If this is your first time visiting, you might want to subscribe so you'll be notified when there's something new to read! See the sidebar below to subscribe. 

Monday, May 4, 2009

Favorite Toys to Encourage Literacy

So your little one can't read yet? And their attention span is only so long when it comes to reading stories together? I feel ya! Here are my little reader's favorite literacy-related toys at the moment:

  • Foam bath letters (and numbers). He thinks it's hilarious when I hold each letter up and make its sound for him. 

  • Wooden letter blocks. I like to tell him words that each letter starts with as we stack them up in towers and then knock them down! Having an assortment of types of blocks also helps with the "a" is an "a" is an "a" concept as they get older.

  • Fun flash cards. These were a Christmas gift from Gramma. I don't sit Isaac down and drill him with the flash cards. Instead, we just play with them. He likes to look at the pictures on them and throw them around when he's in his high chair.

  • Touch and feel books. O.K. so this is a book, but it's kind of a toy too. My son loves them!! 

  • Puppets. Great for encouraging language development. Stick one on your arm and make 'em talk, talk, talk!

5 comments:

Tara Lazar said...

Wonderful post. Letter magnets for the fridge are fun. Leap Frog Fridge Phonics is a great one, it helps indentify each letter and sings the alphabet song. A favorite toy while I'm cooking dinner. My youngest also loves having a wipe board and marker on the fridge. I write our dinner words on it (pasta, meatballs) and she tries to either draw a picture or write the words (just scribbles right now, but good practice)!

Guest said...

I picked up a really small set of foam letters at walmart for about $1. My two year loves to play with them and so does my 4 yr old. Gotta love, the leap frog fridge magnets as well.

Tasha at Children's Books for Grown-ups said...

Love this post Amy - we have fridge letter magnets, but Milo is too little really to know that they are there. Am trying to find the foam letters for the bath but seems to be tricky in the UK? We have some great Maisy flash cards!

Book Chook said...

Love that puppet! Books make great toys, in my opinion. You can make bridges with them for trucks and trains to cross, make book walls for lego pirates to bombard, and build book tunnels for just about any toy to crawl through.

Amy @ Literacy Launchpad said...

Great point! There was a book I was reading recently (it's in the
Literacy Launchpad Store), can't remember the name off the top of my
head, but it gave a lot of great ideas along these lines!
Amy Watson
Motivating and Empowering Children to Soar Into Reading
http://www.literacylaunchpad.blogspot.com/
http://www.literacylaunchpad.com/
615-243-5075