MooreEnglish » Literacy

Phonics not so Good?

Nathan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:46:59 +0000

As a scholar and a linguist, I very much admire Steven Krashen. I struggle to reconcile what he’s saying about reading instruction with what the rest of the universe seems to be arguing. He likes to swim against the mainstream.

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Sprout Online

Nathan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:16:26 +0000

Sprout is a broadcaster of preschool television. Most of their content comes from the PBS, BBC, and other public broadcasters. They also produce some of their own content. If you are interested, here is their schedule and programming lineup. My wife and I restrict our kids’ television diet to Sprout, but they are more than happy with that.

Their website seems to be closely aligned to their programing which is very educational. Games are categorized by character, educational skill, and favorites (which registered users use to bookmark their favorite games). The educational categories include:

Check it out.

The Playground from ABC of Australia

Nathan — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:17:41 +0000

I’m not convinced that everything on The Playground is completely educational, but much of it is. There are a lot of opportunities for incidental English (ESL) vocabulary learning. This online games site is entertaining and rewarding to play. My kids and I like Olivia and the Olivia sections were impressively done. My daughter played Olivia for a while, but after that she went right back to her old favorite, Starfall.

Much of The Playground website is animated, colorful, and interactive. Some of the games (such as Jakers) require some reading of instructions, which might make those games difficult for preschoolers. It’s definitely worth a visit. If you do try it, let me know what you liked best.

Online Games for Preschoolers at CBC

Nathan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:00:50 +0000

The CBC has a number of good literacy, language, and numeracy games online. They’d definitely be good for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and many first graders. I think they’d also be excellent for beginning learners of English (ESL).

Fisher-Price

Nathan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:30:06 +0000

The Fisher-Price website has a load of games for kids. I’m not a fan of all of them but there a few good ones. The Toddler and Preschool sections may also be useful for older kids who are still learning basic alphabetics or basic English vocabulary.

Our favorite so far has been the ABC (Alphabet) Zoo Game, which is really good for toddlers and even babies who can use a keyboard but can’t really manage the mouse yet.