Any good toy(s) for learning alphabets & numbers?

[slworld]

There are a lot of toys out there supposed to help with learning alphabets & numbers, but I am looking for any that you have used and thought really helped with it. I am wondering if something that is battery-operated and says out the alphabets/numbers may be more useful so DS can play with it by himself too (just a thought). DS is 15months old so may not be useful immediately but maybe in a few months. Any suggestions?

Thanks much

[WatchingThemGrow]

i would just work on vocabulary building right now, honestly.

[schums]

Letter whammer and word whammer by leap frog. The best toys EVER for helping learn letters. Along with that, the Talking Letter Factory dvd ROCKS.

[ciw]

DS is 19 months so we're still working on numbers and letters but so far, the two things that seem to really be working are alphabet books (his favorite is Baby Einstein's My first Book of Letters) and this: http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Fridg.../dp/B000096QNK
We have the older version which came with both capital and small case letters. I am only using the upper case letters right now though.
Thanks to the Fridge Phonics, I can name a letter and he can tell me the different ways to pronounce the letter. For example, if I say the letter C, he will make the hard C and soft C sounds, if that makes any sense. We work on one new letter a week and the only letters I put on the refrigerator are letters that he's already mastered plus the new "letter of the week." After he gets the new letter down (he has to be able to pronounce the sounds it makes, identify it when I point to it and pick it out of a group of letters), I add a new letter.
We also have the Leapfrog Alphabet Pal. But it eats batteries like crazy, DS doesn't really like it and the letters are way too small for a young child to really "get." I wouldn't buy it again.
I can't really help with numbers. I have a couple different things I'm trying but so far DS has two favorite numbers, 2 and 8, and insists that any number I point to is one of those numbers. But I count every.single.time we walk up the stairs and he can recite "six, seven, eight, nine, ten" now.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Leap Frog fridge toys.

Just a note though, even if they memorize the sounds now it might not really click with learning to read and such. I think of it more as memorizing the words to a song but not really knowing what the song means. kwim? But, the toys are still fun and every toddler and preschooler I know loves them!

Beth

[kayte]

i would just work on vocabulary building right now, honestly.

Also toys with recorded letter names and sounds are not always clear or in the same accent spoken at home. To small children two words spoken differently, are different two words. (even the same word sung at different notes is considered to a early verbal child as two distinct words).

In addition what helps most babies and children learn vocabulary (which technically the names of letters are) and isolated sounds (phonemes) is the combination of seeing your mouth shape and hearing the sound. Recorded toys can't offer that.

I have also found that lots of toys, though some of LeapFrog ones do seem to be the exception, often have incorrect letter sounds--For instance M does not say "muh" it says "mmmm". (Though lots of parents tend to teach that incorrectly too).

Also if you want to teach the identification of letters, eventually, most reading teachers will tell you lowercase is significantly more important than capital. 90% of letters found in print (paper and in your environment) are lower case.

eta- DD learned to identify her letters from listening to me read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

[sste]

We had to throw away certain leapfrog letters because they said the wrong sound!!

I really think the only worthwhile "toy" is you. Counting numbers mechanically is not very important at all imo, it is understanding that numbers correspond to amounts - - try games involving blocks, marbles etc and counting. Obviously, 15 months is young but if you want to do something that is what I would think would be more helpful. I also try to incorporate numbers a lot into my daily speech: Look there are two cookies on the table, one, two . . ."

Personally, I would not devote any special energy to teaching letters at all to any child in the 2-3 year old range (I probably wouldn't even teach to a four year old but kindy is so academic these days I guess that is up for grabs). Your child only has so much brain space/power/energy and I agree with the pps that building vocabulary, cause and effect, shapes sorting etc are far more important!!

[ett]

I really think the only worthwhile "toy" is you. Counting numbers mechanically is not very important at all imo, it is understanding that numbers correspond to amounts - - try games involving blocks, marbles etc and counting. Obviously, 15 months is young but if you want to do something that is what I would think would be more helpful. I also try to incorporate numbers a lot into my daily speech: Look there are two cookies on the table, one, two . . ."

Personally, I would not devote any special energy to teaching letters at all to any child in the 2-3 year old range (I probably wouldn't even teach to a four year old but kindy is so academic these days I guess that is up for grabs). Your child only has so much brain space/power/energy and I agree with the pps that building vocabulary, cause and effect, shapes sorting etc are far more important!!

I made no special effort to teach my boys their numbers and letters and both picked them up fairly early. We have alphabet blocks and alphabet numbers and we read lots of books. It is very easy to incorporate letters and numbers in you daily playtime. Like if we're playing with the ball, I'll say B is for ball, etc.

[slworld]

Thanks all for your suggestions.

I never put so much thought into it (wrt the commets about toys probabaly not being very useful at this age). We do the counting as far as possible (like when he stacks or climbing the stairs etc) & shape sorting too. So by vocabulary is it just talking to him and telling the names of objects etc? I absolutely have no clue about phonics (that was not how we were thought alphabets) but I thought that is the better way to learn alphabets than just saying them (a, bee, see etc) which is why I was looking for some toys that could do that. Thanks for the insight.

[Momof3Labs]

A dinner plate and placemat with the alphabet on it. Honestly, having daily casual conversations about the letters (picking out his first initial, finding "M" for mom, "D" for dad, etc, while waiting for his food) was the best thing we did to teach early letter recognition in the kids.