learning tools Archives - Jen is on a Journey

DVD: $14.98 (on sale at Amazon!)
38 minutes long
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Lionsgate Home Entertainment and top educational toy brand LeapFrog have come together to teach beginning math skills in a fun out-of-this world experience with the release of an all-new educational DVD, LeapFrog: Math Adventure to the Moon. The new DVD takes both preschoolers and parents alike on an educational and entertaining mission to the moon where they will learn early math skills like counting, sorting and addition with their old friends Tad, Lily and Edison.

Our take: Tad and Lily have a math assignment and need to find the perfect collection of items, they choose moon rocks! Asking my 4-year old, “where will they get them, and how?” Probably on the internet right? Not quite, they board a ship to the moon of course with the help with their friend Edison the firefly. My preschooler is learning a lot of the similar things they discuss in this DVD like sorting, patterns, and counting. I loved watching her get involved in the show. I swear I overheard her say, “math is fantastic” like Edison did! My music lover loves the four sing-a-longs in the DVD and danced her way to broadening her math skills!

We received a copy of the DVD to facilitate this review. The opinions are our tried-and-true experience and were not influenced by any source.

To celebrate the DVD release of LeapFrog: MATH ADVENTURE TO THE MOON, Lionsgate Home Entertainment is doing a ‘Count‘down to the DVD release on February 23rd by offering up math tips aimed at easing a child’s fear of math and making learning fun.

TIP #1: Math is everywhere!
Next time you’re in a waiting room with your child, scan the room (or the magazines on the tables) for evidence of “math.” Advise your child to find as much math as possible, and you can give clues if you need to. Numbers, patterns, shapes, categories, and measuring devices (e.g., ruler, scales), are just a few examples of some of the math you might see all around you!

TIP #2: Patterns and Codes are All Around Us!
Make patterns using standard household objects. For example line up repeated objects–sock, stuffed animal, sock, stuffed animal, and so on. Next, ask your child to continue the pattern to figure out the “secret code.” You can vary the difficulty of the pattern to suit your child’s ability–banana, banana, pear, banana, banana, pear. You can also make deliberate errors that your child needs to find–pear, apple, bananna, pear, apple, banana, pear, pear, banana.

TIP #3: Play the Sorting Game!
Take a deck of cards, and discuss with your child all the ways you can sort the cards. They can be sorted by color (red versus black), suit (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs), numbers (2’s, 3’s, etc.), royalty versus numbers (jacks, queens, and kings versus the numbers), odd versus even numbers, etc. Sky is the limit! You can play the sorting game with many collections of things around the house, such as socks and building blocks.

TIP #4: Since It’s the Weekend — Make it a game night!
Playing number-related, age-appropriate board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, can help support many math-related skills. For an important twist, help your child practice saying each number he or she lands on and passes by with each roll of the dice. For example, if your child is on 23 and rolls a four, help him or her say “24, 25, 26, 27” instead of “1, 2, 3, 4.” This way, your child can learn about order and magnitude (i.e., how large or small a number is in relation to other numbers).

What do you do to make Math more fun for your kids?
Stay tuned for more tips, thanks to Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Leap Frog: Math Adventures to the Moon

Math Tips to Make Math FUN with Leap Frog