I signed up our 4yr old for the “Reading Eggs” online free trial a few months ago, and got six weeks for free. Every night after dinner the kids would beg to use the program (online) and we’d all sit together with 4yr old DD while she played the games and progressed steadily from recognising letters and their sounds, to reading words and sentences – all within 3 months! She is having so much fun, and DS3 loves it as well (although he watches only). I play the FisherPrice free online toddler games with him, and he’s grasped the concept of computer mouse usage very quickly. I’ve decided to continue with the Reading Eggs program and paid for six months’ worth – that should do until DD4 gets to start school next year.
I too found the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD very helpful for the kids to watch. I got it about a year ago, and they play it every few weeks or so, and both kids quickly learned their letters and phonetic sounds without any effort at all.
