January 10, 2009

One of our favorite learning websites.

Okay, so those of you with young children are going to love this. My super-smart, super-homeschooling e-friend, Brenda, gave this web address to me a while ago and I've been hogging it since then. Guess it's time to share.

When Lorelai was a little younger, I had looked into the "Your Baby Can Read" program. It's a program that basically teaches your child to recognize letters together in a word. It seemed like a good idea, but I sought the advice of many friends who are either teachers and/or early childhood reading specialists. I also talked to some family as well. Learning what a word looks like is impressive when showing off your baby's skills, but it doesn't aid them in learning how to really read. Basically, the consensus was that phonics were the route to go.

Phonics are important for young children, in order to learn how to read. I started Lorelai on this website when she was about 18 months old. Now, at two years old, she knows what sounds about 15 letters make. This will be KEY when she starts to try phonetically reading through words.

Okay, I'll share it with you. Starfall will not only help your child to learn the sound of the letters, it will aid in letter recognition and it's FUN!!!

Click on 1) ABCs and watch your child engage completely. Please link to it, then let me know what your child(ren) think about it. I love it. And best of all - it's FREE!!!!!

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10 comments:

BreAnna Fowler said...

We started starfall with my 6 year old before he started kindergarten and we love it too! Now my three year old begs to go online and "play her game". Im glad you love it too.

Beth Cotell said...

We love Starfall around here too! It's nice because my 4 year old has something she can use on the computer...makes her feel all grown up!

Baby Kry said...

I am a huge starfall fan. Use it all the time in my classroom. Another fun one is www.abcya.com

enjoy! You go Lorelai!!!

Huse Yo Mama said...

Man, I thought this was an undiscovered source. Y'all have been holding out on me. I can't believe you didn't share this with me sooner!!! :-)

armywife699 said...

Maddie heard the music when I was playing on the website and just informed me that they use this in her Kindergarten class.

the fortenberrys said...

I'm going to try it with Kinsey, Rachel. I'll let you know how it goes. She started saying "NO" a couple of days ago and WON'T STOP! It was funny at first, but now I'm wishing "No" didn't exist. :)

Joanne and Deric said...

I am so going to do this - I had banned Kai from the computer since she pulled off all the keys off the lap top!!! Thanks for this idea, very cool!

Brenda said...

A sad Starfall story....

When Sweetheart was in 1st grade, the first time, I had a parent/teacher conference to discuss all the ways my baby was falling behind. At the end of the conference the teacher felt the need to show me Starfall on the classroom computer. She said my girl could do it at home (in her spare time after an hour of homework and the "extra" stuff I needed to work on with her) and they also were allowed to work on Starfall whenever they finished their work in class. She was very proud of that.

I asked, "So, has C ever been on the computer?" (cause she couldn't finish her work I knew...)

The teacher's face got all funny as she realized that no, my child had NOT been on Starfall once all year!!!!

It's cool watching how it's all way too easy for her now. But both girls still get on it b/c it's FUN!

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:) I crack myself up.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rach,
This is not pertaining to the
"starfall" subject.
It's about lala stirring commode
water.
It occurred to me, on the way to
lakewood this a.m.
Miss L. was ready for you to make
her a nice pot of soothing homemade
soup !
Ummmmmmmm. Would just hit the spot
on a january day.

Luv ya,
Alyssa's aunt helen

Riann said...

I looked at the site and thought it looked great for re-inforcing what Travis was learning in K. Last night, I showed it to him and he promptly ran through a bunch of the exercises with no problem- I thought 'What a genius!'. Then he told me that he has used it almost every day at school and had done all the pages before! So, yup, just like the others, the schools use it here as well! Who knew?