Leap Frog Letter Factory

Many years ago, when I taught kindergarten, I needed a resource for helping my struggling students learn their letters and sounds. When I would conference with parents they would often claim that their children did know their letters. This usually meant they could sing the abc song or say the letter names in order. As students begin to read they need to not only know their letters and sounds in order, but randomly and with automaticity (knowing it without having to think about it).

Educational resources were pretty limited back then. We didn't have the YouTube resources that are now available or the educational apps that we could download. The limited resources that were available, were often very expensive. During this time I found myself relying heavily on Leap Frog products.

My number one "go to" resource was this Leap Frog Letter Factory video. I ended up buying several copies and sending them home for parents to use with their children. Now keep in mind this was during the VHS cassette period. Wow, I'm making myself sound really old! Anyways, I found success with students that were faithfully watching the video at home and also with students who I was using it for in class. During whole class instruction I would introduce a letter and then sing the letter song. All students were familiar with the Letter Factory.

As I began to have grandchildren, my children and I used the video to help my grand kids learn their letters and sounds. That too was many years ago, but with a new addition to our family, I wanted to give my daughter a copy of this video to use. My grandson is only 6 months old, but my daughter is also babysitting a 3 year old, so I thought the video would be perfect. The problem was that all of my copies were VHS, so that meant I had to purchase a new one. I actually found a used copy on ebay for about $5.00. What a steal! This recent purchase has reminded me of what a valuable tool this video is, I absolutely love it, so I thought I would share this FYI blog with you.

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