Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Works for me Wednesday: Making TV work for you

I limit my kids' TV/video time to 30-40 minutes per day, except for when they are sick and on the occasions that we have a family movie night. That 30 minutes is not even a guarantee, they must have had good enough behavior to get that privilege. See my Privilege Chart post here.

I also use that 30 minutes as incentive for them to help me tackle a chore, by saying, "once the playroom is clean we can watch something!" It is amazing how quickly they can clean once I say that!

I don't give my kids a lot of choices about what they can watch. They get a few educational options that work for all 3 of their ages -- 6, 3, and 1 year. Several months ago I found the best video to fit this criteria!

Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD.


This video is very entertaining for the kids and really teaches them their letters and the sounds each letter makes. After watching this several times, even my 1 year old can tell you what sound the different letters make! Knowing the sounds for the letters is a critical pre-reading skill.

Then there is the Talking Words Factory, that create words with the letters. We have this one, too and it is also super!


Find more Works For Me Wednesday Tips at We are THAT Family.

4 comments:

  1. My girls LOVE The Letter Factory. I limit tv time as well to 30 minutes a day. It's amazing how many other things can entertain our children when given the chance.

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  2. I love these videos, they are how my now 5 year old started to read last year.

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  3. We have a couple Leap Pad videos. They are all great!

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  4. We love those videos! We have all the Leap Frog DVD's and they are just about worn out they get watched so much. My son has Cerebral Palsy and cannot "entertain" himself as other kids can so he watches a lot of TV, mostly these videos. As a result his younger sister watched them some too and started talking at early age and began reading at age 4.

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