A superconscious shopper, I tend to be selective about what I buy, especially when it comes to toys.
As an English teacher, I buy more books than toys but when I do buy a toy, I prefer toys that are durable, educational and fun.
Leapfrog’s Fridge Phonics is an educational toy I’d recommend for toddlers and preschoolers. I bought the phonics set three years ago for Lucas and have found it to be a great buy.
The Fridge Phonics I got come in colourful, small letters A – Z (capital letters are available too) with magnets in them.
Perfect for toddlers to play with while Mummy’s cooking in the kitchen!
While playing with the Fridge Phonics, I noticed Lucas doing this:
- grouping them according to colour (the vowels a,e,i,o,u are in red) creating patterns (e.g. row of trains or flowers)
- spelling his name L-U-C-A-S or S-A-C-U-L (the Chinese way? LOL)
- listening to different sounds each letter makes
- playing the “ABC” song again and again and again
Preschoolers who are learning phonics in kindergarten may find the Fridge Phonics helpful. For example, when you insert the letter “P”, a cute voice sings out,
“‘P’ says ‘puh’. ‘P’ says ‘puh’. Every letter makes a sound. ‘P’ says ‘puh’.”
The 26 letters of the alphabet (in upper case) are inscribed at the top of the deck to help with letter recognition.
You can set the volume level on ‘low’ or ‘high’ and only 2 AA batteries are needed. I’ve only changed them once these past few years.
I wish that the consonants were colour coded sensibly too e.g. into nasals (m, n), plosives (p, b, t, d, k, g) and fricatives (f, v, s, z) which may help children see the patterns of phonetic sounds better.
Anyway, now that’s he’s learning to spell, he can send my sister this message:
“Y-E-P, I L-U-V T-H-O-M-A-S!”
Get your own Leapfrog’s Fridge Phonics:
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