chart on the previous page to help you decide which toy or game is right for your child. Once you have identified the areas needing remediating buy the toy or game which will assist them with those skills. Learning can be fun. The toys or games must be exciting so the child doesn’t say “It’s boring!” If the child considers the toy or game boring, he will not use it. It is very important that you take the time to introduce the toy or game to the child. If they become frustrated in not knowing how to play it, the toy or game would be retired to a corner. The child will not pursue playing with the game or toy anymore. I have given each of you a list by grade of what your child should know. The results of the SAT10 will probably be back by the middle of June. I will meet with each of you to discuss any additional areas needing remediation.

Now I would like to share a toy that I bought for my two oldest grandchildren. The game is the Leapster2 Learning System by Leapfrog. The games are interactive and very interesting. They are totally engaged while playing the games. They learn many skills. The game is a system of skills. Additional cartridges may be bought to expand the skills learned. The Leapster2 has games for children ages 4 through 8. It is a hand-held game that can be taken nearly anywhere. There is a wide variety of games available to select from. With a USB connection you can monitor your child’s progress on the Leapfrog website. Students can also learn online with the game connected to the computer via the USB connection. A pin is connected to the game allowing your child to select the correct answer and he plays the game. The game utilizes the child’s favorite characters in the game. This ensures the student’s interest is peaked and held throughout the learning process. Check out the Leapster2 Learning System. It can be used with your children in preschool through second grades. Some of the skills that can be learned are as follow. This information was taken from the Leapfrog website.

Phonics Skills

Before they can read independently, children must learn the relationship of letters to their sounds and be able to distinguish individual sounds, or phonemes, within words. Phonics skills help children sounds out new words (If I can read “pot”, then I can read “hot” and “spot”).

Consonants

There are more consonants sounds than there are consonants in the alphabet. A consonant digraph is a pair of consonants that stand for a single sound (ch, sh, th, wh).

Sight Words and Homophones

Sight words are words that can’t be sounded out and so must be learned by sight (the, he, she , was, and so on). Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently, such as to, too, and two.

Vowels

Spelling begins with regular short vowel sounds (cap) and long vowel sounds (with silent e, cap becomes cape). Finally, children learn the rules and patterns of vowel pairs (ee), digraphs (ai in train), dipthongs (oi in boil) and r-controlled vowels (farm, bird).

Art and Design

Creating art is an exercise in learning how to see. With increased confidence in their skills, children discover that art is a vehicle for self-expression.

Shapes

Identifying and manipulating shapes lays the groundwork for geometry by giving children concrete experience with angles, symmetry and relative sizes.

Addition

Once children know that numbers are symbols for objects (2 stands for two cars) they learn to count sets, or groups of objects, to find sums. Finally, sets of objects can be replaced by numerals and added together in equations.

Subtraction

If you would like to see a demonstration of the Leapster2, please contact me.

 

Help Your Child

Put the Pieces Together!