Like Magic

For over a year now, I have halfheartedly, now and then, attempted to teach a disinterested Papaya the letters of the alphabet using various disjointed methods (there may be a direct correlation between his disinterest and my halfheartedness). As a result of my labors, he reliably knew about half a dozen letters.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I finally followed the advice of both a friend and 378 Amazon reviewers who collectively gave this film 5 stars, and purchased The Letter Factory, a DVD by Leapfrog.

Let me tell you, it's magic for our family.

After not many more than half a dozen viewings, the Papaya knows all his letters as well as their most common phonetic sounds. Even more importantly, he's excited about them and picks them out everywhere, proudly telling me what they are and the sound they make. He's even beginning to get the idea of sounding letters together into words. Even the Banana seems excited about letters and sounds and sits in rapt attention for the length of the video (extremely rare for her).

I really don't know what it is - this DVD lacks the charm and cultured adult entertainment value of Sesame Street. But somehow, it delivers! Who says watching TV (or in this case, our new flat screen monitor) isn't good for kids? (Although I feel vaguely guilty for so successfully abdicating my role as alphabet teacher to a DVD.) Highly recommended.