Our family was thrilled to receive a one year subscription to the Online version of Talking Shapes: A Supplemental Curriculum for Early Literacy from Talking Fingers. You may remember earlier this year, we reviewed another of their products and my two boys (David-11 and Daniel -6) really loved the program. So when they said they have one for younger children, I was happy to try it.

The tricky part is that it is geared for children Daniel’s age, but he got so interested in his older brother’s program that he did that previously, so academically this program would be a step backwards. And Rebecca is pretty young (age 3, almost 4). So I decided to let Rebecca try it. Rebecca has a vision problem, so I have not allowed her to use the computer at all. A neat part of this program is tracing the letters with your finger or using the mouse. Our touch screen laptop would not work with the program, so she was required to use the mouse. But having very little computer experience meant she was unable to use the mouse with accuracy. And then Daniel was VERY interested in the program, so I decided to use it with them in tandem. She would do the program, enjoying the games and such and Daniel would sit by her to work the mouse. Rebecca’s screen time is limited to 20 minutes a day, and in this time she got to enjoy the program, and for the most part the children did not fight too much! We reviewed the online version of the product, and they also have an app version available.

Here’s how the program works:

The child watches a fun video that tells a story about the alphabet and how it was formed. Then the letters of the alphabet have shapes and sounds associated with them. So they get to experience it visually and in sound.

Next, they get to use their finger or the mouse to trace the letter on the screen with less and less help. As stated above our touch screen did not work well with this part, so Daniel used the mouse for Rebecca and traced it that way. This still transferred over to her actually learning it because later in the day she was writing the letters she learned onto our whiteboard for fun.

Next, the student plays games reinforcing the letter and it’s sounds.

This program was fun and both kids loved it! In spite of being technically below his reading level, he seemed to delight in the stories, and he liked the quick and easy successes. Rebecca also loved it and really enjoyed being a big girl and getting to do some school work on the computer. This program was terrific for becoming familiar with phonics, and twenty minutes a day was adequate if you like to limit screen time. Even though we had to modify the original use by having the children do it together, they actually enjoyed it that way. I have noticed that in their play time they are referring to the stories they watched and the characters and pretending to write and read words together. It’s adorable.

Just FYI, this program is intended for pre-k and Kindergarten aged students. But my slightly older son and slightly younger daughter both enjoyed it and made good use of it. I would recommend this if you are looking for some fun phonics work on the computer!