Space…the final frontier. I think that’s my earliest memory of reading. This month commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and it triggered off a happy memory that made me smile.

I grew up in Santiago Chile and for whatever reason I found out about these “astronautas” and how they would be going to the moon in a rocket and I was hooked. I clearly remember drawing the NASA logo and drawing rockets with American flags on them…My dad brought me back a kid’s astronaut’s uniform from the U.S.  for Christmas and a book about space and I remember struggling to read every caption around the images on the pages. I learned to read in my native Spanish language.

We moved to the United States when I was about 7 years old and I went through 1st grade one more time…this time in English. At the time there was no “English as a second language” program in my elementary school in Antioch, California so I pretty much had to start from scratch trying to figure out this funny new language. I ended up excelling in spelling because I would remember the spelling phonetically in Spanish (vowels and letter combinations have a constant sound) and somehow by 4th grade I was helping younger students with their work in English.

My favorite book to check out from the library was the “Curious George” series…I think I checked out every title several times over. The other types of books that I liked where books about cars or planes. I loved reading the facts about them and being able to identify them or spout off a fact about where they are made or how fast they went. These types of books had lots of visuals and short reading blocks that really helped me to be able to concentrate.

As I grew up I struggled with reading because I could never concentrate for long periods of time. My mind would naturally wander off into my creations in my mind…great for coming up with new ideas, but not very good for some of my grades. I eventually taught myself some tricks to keep focused so I could keep up with my schoolwork. I filled most of my time with drawing and art and creation, including playing drums in jazz band and honors orchestra. All this creativity eventually led me to my career as a toy designer and concept developer.

I joined Leapfrog approximately 9 years ago and have been in the toy industry for about 20 years creating everything from tiny cars, play sets, dolls, wrestling figures, and monsters to learning toys for children of all ages. I must say that I am most proud of my work here at Leapfrog because not only do our products tickle a funny bone in kids so they can have fun (needless to say I have a pretty fun job), but I have also witnessed the benefits that they get from them. I have read many letters from parents about how many of our products have impacted their kid’s life and how “it’s” helped them to start learning their ABC’s, reading, etc…that makes me smile with pride.

I took Sparkle to the store to get her kindergarten school supplies at the weekend. Her little brother joined us so we actually ended up with two lots of school supplies. He's been with her in family daycare since he was a baby, so the idea that she might go somewhere without him hasn't quite sunk in yet. His #2 pencils are sharpened if for any reason they change the system in our school district and allow little siblings to tag along to kindergarten.

Sparkle is so excited about kindergarten. She can't wait to meet new friends, meet her teacher and learn new things. During the "kindergarten round up" session at the school a few months ago, we were given a 3-month summer calendar of activities to help prepare Sparkle for kindergarten. I have been somewhat forgetful in following the calendar each day so when I do fish it out of the kitchen "stuff" drawer she is ready for a challenge. One activity was to "Draw the front of your house." Sparkle grabbed a sketchbook and a red and pink marker and went for it. Sitting cross-legged on the concrete driveway, she carefully studied the house and drew in every window and door. She decided to change her position to draw the roof to get a better angle. I was surprised by her thoroughness and attention to detail. Who was this little draftsperson squatting on the driveway?

Having completed her drawing of the front of the house, Sparkle declared that it was time to draw the back of the house. Again, she carefully studied the back of the house and drew it in detail. Now, she informed me, it was time to draw the sides of the house. This proved challenging since our house is separated from the houses on either side by tall fences and there's little room between the house and the fence to get a decent view. Had the bugs not started to bite and the light fade, I am quite sure Sparkle would have found a solution and finished her renderings.

Sparkle has started to get more ambitious in other ways too. She is no longer content to write words. She now wants to write sentences, and notes and thank you cards. This morning she wanted to write a notice for her bedroom door. Her little brother has a habit of wandering into Sparkle's room to ask her a follow up question about their day together just as she's falling asleep. With a waffle in one hand and a marker in the other (and lots of help from me) she wrote "Don't come in my room when I'm sleeping." She crossed out a few mistakes, added some stray umlauts, and then proudly posted the notice on her bedroom door. Her little brother can't read, but hopefully he'll get the message.

These are just a couple of examples of the progress I've seen in Sparkle's skills this summer. I can also see progress on her LeapFrog Learning Path where her Leapster2 games and Tag books are helping to fill out her kindergarten skills very nicely. I can also see that she continues to explore skills above her grade level. I do see some areas on her Learning Path that we need to work on, specifically math. Sparkle loves arts, crafts and language but she's also very interested in math. I'll look for a Leapster2 math game she might like for her upcoming birthday.

Tonight I will pull out the activity calendar and find a math activity. We could count potatoes or perhaps we'll count steps - the number of steps from Sparkle's bedroom door to her little brother's room, where her little brother will hopeful retreat once he reads her new notice.

LeapFrog Gillian

I recently asked my mom what books influenced her as a child. I don’t know what I expected her to say, but I certainly didn’t expect her to say, “Come here.” I followed her to her bedroom closet, where, above the summer clothes, she showed me four books she keeps in there on a high shelf.  (See photo above).  Far from the grandkids’ hands and close to some of her most special mementoes, I immediately saw from the titles alone how these books influenced her. “The Little Engine That Could” and “Chicken Little”… both fables of perseverance. “Cinderella” and “Serendipity”… both about holding onto and believing in your dreams no matter what. My mom has always been my hero, and these old books personified her best, most influential qualities. No surprise she has kept them so close.

On a sunny Saturday morning, I asked my five year old daughter the same question – “what books have influenced you… I mean, what books are most important to you right now and why?” We were on a blanket in the backyard at the time, and in response to my question she said, “I’ll be right back.” She returned with two books, a Tag book and a scrapbook of accomplishments that she had made during her kindergarten school year (that had just ended a couple weeks prior). If you are a Tag parent, you know it’s no surprise that she picked a Tag book as one of her favorites. But the scrapbook was a bit unexpected.

The handmade scrapbook is comprised of writing assignments and photos of related class projects. We, of course, had already gone through the scrapbook, but this time she talked about why it’s important to her - “because I made this book… and because it shows that I’m ready for first grade…” She pointed to sentences that she had written during the school year and then commented on how her writing “is much better now.” I loved her pride and obvious understanding of the “book” that she had made. Currently the book lives on a shelf in her room and one day when it gets replaced by something else, I will keep it in a safe spot just in case she is like her grandmother, "Butzee," when she is much older.

What influential books have you kept and why? Let us know!

Take the LeapFrog quiz today to learn what profession your child could potentially become based on their characteristics and behavior today. Visit: http://www.leapfrog.com/tag/

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!

So, there we were. I had just finished reading the second of our two books and my son walks into her room. “Here, you can have this.” He hands her a book. She takes it and then, out of nowhere, she reads the cover. Slowly but surely she reads it; all six words! I was caught so off guard. It was almost 8pm, we had been winding down, but then the room was jolted with excitement. I began flipping to random pages in the new book and pointing to words and phrases for her to read out loud. With each, she slowly but surely read them. From her room I hollered to my husband – “She’s reading! She’s reading!”

You’d think that since I’ve worked at LeapFrog for so many years that I would have seen this coming. Producing LeapPad books and Leapster software, and developing the Learning Path, I’ve spent countless hours with our Learning Team and Educational Advisory Board understanding how kids learn to read. But I guess when I get home at the end of the day I’m a typical mom caught in the magic of watching my kids grow up, and not in the mechanics of how.

So, how has her reading been since that night?

A couple weeks have passed and she’s not reading any more than she had before then. All that has really changed is that we all know she can read. She’s not yet picking up books and trying to read them. She’s not asking to read the bed time books out loud to me. She still reads with her Tag. Her reading is mostly just the way it was before that night. I don’t want to push her, but what did I expect? I walked over to fellow LeapFrogger, Dr. Jim Gray's desk to talk about it.

Jim reminded me that learning to read is not a linear process. Instead, it’s more like a series of “fits and starts.” Jim drew a vertical coil on a white board, from bottom to top, to demonstrate his point. He smiled his big smile and said my daughter had made a huge leap on the coil, and that her Tag will help get her to the next ring on that coil ladder - reinforcing what she knows, adding to her reading confidence, and helping her get through some of the hurdles word by word. I remembered that I had seen this exact pattern with my son and his LeapPad as he was making the leap to becoming a stronger reader. 

Okay, great! I am glad for a successful Kindergarten year, and the beginning of a great summer.   Summer books and first grade - here we come!

As a full-time working mom, reading to my kids at bedtime is the most important part of my day. My son is nine and my daughter is five.

I’ll never forget the bittersweet moment one night three years ago when my son unexpectedly took the bedtime book away from my hands and said he wanted to read to me. What a significant milestone! I remember staring at him as he read out loud. I hadn’t anticipated the feeling of being read to by my child – it was amazing. And it launched a significant change in our bedtime rituals. From then on, he wouldn’t let me read to him unless he needed help or he was just too tired.

My daughter has been on the cusp of reading for a few months. She loves talking about letters and their sounds. She repeats phrases that she’s learned in Miss London’s Kindergarten class, such as, “ C-h is in the ‘chuh’  family…’” She comments on the alphabet wherever she sees words – in books, in the car, in the market. She loves to show me letters and words in her Tag books (sometimes moving her pointer finger over words the way she does with the Tag Reader), and showing off her success at the activities. But actually being able to read - that hasn’t felt right around the corner until it happened - literally just last week!

It was a typical Wednesday night. Bedtime rituals were in full swing - I read two books to her each night; we each pick one. Then, we look at the cover and read the name of the author and illustrator. Next, we open to find the year the book was published (this has had the side benefit of her being able to read four-digit numbers with very good accuracy). For each publishing year that we come across, no matter the decade, I tell her something that happened that year in our family (Grandma was two years old that year... Mommy and Daddy got married that year). Of course, the most special books have become those that were published in her birth year, 2003. She gets very excited at these discoveries in new books and I suspect she always will.

So, there we were. I had just finished reading the second of our two books and my son walks into her room….

What happened next? Since it's past my bedtime I'll finish the rest of the story in my next post, but as a mom it was really exciting and I can't wait to share it with all of you, so come back to read the final chapter of this story!

Two years ago when my son was in first grade, we attended Back to School Night. Such a festive hour, as you may likely know - decorations and projects and treats and a lot of general excitement. As we made our way from project to project, my eye prematurely caught sight of the far wall and its headline, “What I want to be when I grow up.” Each child had made a 12” construction paper version of them self, written a few sentences on a white square, and pasted both onto a black sheet of construction paper. The final touch was your career destination written in thick silver ink across the top, and your name written across the bottom. Skimming the sea of “Ballerina” and “Fireman” headlines, I was shocked and so happy to see “LeapFrog.”

Let me introduce myself… My name is Marni and I have been a part of LeapFrog for many years, producing content for LeapPad, Leapster and LeapFrog.com. If you had asked me if I had thought my son would have wanted to work at LeapFrog, I would have said yes because we have vending machines here and they’re his favorite part of visiting me at work. But instead he had written, “When I grow up I want to work at LeapFrog. I would like to get the ideas for new toys for kids. It will be fun.” So proud.

I knew that his teacher, Miss Jones, was partly responsible for getting him to write this, especially with many of his friends writing about wanting to be policemen. Miss Jones was one of those exceptional teachers we hope for our kids; she’s inspirational, she gets kids excited about learning. That year I was part of the Learning Path development team, and like many students, I too was inspired by Miss Jones. She had a way of writing report cards that were personalized and meaningful. She also sent a weekly e-newsletter designed to encourage dinner table conversation about what your child learned in class that week – and our dinner table definitely benefitted!

Among all that the Learning Path team was challenged to figure out, I also wanted to know how Learning Path was going to provide LeapFrog parents meaningful insight into what their child is learning the way Miss Jones’s report cards did. And how Learning Path emails could facilitate conversation between parent and child the way Miss Jones’s e-newsletters did. Two years later, thanks to LeapFrog engineers, designers and learning experts, and perhaps a bit to Miss Jones, thousands of LeapFrog parents like me and you are inspired by what we see in our child’s personalized Learning Path.

I encourage you to go to your child’s “Play Details” page and look at the software titles your child is most engaged with – these are the ones they are playing the most and therefore learning from the most. Look for the titles with the highest “Playing time” (for Leapster or Didj) or “Time spent with book” (for Tag). In combination with relevant print outs and activities in LeapFrog Parents, you and your child will see the learning together.

Please be sure to let us know how the Learning Path has inspired conversations in your family. We’d love to hear. 

Sparkle was born a few weeks too late to be eligible for Kindergarten last year. Although it's still several months away, she is extremely excited to start Kindergarten this Fall. Sparkle is diligently practicing getting herself ready in the morning and tying her shoe laces in preparation for the BIG DAY.

I'm looking at the "skills a five year-old should be able to do" listed in the booklet handed out during parent's night at her soon-to-be school. I'm thinking about what I can do to help her feel prepared and confident. I realize that some things will actually have to be unlearned, like writing her name in all caps (who knew?). She has the motor and "community readiness" skills mastered. Yes, we can even check off "self control" - which impresses me to no end, especially when I'm completely frazzled and she jumps in to help me problem solve my way to a better state of mind! She calls this state "Happy Relaxed Moose" and it involves holding your hands palms out at each side of your head while exuding serenity with a slight grin. It works every time.

I also think Sparkle is in pretty good shape in terms of academic preparation. Sparkle's Learning Path shows that she is actively engaged with the majority of Kindergarten skills and has actually covered some 1st grade skills too. Although there are no stars indicating she has explored all the skills on a single stone just yet, I can see from the footprints that she's making progress.

Her Leapster2 games are helping her build math skills, including numbers and operations. We've started to have fun with simple math problems and she seems to really enjoy the challenge. I can also see that she's exploring Language and Literacy skills, including World Languages. Clicking on the shooting star leads me to the 1st Grade path where I find footprints on many of the skills indicating that she's working on skills above Kindergarten level. Way to go Sparkle!

Flipping back to Sparkle's Kindergarten path, I notice a few skills that she hasn't engaged with yet, like Spelling. She has several games that include spelling, so I'll have to look at them with her and encourage her to work on those skills. I also notice a few stones on the Kindergarten path that I need to "fill in" to help round out her skills, like Physical Science and People and Places. I'm curious what skills are included in "People and Places." Clicking on the stone shows me that this subject involves Map Skills. I'd like to find a game that Sparkle can play to build these skills. The Leapster2 game Creature Create is one of the recommended games on Sparkle's Learning Path. Mousing over the image of the game, the stones on the path indicate that it teaches both Physical Science and People and Places. That one will go on the list to add to her Leapster2 game library. I also notice that Sparkle hasn't worked on Measurement yet, which I'll explore more the next time I visit the Learning Path.

LeapFrog Gillian