|
|
If your 2-year-old is “borrowing” big brother’s Tag Reader, you’ll be as excited as I am about the new Tag Junior book pal.
Our CEO, Jeff Katz, recently blogged about the product development process at LeapFrog. Just like Tag, Tag Junior and its series of board books were developed under the guidance of Dr. Anne Cunningham, the literacy expert on LeapFrog’s Educational Advisory Board, and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. During a brainstorm last year, Anne said it’s a good sign when babies and toddlers “play” with books—by independently thumbing through them on the floor or “pretend” reading. Why? They develop a love for books and stories, and that love provides critical motivation when they need to tackle the mechanics of reading in preschool and kindergarten. A two-year-old who plays with books, understands how pages turn and sees how text relates to pictures, gets early experience with those difficult reading mechanics. My toddler daughter has always loved playing with her books—stacking them up on the living room floor, pointing to pictures and happily chattering to herself while I make dinner. She calls her new Tag Junior book pal her “toy”—and it’s pretty cute to watch her use it to read books to the cat (who, sadly, shows no interest in books). I can sign in to her Learning Path to discover her favorite books, characters and even favorite pages—which gives us lots to chat about at the dinner table. As we develop these new features, look for more information here about what’s to come. And please drop me a note with your suggestions or questions. I love hearing how you use the Learning Path with your kids!
|
Just when you think you know them, they go and change on you. It’s been like this since my firstborn was just a wee one. I’d be lamenting his aversion to vegetables, and turn around to find him stuffing his cheeks with fat fistfuls of peas. And last summer, I sadly prepared his kindergarten teacher that my son was just not “into” art. Sure, I had reams of artwork sent home from preschool, but the scribbles told the story of a 4-year-old who was blindly following orders. There was no real creativity. Then suddenly this year, he’s become a painting, drawing sculpting, building machine! I’ve seen the same shift in his gaming. Not surprisingly, his recent favorite is Creativity Castle, one of the included games on his Leapster2. When I connect, his saved artwork appears in his Art Gallery, where he can perfect it online or print it to display alongside his other creations. I also see changes in the skills he chooses to work on. He’s always been fascinated by math and numbers ( Mom, what’s ten-hundred-thousand plus ten-hundred-thousand?) and his Learning Path Play Details showed that he was answering questions about skip counting, adding coins and telling time to the half-hour. But lately he’s become interested in spelling ( Mom, how to you spell YMCA?), and his Play Details page tells me he’s working on short vowels and consonant blends. Woohoo! What’s playing at your house? Have games that got no attention last month become new favorites?
|
A study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that toddlers’ vocabulary development is strongly influenced by the sheer quantity of words they hear. Simply put, the more you talk to your child, the more words your child will learn. “Spoken language is developed through being surrounded by conversations, through the multiple interactions that occur with different people [and] through chanting rhymes and poems,” says Jeni Riley, a member of LeapFrog’s Educational Advisory Board (Language and Literacy [London: Sage Publications, 2006]). Toys provide a fantastic opportunity to talk and sing with your infant or toddler—about colors, numbers, instruments, animal sounds and more—exposing your child to a rich vocabulary of nouns, verbs and adjectives. What does this have to do with the Learning Path? For each toy and game on your tot’s path—including Learn & Groove toys, the Fridge line, ClickStart games and more—the Play Details page recommends customized tips and activities designed to reinforce the skills your child is learning when she plays. These activities provide additional opportunities to talk, sing, play and interact with your child, and more chances for your child to acquire new vocabulary. Also watch for Learning Path emails with even more creative learning ideas from our growing library of over 600 tips, activities, articles and printables. Do you have a favorite toy or activity that sparks good baby talk? Do share!
|
At last, it’s January. The decorations have been stashed, the wrapping paper recycled and the extra pie pounds shed ( ahem). Time to get back to work. Actually, many of us at LeapFrog never stopped working over the holidays. As you can imagine, it can look a bit like a high-tech Santa’s Workshop around here in November and December. I thought I’d share some of the staggering play numbers posted to the Learning Path over the holiday season. Each time you connect your Tag, Leapster2, Didj or Crammer Learning System to your home computer, the LeapFrog Connect application detects the games or books your child played with recently and sends the information to the Learning Path. Over the holidays, we saw over half a million games and books played--on our biggest day, the Learning Path reported play for over 75,000 games! Not surprising, the most played games are our included titles: Tag Ozzie & Mack, Leapster2 Dragon Kingdom and Didj JetPack Heroes. But the rising star is the Tag title Disney Princess: Adventures Under the Sea with an impressive 11,000 hours of reading time. So keep reading, playing and logging into the Learning Path. And drop me a note to tell me your most favorite feature, least favorite feature and suggestions for improvement.
|
You can’t give them everything. (My son says he wants a talking dog. A real one.) And in today’s economy, it’s more important than ever to choose the right gifts—those that provide good value because your kids will love them and learn from them for a long time. Several times over the past year, we asked customers for feedback on our Learning Path concepts. Parents consistently asked for recommendations based on their child’s play to help them choose which games to buy. I also saw lots of parents asking each other for gifting advice this season on Twitter: Should I buy Didj or Leapster2 for my 6-year-old? Which Tag books are good for my preschooler? Fortunately the recommendations provided in the Learning Path take some of the guesswork out of giving. When you create your child’s Learning Path footprint, we ask you a little bit about him or her that helps us create a unique Learning Path, including age-appropriate skills and suggested learning activities. Over time, as you link new products and regularly connect your devices, your child’s play and learning progress will enable us tailor your recommendations to your child’s skills and interests. Pretty slick, huh?
We’ll be looking to make our recommendations even smarter next year. So tell me what you think. How do you choose toys, games and books for your kids?
|
My son started kindergarten this year. That means he’s learning to read, write, add and color inside the lines. He’s also learned to answer the question, “What’d you do at school today?” (In case you don’t have a kindergartener, the answer is “Nothing.” ) Let me introduce myself… I’m the senior producer on the Learning Path, as well as a mom to two painfully gifted unimaginably adorable hypergeniuses. For more than a year, creative brains around the company—from curriculum experts to database engineers to game designers—put all of their focus and energy into building the Learning Path, a tool that lets parents actually see what their child is learning when they play with LeapFrog games and toys. This blog is one of the ways I hope to help other parents use the Learning Path, as well as a way for me to gather information that will improve it—so I hope you’ll feel free to leave your comments and questions. One of the cool features of the Learning Path is the window into your child’s play on Connected learning systems. When my son plays with his Leapster2, I no longer need to hover over his shoulder to see how he’s doing (he hates when I hover). The Learning Path tells me exactly which skills his games cover, how many questions he’s answered and which ones he’s getting right. Those questions provide great conversation starters when I’m trying to get past the Nothings, the Fines and the I dunnos. For example, I know he recently played the Leapster2 game, SpongeBob SquarePants Saves the Day, and answered questions about coins. So this week as we waited in line at the grocery store, I pulled the change out of my purse and we played a game: Which coin is worth 5 cents? Which coins add up to 10 cents? and so on. When he answered correctly, he got to keep the coins. He filled his little pockets, and I got just a little bit closer to knowing what’s going on in his head. Drop me a comment to let me know how the Learning Path is working for you and your little hypergenius.
|
|
