I have said this many time since the idea of teaching from home started. Use what you got, and if it works, don’t rock it. If it’s technology the kids cling to, find something they love and that will Teach them.
For my kids to learn letters it was Letter Factory by Leapfrog. Couple of years ago, a good friend of mine’s mom ( who was also a friend) told me that her grandson was learning his letters by watching this video. Or even clips of the letters on YouTube.
So I put it on for my kids and they took to it like a sponge. My daughter was noticing letters soon after and using the sounds for it first. Which is perfect cuz that is what the state wants anyways. For kids to know the sound of the letter and not the actual identity of the letter.
So I thank her ( god rest her) all the time. Cuz both my kiddos had a great start with reading by watching this movie. Totally worth the price to buy but if you have Netflix it’s on their right now.
The second was just recommended to me recently. My good friend who is learning to homeschool her kiddos right now texted me and told of this show ( from the UK) called Numberblocks. I remember Number blocks being used in math but to turn it into a show was genius.
I mean look at the characters. had this been out when I was a kid, I would have understood math better.
It’s not just learning about counting but adding, subtracting, greater than to less than, etc. so much more.
Their are 6 seasons and they divided the numbers and math skills by 5 and it goes up a long way. Season one is what I am having my kids watch over and over for a while until they get the concept of easy math using 1-5.
My kid can count. Livi to 20, and Will ( who is 3) to 8. Pretty good. But they don’t know what the numbers are and how they work. I tried sitting down with them, but they didn’t listen. So since finding this, I can use the videos to reinforce what I have been trying to teach them.
Livis biggest thing is counting too fast and either has too many or not enough. So when I ask for her to count, I have to remind her to slow down and take each number at a good pace. The number blocks do that in one of the episodes. Cuz number 3 does the same thing.
So if you want to start letter and number skills, these are the shows to do it. Helps to also have something to put on if they are starting to stray from your lesson.
Good luck.
The TAWL Mom 