Learning To Read With Virtual Teachers: Did a Computer Game and Nintendo DS Game Teach Our 5 Year Old How to Read?
Last year at the video game conference E3, I met Hank Kaplan of Mentor Interactive. He told me about a new Nintendo DS title being developed by educators called My Virtual Tutor Reading Adventure. The idea was that the game would mimic a private reading tutor and use phonics to teach young kids how to read. Being the mom of a daughter entering Kindergarten, it sounded intriguing.
When we got a copy of the title, our daughter immediately pulled Littlest Pet Shop out of her DS and got to work. She loved clicking the balloons going by while searching for words that start with a ‘P’.
Then, one day we heard her trying to sound out vowels. If she could start the process of learning to read while she was playing fun DS games, maybe they were on to something.
At a family dinner a teacher in the family told us about the website Starfall. More phonics, but this time on the computer. I had just bought a new laptop and the chance to ‘play’ on mommy’s computer sounded like heaven to our five-year-old. On Starfall she has been learning to make calendars and learn words that helped her read short stories. Along the way, phonics concepts are introduced in entertaining ways. She continues to play My Virtual Tutor on the DS, especially on long car trips.
Over the holiday break, our daughter surprised us by picking up a The Princess and the Frog book and figuring out most of the words on her own. Though the pictures and knowing the movie helped her get through it, we could see her skills at sounding out words has improved significantly.
I have no intention of making people feel like all 5-year-old children (and she is turning 6 at the end of this month) should be able to read. The principal at our kids’ school makes it very clear that there should be no competition in reading. Some kids learn around 5 or 6 years old and for others it takes until about 7. Most kids reading skills even out by third grade.
For our daughter she is very motivated. She is desperate to try to catch up to her older sister who takes school very seriously. So if playing fun DS and computer games makes her feel happy and productive, we’re all for it!
My Virtual Tutor – $29.99 at Amazon.com
- free.
The Google Doodles, the illustrations that regularly transform Google’s home page to mark things like holidays . . . famous birthdays . . . and notable discoveries and inventions are becoming a tradition! For example, yesterday the Google Doodle was a tribute of the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble space telescope.
We love Flip’s camcorders — they’re fun, so simple to use and their HD version rivals more expensive digital video cameras as far as quality. Plus, we love the “design-your-own” features that let us personalize our Flip with images and patterns.