Customer Reviews

LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set

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As a family who owns quite a few educational DVDs I can attest to the fact that what LeapFrog is doing with their learning movies is both innovative and effective. Rather than focusing on repetitive drills, or straightforward simplistic presentation of facts accompanied by musical accompaniment, each of the DVDs included in the LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set integrates simple phonics and math principles into an engaging, and entertaining storyline. As a result, our children ask for the LeapFrog DVDs more often than they do any other educational offering we have available on disc.

The LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set incorporates three of LeapFrog's best titles for preschoolers and provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic preschool/kindergarten skills of letter recognition (short consonant and vowel sounds), basic blending, counting, and animal group recognition.

LeapFrog: Let's Go to School provides a typical storyline for allaying the fears of children on the cusp of attending a public school (of course, not all children will attend a public school). In a dream-like sequence Tad and Lilly discover that the school equipment is just as nervous about the incoming class as they are about attending. The blocks teach some basic counting skills, the alphabet book quickly goes through letter sounds, the calendar introduces time-telling concepts, the animal figurines teach about sorting and animal families, and so on. Because of the brief introductions given to each topic, this general overview is the weakest educationally of the set. Five sing-along songs and an interactive alphabet book are provided as additional reinforcing bonus features on the DVD.

However, LeapFrog: Letter Factory and LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory more than make up for the lack of depth by focusing in on introductory phonics and blending in DVDs of approximately 35 minutes each. In the first DVD Leap, Lily, and Tad need to go to their father's Letter Factory where they produce talking letters. While Leap and Lily provide a presentation for a very important customer, Tad is left out due to his lack of reading skills. Taken for a tour through the factory, he visits rooms, each dedicated to a letter of the alphabet. The colorful, animated letters are engaged in activities that embody their sound.

The A's scream, "Aaaaaah!" when frightened. The E's are hard of hearing and ask, "Ehhhh?" whenever someone speaks to them. The M's proclaim "Mmmmm!" as they devour delicious muffins. The set also includes a full set of alphabet flashcards that depict the lively letters in poses, settings, and costumes that represent their sounds on one side, and directions to parents on how to use the cards to teach their children on the other with a simpler representation of the letter.

In LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory Leap, Lily, and Tad are recruited to make more talking words for the very popular talking dictionaries, and to assist Tad in the filling out of a contest application for his father. Various fun machines make vowels sticky, wham words together, and more. Rhyming songs and a fun plot add to the appeal of this title. This is my six-year-old's favorite of the three - she loves the neat word machines and inventions. Both Letter Factory and Talking Words Factory include a simple, interactive learning game as educational reinforcement.

Created with children from ages two through six in mind, I was somewhat skeptical about the set's ability to reach younger children. However, the animated, cartoon-style adventures of Leap, Lily, and Tad have not only made her a fan, they've also been teaching her the building blocks of phonics! My six-year-old already has a firm understanding of the concepts presented in the set, but she has also really enjoyed the discs for the story alone, and reinforcement has never hurt anyone!

Our children are limited to bringing along one or two DVDs when we travel to visit relatives, and they often ask to bring their LeapFrog movies with them. Only a day or two after watching LeapFrog: Letter Factory, my three year old made an `s' with her wikki sticks and proudly hissed `Sssss, this letter says ssss, Mommy!" Right on.

The LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set is an excellent first step into learning for preschool-aged children. If your little ones haven't had any exposure yet the building blocks of phonics and blending, I can't recommend this set enough. The associations are fun, lively, and easier to remember in the context of a story-based plot than they are through rote memorization alone. Above all, it's fun, bright, and engaging - everything a small child could ask for with all the educational value parents' love.

My son who is 4 years old loves these DVDs. I didn't buy them as a collection but one by one, which make them a littler more expences. My son is Autistic & his form of learning is totally visual. It's for this reason that I bought them. My son who is just starting talking improved his pronuciation a lot. Now he enfazes every single letter when talks & reads. With the word factory Dvd, my son really got the concept of reading. My son was spelling words since he was 28 months, but now he really can read thanks to this DVD. & with Let's go to the school, he learned finally the meaning of time: days, months, seasos, & even horas. No even talking about animals & their families...
I really I couldn't believe @ the beginning how much these DVDs saved me a lot of money in Speech therapy. His Speech therapists were so impresed w/his improvement in just one month that they started recommended these DVDs to all his clients. I particular bought the other 2 DVDs that Amazon is promoted (Math Circus & the Reading factory). And I also bought 2 sets of this collection as x-mas gifts: one for my 3 years old nephew (regular Neurotypical boy) & I donated the other one to a special need organization that provide free childcare when the parents are in seminary or meeting... I absolutely recommend this entire collection & any other DVD relates to it...

Better then {my baby can read program} and a hell of alot cheaper . My 2 year old loves it and is learning.

Good product, my son had them from he was two years old and began reading early at age 2 1/2 because of these dvds. these are highly educational and I would recommend them to parents with 2 year olds.

My son has loved the Letter Factory movie from the first time he saw it. It helped him learning his letters and letter sounds at such a young age. I don't think anything I would have done could have helped him learn them quicker. Now we're working on Word Factory and he's started to read some words at just a little over 3.

My four year old had trouble learing her alphabet and numbers. We tried games, songs, flashcards, and many other activities and nothing worked. After watching these DVDs for only two weeks she knew all of her letters and the sounds they make. She is also trying to spell small words now. She can count further too. These DVDs are amazing. I only wish I bought them sooner. My 18 month old also watches these DVDs and trys to sing along too. I recommend these to anyone. I also have VOL 2 and they are a great set to have. Absolutly amazing.

I have used Letter Factory before with my other kids. This time around we scratched it. So I bought new ones. Love the alphabet flip cards that came with it. Only thing better would have been to have a hole punched in them so they stay on a ring. Easy problem solved though. I took them down to our local copy place and they did that for me.
I love letter factory it should be given to every new parent when they leave the hospital. Doesnt take very many days of watching it before you are out running errands and they are in the backseat saying I see.....
Everyone should have this.

Just spreading the knowledge and hope people would benefit from it - these are available on netflix for instant viewing. Just search Leapfrog - and you will see a bunch of these products available for instant viewing.

Amazon prime videos has these on rent. Check with your local public libraries - mine doesnt but the network it is part of - has these and you can call your library to reserve these for you.

I cannot say enough good things about this DVD set. They are fun to watch and educational. My daughter was struggling with her letter sounds and after watching the Talking Letter Factory twice, she knew them all.

I love Leapfrog products. They know what they are doing. They make learning fun!

My daughter got this for her 3rd birthday. We chose it to be a learning tool to work on sounds and lower case letters. The cards that it came with didn't seem like much, but she really likes to use them. I can tell the difference already. She is starting to associate letters with sounds with a good deal of success. Seems to be working just like we wanted!