I love the opportunity to give my kids something new and exciting, especially if it’s educational. For them, it’s a new toy or something to keep them occupied. For me, they are learning while they play. I was so excited to show my boy/girl twins the Hot Dots Let’s Master Reading and Math Sets by Educational Insights.
I work with them a lot on their homework and the traditional paper worksheets sent home every day can get boring to them and although they are short lessons, they lose interest quickly. Plus, they tend to rush through it just to get it over with. So it leaves me wondering if they actually got the point of the lesson.
To give you an idea of how much my Kindergarten twins loved these books, I need to set the stage for you. All four of my kids were down stairs watching a movie, with popcorn and all. I opened the package to read about it up stairs before I gave it to them. One of them walked past me for a quick potty break and caught a glimpse of what I was doing. She gave it a quick test drive and scurried back downstairs to watch the movie (or so I thought). She actually had gone downstairs to get her brother. A couple minutes later, there stood the twins waiting for their new “toy”. They were done with the movie already. It wasn’t long after the toddler was upstairs right in the middle wanting to play too. And after the movie was over, the big brother was upstairs “helping” - brushing up on his skills too, no doubt.
I had handed a book and the Ace The Talking Dog Pen to each of them. I did have to explain to them that they need to choose the black dot at their answer carefully and hold the pen upright. It’s not a sensitive pen but they would occasionally miss the dot and it would tell them they were wrong, when in fact, they were correct. Other than that, it was second nature to them. I supervised and read directions to them but they quickly picked up on the lessons themselves. I also like that the math is also reading because they have to read the words “one”, “two”, etc.
They love Ace, The Talking Dog! That’s the fun part! There are different settings but we kept him on the talking and singing setting. His eyes would light up green if they got the answer right and red if it was wrong. Music would play indicating right and wrong answers as well. And encouraging phrases or “try again”, yet silly phrases kept their interest and surprisingly kept them from getting frustrated when they weren’t getting the answers right.
I highly recommend this product to parents of little ones! This could make a great gift or just because (who needs an excuse to give a new toy when it’s educational?). I can also see these being a life saver on those dreaded long car trips!
Find them on the WWW
Great News! A giveaway is coming up for a Hot Dots Let’s Master Reading or Math Set from Educational Insights. Stay tuned!!
I wish they had stuff like this when I was a kid!
ReplyDeletethis sounds like a great idea for my older son who is 7. he needs some excitement other than a piece of paper. lol.
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