Alphablocks

When we were looking to buy this we noted the review that said it's one of the best things the person had ever bought and had a little laugh about it - but actually it's fair comment. The Dvds go through the whole of phonics from simple letters only upwards. I find some of the early ones a bit dull (but you try making the letter a exciting :) ) but from number 3 onwards our kids were hooked. This took our very reluctant 4yr old who knew the alphabet but had no interest in going further, and made him enthusiastic about learning to read. They begged to rewatch them over and over. This is ideal for initiating a love of learning and reading at the stage where it's really hard for them and the child can't yet see the benefit or fun.

Great series, my 22month old can talk a lot and she's now imitating some of the phonics that this teaches and she sometimes tries to write the letters on her various chalkboards. I can't be sure that this has developed her language skills per se, but we wouldn't perhaps have been so eager to teacher her letters that she has begun to learn without this series. The episodes are short and sweet and sometimes the puns are clever enough to elicit a wry smile from the adults, so the episodes are well written.

I consider buying an Alphablocks DVD set the single best purchase I have ever made. Within two weeks of first watching the DVDs my daughter (then aged 2 years and 10 months) had progressed from being a non-reader to being able to sight-read long words. She is now (at age 3 years and 6 months) sight-reading books aimed at 8 year olds. This rapid development is, I believe, largely down to the early boost provided by Alphablocks. If you have a toddler who is eager to learn and who enjoys music and cartoons, get these right now!

Wonderful value for money, I love this series and my daughter loves the opening song (I hope she'll like the whole thing, but she's a bit young to really get it yet at 22 months). Very educational. Bright colours and engaging characters with nicely individual voices. Each episode is nice and short (3-5 minutes) and has a nice simple story line that either introduces or reinforces phonics. A wonderful way to introduce reading and using phonics.

I read the positive reviews and decided to see if it really would be able to capture my 3 year old's interest (with a v short attention span). She had seen the odd episode on CBeebies but being able to watch a few back to back really helped her to gain familiarity with the letters. Within a few weeks she was able to recognise a few letters and their sounds and I think this is all to do with the DVDS rather than me trying to teach her using books. Has provided such a great start so far and she is now super keen to learn how to read. Only problem is that she doesn't like to watch the same thing again and again so keeps skipping to DVD no 5 which is far too complex for her little brain but I try to keep it fun for her and if that is what she wants to watch then so be it!

Bought this DVD for alarmingly precocious 17 month old who already recognises a few written words by shape, but hadn't picked up individual phonics yet. Child was entranced from the very start. She's watched DVD 1 twice over the last two days and is now pointing at 'S' letters and hissing.Far superior to the similarly marketed CBeeBees show 'Fun with phonics', which we both thought was incomprehensible.

Bought this to do with my four yr old, also bought alphablocks magazine for teaching reading online, and some books, my son has gone from a non reader to a confident level 1 reader in a week, and my toddler now knows all the letters! If you're going to buy a dvd for kids 0-6 this is an amazing choice, they're so much fun and are brilliant teaching tools, would recommend for home, schools, nurseries.

I really can't rate this highly enough. At a time when huge amounts of pressure is being put upon kids with tests, it's a joy to see a program so well made that helps them learn in a fun way. Not much more I can say about this, if you want your little one to learn about letters, buy this, it's puh, perfect.