Customer Reviews

Rock 'N Learn Letter Sounds: Phonics for Beginners (Ages 4 & Up) [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have used this video with my 5 year old son. It keeps his attention and focuses on teaching: 1. the letter, 2. the sound it makes, 3. the lip movement the sound makes, and 4. a word and picture of the word item. I just let him watch short segments at a time! (And of course, review that segment over and over!) It has a couple of "games" for the children to watch and respond to. Excellent video!

My son who just turned 4 y.o. loves this video. Like the homeschool mom we got this at the library, and like her we found it really engages our children. (My daughter is almost 6.)

The video begins with the letters of the alphabet in sequence: capital and lower cases and sounds. It then goes on to mix the letters up, first showing the letters and giving children the time to say what the letters sounds are before telling them if they don't know. In a following segment, the video gives sentences such as "An alligator and an ant add apples". Children are supposed to shout out what the 'target' letter is. In this case "a".

Four Stars. A nice supplement to the LeapFrog videos (which we also love).

I found this item at a local library when my son was about 18 months old. I brought it home to check it out myself for future reference, but my son was immediately entranced by it, and wanted to see it again and again. We ended up buying this title, and it is still used in our home four years later. My favorite feature of this video is that a close-up of an actual person's mouth is shown saying sounds and words, so a child can see how the lips, tongue, and mouth should look when saying certain sounds (which really helps when a child tends to use, for instance, a "W" sound for "L" words, or an "F" sound for "TH"). BONUS: They also show how to form letters at the end of the program. I have only high praise for the "Letter Sounds" video.

My son began reading (not memorizing sight words, but actually reading) before he was three; he is now five and reads at about a second grade level. He is now past "Letter Sounds", but still enjoys watching it. My daughter, who is three, also enjoys it, and is now reading short words (mom, dad, sun, frog, etc.) While I won't say this is all due to the "Letter Sounds" video, I must emphasize that the Rock'n'Learn items we have used have been a _tremendous_ assistance in keeping the kids engaged, excited about learning to read, and giving them fun tools to make the process easier. Other Rock'n'Learn titles I'd strongly recommend are "Alphabet", "Phonics 1 & 2", and "Telling Time".

This is a very disappointing video. In its defense though I am comparing it to Leap Frog's Letter and Talking Word factory videos which are streets ahead of this one. If you are only going to buy one basic letter sound video, buy the Letter Factory from Leap Frog. My children can watch the Letter Factory 3 times in a row but have yet to watch this one from beginning to end. They become very bored by this one.

My son has been watching this video since he was 18 mos. old.(I thought the opening sequence would be to quick for him, but after being entertained, he was able to break it down easily, even at that age) He enjoys it very much, and picks up different things as he grows. At first it helped him identify letters with a different alphabet tune than the traditional one. After identifying, he was able to sound out the first letter of the word. Now at 2 1/2 he can sound out beginning letter combinations. There is much more for him to learn with the letter games, and it still has his interest.