Customer Reviews

LeapFrog: Letter Factory

5 star:		(916)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is one of the best learning DVD's I have seen. It will be a great watch for the Pre-k to first grade classrooms. The DVD teaches the letter names. Most importantly, it teaches the letter sounds in a creative way. Viewers see the letters, hear the letter names, they see a picture/video that represents the sound each letter makes, and the viewer hears a catchy tune to match the letter sound. For instance, the letter C is shown in a cold environment with ice hanging from it. The letter comes to life by shivering and stating that it is /c/ /c/ /c/.... old. Then the characters in the story sing the catchy Leapfrog song; "The C says/c/, the C says /c/, every letter makes a sound. The C says /c/. This DVD/VHS is marketed towards parents to use with their PreK to First grader, but all teachers need to know about this video and share it with their class. It would be a great review or introduction to letter sounds. Teachers could also use the catchy phrases and visual representation of the letter sounds in their lessons by creating activities or visuals based on the video. Students will see the sounds letters make, hear the sounds, and sing the sounds. This video combined with strong phonics based classroom instruction will help reach a variety of learning styles and lead your students on the path to becoming strong readers.

I just can't believe how well done this DVD is for little ones. My little guy, age 3, learned his letters and sounds very quickly after watching this DVD. Then, 3 weeks later after not watching it for about that long, he's still talking about what sounds each letter makes. It's very well done, makes it very easy for children to understand, plus it's very enjoyable to watch. After about 34 times of hearing, "The R says errrr" with that tune attached gets a little redundant, but not to little ones. You have to get this for every preschooler you know. It's really that good!

Length:: 0:54 Mins

Here is proof the letter factory works...my 2 yr old son absolutely loves it! He sings it all the time and now will start spelling out words he sees on signs, magazines, store signs etc... He wants to watch this video almost daily...its a great dvd, you wont be disappointed! Great value too...

My son was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified when he was 3. PDD-NOS is on the Autism spectrum, and children with this diagnosis often have developmental delays.

My son had a speech delay and other developmental delays. His speech is great now...no one can detect that he has this diagnosis. However, the delays have, understandably, affected his learning in some areas.

While his spatial skills have been way above average--as has his grasp of science (such as planets and their attributes)--he has resisted reading. He gets tired and frustrated.

Well, trying many approaches for helping him, I thought I'd take a chance and get Letter Factory from Amazon.com, especially since the reviews were so good.

I am so THRILLED that I did! I thought for SURE he'd suspect that I was "getting him to learn" (make no mistake, PDD-NOS doesn't mean a low IQ!), but surprisingly, he's been watching Letter Factory on a consistent basis for WEEKS now! I'll even hear him singing the catchy songs to himself as he goes about his business.

In the DVD, Tad (Leap's younger brother) joins Professor Quigley to all the different rooms where new letters learn their sounds. For example, when they enter the A room, there's a silly purpose monster that scares the little A's into saying "ahhhh!" In the K room, the little K's are practicing their karate kicks as they learn how to make the "kay" sound.

What's especially great about the Letter Factory is that it combines the visuals of the letters with the sound that the letter makes in a very catchy tune. For example, as the F's are flying, they sing "the F says 'eff', the F says 'eff'...every letter makes a sound, the F says 'eff'". This method helps both audio and visual learners to grasp the sounds...not to mention those that are more musically inclined.

I see my son applying what he's learned (very quickly, I might add!) to books. He'll now pick up books from the library ON HIS OWN, and attempt to sound out the words. Combined with the DVD's Talking Words Factory I and Learn to Read at the Storybook Factory, I KNOW The Letter Factory has contributed to his progress in a BIG way.

Highly recommended!

The creators of this program have come up with an excellent concept; animating letters that make sounds representing each letter in the Alphabet. I have a degree in Psychology and studied several modules on how children learn to read. I also have 2 preteen children who I taught to read and one 4 year old daughter who I bought this learning video for. The four year old learnt all the sounds pretty quickly. However, there are a few letters pronounced incorrectly; L is pronounced ULL, R is pronounced ER and a few others are not clear.

But by far the BIGGEST problem with this video is that all the letters are only taught in UPPER CASE letters. So your lovely child may learn all her sounds but most books for children are written in lower case letters, with CAPS only at the beginning of sentences and names. Some parents may not see this as a problem because we take for granted that our experienced minds can easily switch between reading lower and upper case letters, but from the numourous case studies I did to complete my modules, plus from my own experience with my children, most childhood educators recommend teaching lower case letters first, then very early introduction of upper case letters. 98% of all prose in all books is written in lower case! Imagine a 4 year old learning the letter 'A', then in a simple book you expect them to identify the 'a' in printed text then link the two objects as being the same?! To their young eyes its a completely different object and you will have to reteach them from scratch as I have had to do with my 4 year old.

However, buying this video is still recommended though, but what I have done to help my child is to have a book with colourful lower case letters close by to show her everytime the capital letter is shown on the video. This same problem of CAPS only is on the entire Leapfrog series, I have 4 of their DVDs. Other than these problems its a brilliant concept, the animation is very entertaining, the repetition is essential to rote learning and most importantly; my child enjoys watching it.

I have never felt strong enough to actually take the time to write a review. I am a certified k-6 teacher who has told everyone I know about this amazing movie and now I am telling you...This was the first (out of 4) Leap Frog Movie that my children watched. My 3 1/2 year old and 2 years 2 month old boys are allowed to watch 1 movie a day. Each Day they agreed, in excitement, to watched this movie. Under a week my 3 1/2 year old knew his letter sounds. He could sing the letter sound song almost as fast as he could sing the alphabet. After a week, he amazed us when he sat down on the ground and wrote out the entire alphabet like a 4th grader. Had NO idea he could write like this! Shortly thereafter, the 2 year old knew all his letter sounds and letter recognition.

Talking Words Factory: I was so impressed that I bought them the Talking Words Factory that 2nd week. I wasn't surprised that my 3 1/2 year old began to spell, writing, and sounding out 3 letter words. He told me all about how the vowels were all sticky and their job was to stick letters together to make words. He went around singing the vowel song.

My kids loved the videos so much that for 10 months...My son's (who used to play with Thomas the Trains and puppies) were obsessed with letters and words. They made their own letter and word factory machines out of their toys and tubs, drew each letter cartoon character, and sang the letter and vowel songs, and the older one wrote, yes wrote, many of his own homemade books. I knew there might be a problem with this obsession when all his arts and crafts from pre-preschool came home with letters all over them in place of eyes, noses, etc!

Talking Word Factory 2: It doesn't stop there...They got the Talking Word Factory 2 and Math Circus when they came out this Christmas. In a couple of days, the now 4 year old, was telling me all about sh, ch, th, and other blends. He told me how the silent e at the end of the word made the other vowel say its name (long vowel sound). He went on to tell me also how "when 2 vowels go walking the first one does the talking." And he wrote and read new complex words such as, boat, home, dime, wait, etc. This really increased his ability to read many, many new words - 8 letter words too!

Math Circus: They loved it too! Though it is fast moving for beginners, it is entertaining and has an easy concept. Adding and subtracting now comes pretty easy for my 4 year old. I gave him a math work sheet for addition and subtraction just for kicks. Wouldn't you know it, he did all of them with no problem. He was so interested in adding that he started asking about problems such as 3 + 3 + 3. Which helped him learn the concept of multiplication 3 x 3, 3 x 4, etc. But, we told him that he had plenty of time to learn that later!

The only negative comments that I have to say about these Leap Frog videos: Nothing, Oh, except that I wish my children weren't so obsessed with letters! They eat, breath, and sleep letters. Sometimes I just wish they would play with the trains, cars, and other toys. They will have their entire school life to learn about letters and reading! I just hope that when the time comes for school that they won't have grown board of it!

Other Leap Frog learning tools that reinforce what they learned on the videos:

LF Fridge Phonics Magnets - Love it. It sings each letters song when you put the letter in the hole.

LF Word Whammer Fridge Phonics Set - LF just came out with this. I know that they will love. I bought it for the next birthday! It is like the Fridge Phonics, but you can spell 3 letter words.

LF Letter Factory Board Game - Love it too! It is interactive and the board game talks and sings!

LF Sing Along Letters Flash Cards & CD - Songs from the DVDs. Not that you don't hear the songs sang enough from your children!
Wish they would make computer CD's too!

LF Leap Pad - Fun but they got board with the same books over & over. $14 a book!

There are many others, but I had to draw the line somewhere!

If you check all the other reviews, I am not alone. Only two out of 121 people gave this movie less than 5 stars! It is about time someone made a movie that parents and children both agree on! Thank you Leap Frog!

This was a great idea from Leapfrog! I love their products, but my son who is five is more interested in characters he can watch on t.v. He is home sick today, so we went to get a couple of movies and got this one (The Letter Factory) the day of it's release. I knew my three year old daughter would love it, but I was surprised just how much my son enjoyed it! He quickly started singing with it, and really seems interested in what the characters are doing and saying. This encourages me since we just bought the Leapster for Christmas. I know having a video with Leap, Lilly and Tad will help encourage him to play with the other Leapfrog products that we have.

They are now on the second movie (The Word Factory) and are really enjoying that as well! This was well worth the money.

I never thought I'd write a review for online, but this product is worth every cent you pay. My 2 year old daughter already knew her alphabet so I picked up the letter factory. She instantly began telling me the sounds of each letter. I never thought about my 1 year old son b/c I felt he was too young. Since he watches the video the same time his sister does, he started saying sounds and now at 1 1/2 he knows at least 1/2 of the alphabet! It truly is this video/DVD!!! I just purchased it for all my small neices and nephews.

I've bought everything.. DVD's, books, games anything to help my son learn his letters. The thing I like about this DVD that's different from the other learning DVD's is that it's set up to look like a real cartoon, not just jumping to A IS FOR APPLE, B IS FOR BUTTERFLY etc. I was skeptical about buying it since none of the other DVD's have worked, nor have the hundreds of alphabet books we own, so I just went ahead and bought the letter factory, talking words factory and word factory 2 along with math circus (wich is nowhere NEAR as good as the other 3). After 1 week of watching this video once a day he learned alot of the alphabet and the letter sounds. As of now, 2wks after purchasing it, he knows all but 4 letters by sight. I also bought the letter factory game to go along with the DVD and to give him time away from TV while still learning his alphabet and the letter sounds. The game is great because it's basic enough for a 2yo to play it but it also has 2 levels for more advance play. On level one you have to find the card color and on level 2 you have to find the actual letter. I HIGHLY recommend this movie AND the letter factory game to go along with it (Kohls.com has an exclusive game tin that I like better than the cardboard box).

Everyone thought my 28 month old was a genius - he knew all of his letters, AND the sounds they made!! Once I had him with me when I stopped by my daughter's kindergarten class, and he waltzed in there and started naming the letters in words around the room and the kids just stared at him like he was an alien. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, I really credit all that to this DVD, because other than a few readings of "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", I didn't have the time or desire to push academics or pull out flash cards.

For some reason, kids really respond to this DVD. I have recommended it to several friends - some with toddlers, and another with a kindergartener who was having trouble with letter recognition. All of them made significant progress towards mastery of letters and sounds.

Personally I can't really figure it out - the video is almost annoying, with its high pitched cutsie voices, bland graphics, big-eyed frogs, and silly songs. But kids, particularly toddlers, don't see it that way.

BTW, all of the Leap Frog videos are good - Math Factory, Word Factory, and Complex Word Factory. Putting in these videos is a guilt free way to grab 30 minutes to fold laundry or get dinner on the table.