Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Favorite preschool learning materials and software

What are your favorite interactive learning materials / DVDs / software for ages 2-4? My almost 2 year old knows all the letters, wants to know what writing says and one to one counts at least to 3. She loves learning apps, but isn't great with the laptop and we don't have a working desktop computer or an ipad or anything yet.

So by "Pre-school" I really mean kindergarten level, but easy enough for a 2 year old to use.

Would the laptop be easier to use if you got a separate mouse? (not sure if you're using mouse or just the touchpad on it) In that case I would think ABCMouse.com could work? ... you can try it out for free. I got a membership couple months ago and my 4-year old loves it and I am getting ready to start my 2.5 year old on it too. You can customize the levels.

but aside from the computer, at that age ... how about Vtech games like the old Vtech V.smile sytem or if you can find somewhere Leapfrog Clickstart? ... the games for those two systems are great for math, logic, shapes, alphabet ... I had no idea my then freshly 3-year old could do basic addition until I once secretly watching him playing on the Vsmile.

Or another favorite for both my boys is Leappad (the touch pad gaming system from Leapfrog) ... we have the previous version from last year. They now have a new one out. ... DS4 started playing with it when he got it at 3.5 ... but DS2.5 started playing with it about a month ago and won't let it out of his hands! I had no idea a 2-year old could be smart enough to use it and actually understand the games (they are for 4-7 year olds) ... but he clearly does.

Or you could get a cheap Android based tablet and get her android apps. That's another favorite of my 2.5 year old. His fine motor skills are really lacking (he still won't even attempt to use utensils) ... but he does great with the touchpads and I've seen a lot of improvement in fine motor area thanks to all the "touch toys"

And any Leapfrog DVDs you can get your hands on .... We had them going night after night after night for a while (no wonder DS2.5 could do phonic sounds and recognized upper and lower case alphabet and numbers to 20 before he turned 2 when he was a Leapfrog addict! lol)

I was just checking out those LeapPad things and they are so tempting. But my husband started talking about these kids at a restaurant we were at where the whole family was on their devices. So he's reluctant to get her her own handheld device this early.

I was too ... until I realized how much my older one has learned from these things. We do a lot where I need one or the other or both boys to be quiet and still for couple minutes or even hours so these can be a real life saver for us. Plus I find it hard to keep challenging my kids all day long and these toys do a great job! I don't really see them as toys ... I see them as learning devices ... but of course you have to find the time limit that works for you so the kids aren't playing with them all the time. My 4-year old is pretty good at putting it away when he's had enough. He goes for days without them and then he has days when he's really into them. When he went through months of running on 2-3 hours of sleep a day, the vsmile system in his room got ME through the days / nights and let me get some sleep while he was quietly playing. Fortunately we're past that time of our lives! lol ... but he still loves all of these!

Also ... my boys don't let ME teach them anything ... they just absorb from their surroundings, from tv, from what they hear, see ... and from what the games teach them. As much as it makes me sad they never had any interest in me reading to them or explaining to them, whatever learning style works for them is fine with me. Honestly ... I was the same way, still am. People trying to explain stuff to me bore me out of my mind. I'd rather figure it all out myself than have someone show me! lol ... can't blame the two munchkins for mommy's genetic material!

I apologize but I believe that at this age, children should learn by doing things with their hands. And by that I mean, the old fashioned way before computers. I know your question is specifically about electronic games and devices, but here are the tools that have worked for my 3 yr old dd:
Abacus-initially you are just playing with the beads, then counting, then learning place value as you start to count above single digit numbers. You can add, subtract. And a child can see touch and feel what the abstract numbers actually represent. That said I don't take out the abacus and sit her down to teach all this. But when she wondering what 2 apples plus 5 apples would be, I suggest if she could use the abacus to figure it out. So it is mostly self discovery.
Measuring cups and water buckets: good for understanding fractions without learning them
Magnets, compass, magnifying glasses
For language, we just make up silly willy songs that rhyme, read, drag the sounds of a word out so she can spell them if she wants to. I do use computer for language as she loves to type letters or make notes or grocery lists but does not want to write. We sometimes use the voice recorder function on iPad to say a word and see if the computer types it correctly or "goofs up".
I could go on and on but as I said initially at this age, IMHO, hands on play works wonders.

I would imagine the question about software and electronic toys was meant to be an idea for "enrichment" on top of the traditional hands on activities. Of course electronics should not be a substitute for the everyday child's activities. But our kids are growing up in different atmosphere than we were or than our parents were so why not allow them to enjoy it?

I'm going to start a new thread about handling toddlerhood. Ha. Cuz that's my real issue.

there is NO handling toddlerhood. There's just pure survival! lol