Note: this is not a sponsored post - I borrowed this DVD from the public library and was not compensated in any way :)
At around 2.5 years old, C had long known the alphabet song and had started expressing interest in identifying letters ("what letter is that?"); however, he had NO patience to sit still while I tried to draw letters and teach him their names. At first I chalked it up to him not really being ready, but he continued to ask me what letters were on signs, book covers, and labels.
Somehow I came across the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD while browsing Amazon one day and started reading reviews; there were SO many positive reviews that claimed their toddlers had learned to identify all the letters of the alphabet, as well as their sounds, purely from watching the DVD. We are SUPER strict about C's screen time (exception: on airplanes, anything goes) - most weeks he he has absolutely no TV or iPad time, but we occasionally let him watch an episode of Daniel Tiger or Bubble Guppies (like when he gets his hair cut). I wasn't a huge fan of the idea of him "learning" from a DVD, but I discovered our public library had a copy of the DVD and figured it was worth checking it out from the library for free.
The storyline of the movie is cute - the "letter factory" is where letters go to learn their sounds, and in the factory there is a room for each letter of the alphabet where the letters learn what to say ("the A says 'aaaah'). C LOVED the DVD - he laughs hysterically in the "I" room when the "icky" pen explodes. As soon as it's over, he begs to watch it again. As suggested by many of the Amazon reviews, we did let him watch the 30-minute DVD repeatedly for 1-2 weeks - I'm talking 4-5 times a week, which is WAY more screen time than he has ever had before, but I wanted to see if the content of the DVD would sink in (this is also when we painted the walls in his big boy room, so it was a great 30-minute distraction that I didn't feel totally guilty about).
I was SHOCKED at how quickly he picked up on the material; after a couple of weeks of frequent watching, he could identify all of the (uppercase) letters of the alphabet by sight and also knew their "sound". It has now been several weeks since he's watched the DVD, and he seems to have retained the material - he can still name all their letters and their sounds, and is so proud of himself when he can tell us the letters in a book title. This DVD was a much faster (and for him, more enjoyable) way to learn the alphabet than me trying to teach it to him. I initially checked it out (and renewed several times) from the library, but since it has been so effective and is only $7 on Amazon, I think it is worth the investment!
The one limitation with the DVD (if you can have complaints about a 2.5 year old knowing the alphabet and corresponding sounds) is that it focuses on uppercase letters only, so he still cannot recognize any of the lowercase letters which look different from their uppercase counterparts (b, d, e, g, h, q, r, etc.)
Now that he is so comfortable with uppercase letters, I bought some Crayola ABC flashcards at Dollar Tree which have both the uppercase and lowercase letter on one side, and a picture starting with that letter on the opposite side. (I couldn't find them new on Amazon, but here's what they look like -- and it appears they're available through some Amazon third party sellers if you can't find them at your local Dollar Tree.) I punched a hole in the top corner of each card, mixed up the order, and put them on a binder ring so we can keep track of them and flip through them to practice letters. Since he already knows the uppercase letters, he is much more eager about doing the flash card approach than he was pre-Letter Factory. With them contained on the binder ring, they are easy to stash in my purse to occupy C while we wait at the doctor or at a restaurant.
All kids learn in different ways and at different stages/ages, but this has worked really well for us!
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