*update 7/29/11* At 18 months old, Whistler could recognize all upper and lower case letters of the alphabet. He is 20 months old today and can say all the letters of the alphabet. I 100% give credit to this iPad app along with Nick Jr.’s A to Z with Moose and Zee!!
{Originally posted 4/20/11}
The other day I uploaded a video to Facebook showing you how Whistler (at just 16 months old!) was dragging letters across the iPad screen to spell words. Yep – he was able to pick up this educational game in about an hour and to my amazement, sits and spells all 137 words patiently (of course waiting for my cheers at the end of each one).
Just check out these videos to see for yourself!
I got such an overwhelming response asking was app it was that I wanted to be sure to provide you guys with the link to download it yourself.
It is called FirstWords by Learning Touch. It is available on for both the iPhone and iPad. There is a free sample version with 7 words here. The full version costs $4.99 (well worth it!!!) and can be found here.
*NOTE* I would not consider this a “reading” application. It does not use phonetic sounds for the letters, but instead the letter names. It says C (see) A (ay) T (tee) – CAT. Thus, I feel it’s more of a “spelling” / letter and word recognition app. If you’re looking for a great app that can be toggled for phonetic sounds, try Bob Books Magic Reading App for $1.99.
While I realize that Whistler is far from knowing how to actually spell these words, the fact that he knows to match each letter to its corresponding letter is in and of itself – fantastic. He repeats each one that he knows in sign language, and has already learned the word “blue” from it. I’m *SURE* that within a month or two, he absolutely WILL know how to spell many of the words just from hearing them over and over and over again.
He asks to play this game all the time and even knows how to turn on the iPad by himself and find the game icon to start. It keeps him entertained for at least 15 minutes at a time.
I encourage you you to download the free sample version and try it out with your little one. I’m positive you (and they!) will fall in love with it and be buying teh full sized version shortly thereafter!! As usual, I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!
I’ll definitely have to check this out for my little boy – sounds cool!
Thanks for sharing. :)
That is really exciting. I will tell some of my daughter’s friends about this.
That’s so awesome to have!
My son is 21 months and loves the Moose and Zee app… I’ll definitely have to try this one!
I bought my daughter this app when I first bought my iphone and I’m so glad I did. She started out just matching the letters but now she recognizes that the letters, in order, create the word. Definitely a must have app.