Letter Land

kctammy

marieyuen

I choose the words from the "Section 1 : word building" list (Pupil Record Sheet 1 ) from www.letterland.com

In my Onsets and Rimes Book:
I have the following letters in the first colomn-
b, c, d, f, h, j, k, m, p, r, t
and the followings in the second colomn -
am, an, at, en, ig, im, is, it, og, ot,

WantedBaby

請問邊間 Kowloon Center 學 LetterLand Phonics 好呀？ 我真係唔識自己教呀 ，有D英文我自己都唔識 ，唔想估估下 ，教錯小朋友 。

張 list 有成 48 間 centers 介紹 ， 有無家長可以分享下 ？

Jokey2828

Hi moms,

I used to refrain from buying the very expensive Teachers' Guides and the Picture Code Cards. But after learning from marieyuen about the interesting Letterlanders and how they bring phonics to life, I finally bought the Guides and a set of Fridge Magnets (but not the Cards).

I read the Guides, and tried to build the magnetic words with my child. The first word she asked me to build was "orange". I was stuck at once. I could not just put Golden Girl and Eddy Elephant together. What else could I do but to go back to ETC the next day to buy the Picture Code Cards? (N.B $630 almost killed me!)

Drawing the pictograms is a good idea if you can afford the time.

Jokey2828

Jokey2828

Hi WantedBaby,

I heard that Nottingham is quite good, $190 per hour. But I think to be successful, parental involvement is more fundamental.

Jokey2828

yho

Dear moms,

I would like to know which one is good in Tsuen Wan area about "Letterland".
Thank you.

yho

rebeccalols

marieyuen 寫道:
rebeccalols：
你的BB太細了，起碼要到識得聽故事時，約兩歲才開始會較適合，而且買時不要一買就買成set 呀，我們在這裏討論過有很多東西是不用買的，就如kamen都教我們可以將CD-Rom的內容抽出歌仔燒出來，就唔o西買兩隻CD一樣。
就算想買少少開始，建議都係在yesasia(因為最平)買本ABC Book看看好了。

marieyuen,

Many thanks! I prefer to wait for the new edition.

marieyuen

Jokey2828:

You're right, for the word "orange" it shouldn't be Golden Girl with Eddy Elephant.
But Golden Girl's friend [size=medium]Gentle Ginger
[size=medium]Gentle Ginger is just as athletic as Jumping Jim, whose sound is identical to hers. But she is far less shy. She loves people watching her as she practises her gymnastic tricks in words which is why she truns up in more words than Jumping Jim. (Programme 2 Teacher's Guide P.204)

[size=medium]Golden Girl thinks everyone should notice Gentle Ginger's gymnastic tricks in words, so she asks Mr E if he could use some of his new Blue Magic e's to light her up with sparking blue light as she does her somersaults. "Eeeasily!" cries Mr E. Gentle Ginger is so pleased to be in the limelight that she does her best somersaults every time she is next to a Blue Magic e. She also starts to say her name like this, 'ge...' for 'Gentle Ginger'.(Programme 2 Teacher's Guide P.204)

如果用magetic來併，vowels 是有些 plain letter的，magetic背後的instructions都有講o的plain letter係o甘用的，不過"g"就係得一個樣，無Gintle Ginger，亦無Golden Granny，所以是有需要做DIY的magetic letters來自己併的。
其實letterland主張小朋友自己在plain letter上面加上一些很簡單的公仔，來remind有關的讀音，並不是全部都要畫出來，又不需要畫得很仔細和美觀的。有關Picture coding的方法在Programme1的P.20及 Programme2的P.30(Wipe-clean picture-coded words)都有詳細的介紹，你可以參考看看。

Jokey2828

Thank you marieyuen.

I have not finished reading the Teachers' Guides, so didn't know the stories behind. I will drill them into my mind.

Jokey2828

Jokey2828

Hi WantedBaby,

Sorry, the correct hourly rate for Letterland Phonics at Nottingham Children Campus is $250/hr.

I have a Course Schedule for Spring/Summer Term. Please PM me if you want the details.

Location is Stafford Road, Kowloon Tong.

(NB. I am not a staff, though a client.)

Jokey2828

WantedBaby

Hello Yho,

I've got the center lists and there are 2 centers in Tsuen Wan (don't know whether it's good or not).

Pls PM me if you need.   

blovej

Hi, would you also pm me the details of the Tsuen Wan Centre. Thanks.

ALAL

Today I have visited Tai Koo shing and buy the ABC book, the cassette, the CD-Rom, two exercise books and one pack of ABC magnet. Connie is very kind and explain to me some of the games in Letterland.

My son like the book, especially when he match with the magnet.

But ABC book in the shop is out of stock. Waiting time is 3 weeks.

Any one know who's good letterland teacher in the list (Kowloon). Anyone has tried the centre called One World Lang. Institue in Victory Avenue? Any teacher allows parents to join the classes?

vanessa2003

I'd like to buy the products of Letterland and I have the following queries.
1)Does the Letterland CD-ROM has 2003 edition?
2)If I buy the 2003 edition Early Years handbook and ABC book, do they compatible with the old edition CD-ROM?
Thanks for answering my questions.

marieyuen

vanessa:

the answer for your question is :

1) no , or not yet
2) no, in the case of old version CD-Rom with the new version hardbook and ABC book.

CUTEBEAR

Hi! All Ma Ma,

I bought the ABC software for my son, but it is not included the lyric inside. Can anyone copy them to me?

firstmom

I was told by the English Head of Canadian International Schools that their schools have abandoned using Letterland for teaching kids phonics anymore. They have now adopted Jolly Phonics.

Anyone can tell me what to buy?  Anyone has used Jolly Phonics before?

    

Heidibaba

My daughter is learning Jolly Phonics and I am delighted she can blend simple words (eg cat, jet) after 2 months study in Jolly Phonics.

Before I choose Jolly Phonics, I have made a very detail research between Jolly Phoincs & Letterland in the web.  Personally, I do think both phonic systems are very good and difficult to choose between.  

In BK, I do notice most moms prefer Letterland than Jolly Phonics.  Therefore, I started to look and find more details about Letterland in the web first.  I found Letterland is really an excellent phonic system with many many interested Letterland characters.  I was almost decided to choose Letterland and I have got a teaching centre list in Hong Kong so that I can arrange my daugher to study in the centre nearby my home.

For my own interesting, I decided to know more between Jolly Phonics and the difference between Letterland.  From the web information, I noted that Jolly Phonics is a very simple phonic system.  They do not have many lovely characters like Letterland.  They have only 4 (Inky mouse, Snake, Bee and "honic" the computer).  Although Jolly Phonics has a few characters, they have many simple actions that can really arise the interest of the children and let them very easy to remember the sound.  But in my opinion at that time, I think Letterland is more interesting to me than Jolly Phonics because of the attactive characters.

I decided to search more information in the web and from many forums I start to realise that many kindergartens in UK have turned to Jolly Phonics from Letterland.  The reason, interestingly, was that Letterland has complicated character names that will confuse the children in blending.  The kindergarten teachers in UK (switched from Letterland to Jolly Phonics) claimed that the kids are so fond of the Letterland characters that they remember clever cat, annie apple, ...(sorry that I forgot the character for letter T) and when they blend the words "CAT", they will blend Clever Cat Annie Apple ...T with six sounds instead of "C" "A" "T' three sounds.  In Jolly Phonics, each letter has only one sound, therefore, the children will never mix up in these cases and this is the reason why they are going to change from Letterland to Jolly Phonics.

I then have a chance to attend a seminar conducted by Jolly Phonics trainers from Australia and I was really amazed by their teaching method.  They use their hands, their bodies, their facial expression to teach the sound and the children (who come with their parents, I was regret that I did not take my girl to the seminar at the time) can learn and remember the sounds immediately without any difficulty and show great interest in the teaching method.  

From then on, I had re-consider a lot between Jolly Phonics and Letterland.  And I have finally made a perosnal conclusion:
Letterland is excellent for elderly child, I believe that any child older than six  will not have the difficulties in mixing the characters in blending and then provide a wrong blending sound.  Jolly phonics is more appropriate for the younger child aged between 3 to 4.  I do not say that Letterland is not fit for the younger child but I do think Letterland can raise more interest to older child because they have many many funny characters and Jolly Phonics is not resticted to the age of 3 to 4 (I saw many 7-8 years old children in the seminar do show great interest in learning the Jolly Phonics).  For my daughter's interest (she is 3 1/2 years old at that time), I have decided to choose Jolly Phonics for her and she learnt with great interest from that phonic system.

One point that I think we need to consider is that UK children is different from Asia.  They have the problem in blending due to mixing the Letterland characters' names and this may not apply to our Hong Kong children.  Actually, I cannot find any information in the web to support such cases in Hong Kong.  May be there are not many kindergartens in Hong Kong that use a very systematic phonic system (what a pity!!!).  And this is also why we are here to find out what a situable phonic system for our child by ourselves.

Do more research before you choose between both systems that fits your child.  But I would say it would be no good to your children to switch from one phonic system to another unless he/she has problems in blending the words (but you really need to find the way to know the problem of your child why he/she has difficulties in blending instead of changing the phonic system).  This is the attitude to help your child.

Heidibaba

marieyuen

Heidibaba:

好多謝你分享你的寶貴經驗同意見。
其實我都好想知道多o的關於Jolly Phonics，亦同意你所講letterland的characher實在太多了，現在我的女兒正在起步的階段，所以都無問題，但我看過Programme1&2的Teacher's guide，也擔心之後要應付o甘多人物，唔知會唔會好亂。
可惜我又唔知點樣可以知多o的有關Jolly Phonics的教學法和其他資料等等，如果你可以的話，可不可以開多一個新topic為我們這群正幫小朋友選緊合適的phonics教材的媽媽，介紹多一些關於Jolly Phonics的資料呢？
唔該先！

Marie

firstmom

Hi Heidibaba

Thank you so much for your detailed information.  I totally agree with you that I should carefully choose an appropriate system.  While my kid is still attending nursery, I guess I would just choose Jolly Phonics to start with.  As what you have said, if it's more simple, I am more capable to help my child then.

Hadrien-mama

Hi All mama,

Do anyone of you use Letterland materials to teach their kids phonics before and like to re-sell them after use? Materials like CD-Rom software, ABC book, handbook, story books...etc are welcome.

Please PM details to me.

Thanks!

Hadrien-mama