learn

Leap Frog - Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory
$14.98
This is a decent video but not essential. Now, the Letter Factory is definitely a must-have. My son is almost 4 yrs old and has been moved to the "Early Reading Program" at his preschool even though his age group is typically in Phonics first, then upon an assessment of readiness, they are moved to reading. He knew all his letters by 18 months old and knew the sounds of each letter by 3. If you are looking to help your child learn letters, you should definitely get the Letter Factory. It's amazing and fun to watch. My son wanted to watch that more than the Baby Einsteins (other than Baby Macdonald).

If you are wanting your child to read by 3 or 4, then this video is not going to help in my opinion. It may possibly help for an older age group -- If anything, it helps get children almost ready to read in the right mind-set and tries to make it fun. My son watched it a few times but wasn't hooked on it. One thing that I didn't like is that the video only uses capital letters and that is not helpful when any book you pick up is going to have both upper and lower case letters. If the child only sees words with all capital letters, than this is not going to help with reading a real beginner book like "cat in the hat". The lower case letters are going to be foreign.

From my internet research, children that can read at age 3 are usually the ones that learned by word-recognition/memory (i.e. not actually reading). Like my son recognizes the word "STOP" because its on all the stop signs, it's background is always red, and in the same shape.

Why Didn't I Learn This in College?
$29.95
Our school district purchased this book for every new teacher hired this year, experienced or not. It is a gold mine of ideas and solid instructional practices. We used the book as the text for our induction program this summer and the trainers teaching it actually talked about how they learned so much as well. Some of them have been teaching for 20 years! Paula has taken all things great about organizing your classroom, standards-based teaching, and instruction and placed it all in one book that is easy to use and practical. I highly recommend every teacher get a copy of this book.

Velva Jean Learns to Drive: A Novel
$15.00
This novel was a little like reading the Grapes of Wrath go to Appalachia. The fact that much of the novel is based on the author's family history lent me a depth of understanding of their survival and stengths. Their struggles, hardships and loyalty to their "own kind" gave understanding to family feuds and prejudices I never understood before. It was a thought provoking book on many levels beyond Velva Jean's final flight to freedom.

Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power
$22.99
I use this for teaching a class on study skills. It is probably best for kids 7-9, but could be adapted for younger or older kids.