Reviewed by Jami Ferguson
Romp with everybody's favorite Leap Frog character, Scout,
as Lionsgate Home Entertainment and top educational entertainment company Leap
Frog Enterprises, Inc. join together once again to release the new LeapFrog:
Phonics Farm to DVD, Digital Download and On Demand this November!
Featuring everyone's favorite puppy pal Scout in his very first starring role,
the all-new LeapFrog release makes learning phonics even more fun as Scout
ventures through a farm filled with extraordinary animals, along with his
friends Violet, Eli and Penny. LeapFrog: Phonics Farm introduces the 26
letters of the alphabet along with the most common sounds those letters make
enabling kids to link letters with their respective sounds - a very important
learning milestone.
Film (4 out of 5 stars)
My
son has some Leap Frog toys but I wasn't sure what he was going to think about
a movie. He had a Phonics Farm for our refrigerator
that he hasn't played with recently so I wasn't sure what his interest level would be. One thing about my son, he will always let
you know quickly whether or not he likes something. He won't ever just sit and watch it; he will say
"take it out please," if it doesn't catch his fancy. Fortunately this time, he was interested in watching it.
Lionsgate
and Leap Frog bring you Phonic Farm on DVD.
Scout and his friends learn their letter sounds in this single disc DVD.
Scout, Violet, Eli and Penny want to
learn about new animals. Their magical
toy car, Axle, whisks them away to a farm and they discover all kinds of new
animals. Your child is asked to guess
what the letter is and then which animal will come out of the crate with that
letter sound.
As they make their way
through the alphabet there are both lower case and upper case letters as well
as adjectives to learn. There
are athletic alligators, jumping jaguars and kissing kangaroos designed to
enhance the early reading skills of your 2-5 year old. The Phonics Farm DVD focuses on the alphabet,
phonics skills, and animals with a running time of 38 minutes.
In
one sitting, my three year old watched the main feature, all the special
features, and then he asked to watch the main feature one more time. At three years old the questions they asked
were perfectly matched for his skill level.
When they asked what starts with the letter I, for example he enjoyed
giving an entire list including the one animal they were looking for,
Iguana. A younger child may only be able
to come up with the one animal. Older
children may be more able to answer the questions about the sounds the letters
make. I think this DVD is a great tool for both parents and their toddlers and my son really enjoyed playing and learning with it.
Video (3 out of 5 stars)
Phonics
Farm is presented in 16x9 widescreen 1.78:1 ratio. It is an animated educational show on DVD
with fun, vibrant colors. It is
certainly nothing visually spectacular, as it is only on DVD, not on Blu ray.
Audio (3 out of 5 stars)
Phonics
Farm is presented in Dolby Digital Sound and has English Closed Captions and
subtitles available. Sound quality is
adequate and dialogue is intelligible although rather high pitched
(intentionally) for some of the animals.
I did not have to adjust volume for the video special features or the
reading of the book as you sometimes do with the children's DVDs.
Special
Features (3 out of 5 stars)
This is the first kids DVD I've seen with instructional
information for parents, as well as fun and informative features for
children.
The DVD includes the following
special features:
Sing-alongs
- Karaoke style video sing-alongs for the following songs: I’m With You Scout,
The Vowel Sound, and Letter Sound Hoedown.
Sing
with Us! The Band - Sing along videos for "In the Bag" and
"Meg's Pet".
Curriculum
Commentary for Parents - Information and instruction for parents including the
following segments: Meet Dr. Carolyn Jaynes, Upper/Lower Case letters, Letter
& Beginning Word Sounds, Vowel Sounds, Active Viewing, and Alphabetical
Order,
Being
a Puppy (The Scout Song) Music Video
A
Surprise for Scout storybook - A storybook read to your child, pages turned,
just as if you were doing it.
Final
Thoughts (3 out of 5 stars)
From
the perspective of a three year old, Phonics Farm is a big hit. From a parent's perspective I was glad to see
that my son was interested in watching the feature more than once and it got
him thinking about letters because when it was over he ran to an electronic
alphabet toy and began to play with it. My
son's one and only complaints was the previews before the feature. He kept asking "is this the thing we're
watching" and I would say no, this is a commercial. After three or four of those he got really
annoyed and I finally gave in and hit the menu button to skip right to the
feature. The
curriculum for parents is a great special feature and I learned a lot about the
importance of upper and lower case letter and how to give my son more of a
chance at becoming a successful reader.
I have a lot of friends with kids between the ages of two and five and I will
definitely recommend Phonics Farm as a stocking stuffer this Christmas.
Order your copy today!
What animal is penny!!!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing. She is obviously a rodent. Judging by the tail I'd say she's a hamster
DeleteI was wondering the same thing. She is obviously a rodent. Judging by the tail I'd say she's a hamster
DeleteYou may be right about that but I'm not sure one way or another. Thanks for reading the review though!
ReplyDelete