I have heard about Leapfrog DVDs for some time but never really took a look at them until I stumbled across one at a DVD shop. After reading so many positive reviews about them on parenting forums, I decided to give it a go.
I bought Numbers Ahoy thinking it would make Math more fun for Gavin. Never having done any research on the DVDs, I didn’t realise that Numbers Ahoy was only about counting from numbers 1 to 10. I figured he would like Leapfrog since we have a few of their talking products (Counting Pal, Phonics Radio, Hug&Learn Globe, Learn Along Piano, Alphabet Pal) which Gavin used to play with when he was a baby so the characters would be familiar.
I put the DVD on for Gavin (against some resistance since Gavin never likes trying new things) only to find that he was scared of the Pirate Octopus and didn’t want to watch the rest of it. Although he was quite absorbed up until that moment so perhaps there is hope for the other Leapfrog DVDs?
Since he can already read, the Leapfrog phonics DVDs are probably more for entertainment and reinforcement. What I was hopeful about was getting him interested in Math.
Leapfrog DVDs
These are the other Leapfrog DVDs available (with Youtube previews) for those interested:
Although our experience with Leapfrog DVDs have been quite limited but they do sound quite promising. All the comments I have read about these DVDs have been very positive so they must be pretty good.
I did take a look at Numbers Ahoy myself (yes, I watched it through from start to finish without Gavin) and I thought it was pretty entertaining although somewhat basic especially for parents who have done early childhood Math programs with their kids like Doman Math, Shichida Math, or BrillKids Math. It would be interesting to see what the teach in the other Leapfrog Math DVDs though.
Nurture for the Future 
HiShen-Li,
May I know where did you buy the Leapfrog DVD? I heard a lot of positive feedback about it too but couldn’t find in anywhere in KL.
Thank you.
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I would definitely recommend “Letter Factory” to start on phonics. The song is so catchy, that it even worked for my extreme visual learner.
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After playing Here Come Science for Gavin, I’m a pretty big believer in music as a medium for teaching children. He’s remembered so much listening to them. He’s even been asking about how white blood cells are able to identify which are the bad bacteria so we talked about antibodies and eventually about microscopes because we can’t see them with our naked eyes. It was great to see how curious he was about it all.
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Cool post, I’ve got seven kids myself, and they really enjoy playing games.
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