I just wanted to say that this is the greatest thing ever. 
My oldest two are less than a year a part and are totally different learners, so they are actually more like 3 years apart knowledge-wise. My 6 year old can read and had picked up letter sounds all on his own (which we built on with books and starfall and is how he learned to read...not much actual "instruction") but my 5 year old gets angry and frustrated when he sees us doing something like reading words and can't.
I told him that I would help him with his letter sounds if he really wants to learn, but his memory seemed sooooooooo bad. He could do the same letter on Starfall over and over and still not recognise it. We did the "letter a day approach" and just tried playing fun games and using the letter as much as we could, but he still wouldn't even recognise it by the end of the day (and we didn't even TRY learning the sounds since we never even learned what one letter looked like). I know kids learn at different ages, but when we'd try backing off he'd get upset and want to "read" like his brother, so it was a lose-lose situation.
Well, I bought Letter Factory and the first day he seemed to love it. On day 2 he saw it starting up and yelled "Oh no! I need to go get my homework!" and ran to get a pencil and paper, which he sat with in front of the TV and copied EVERY SINGLE LETTER as they did it on screen (mind you, we had never really attempted writing because I wanted him to be able to identify the letters before he stresses over writing them). A couple of the days he just watched, but most days he ran and got paper to write as he watched.
It's now been a week since we first watched and he's asked for it every day. After the video today, he brought me his brother's capital letter flashcard set and asked to play. I was kind of dreading it because just trying to recognise the "A" card a week before had reduced him to tears. I told him that there were a LOT of letter cards, and we were just going to count how many he knew so we could try to beat that number NEXT week. He told me OK and said he was ready.
He not only knew EVERY SINGLE LETTER, but he knew EVERY SINGLE LETTER SOUND. And this isn't even the type of set that has picture clues...it's just black letters on white cards. He even asked to mix them up and go through a second time! And this is the kid who didn't know ANY letters or sounds just 8 days ago!
Then, he wanted to get paper so he could write his letters. I told him to pick 5 and write those ones, and he did, but then handed me the cards and said "you hold these or it's cheating". He then wrote the letters...well...he wrote 5 letters, 2 of which were not from the cards he handed me, but when I asked him what they were he told me the correct letters and sound for what he wrote
Anyway, I almost feel like it's magic. And he's so happy about it that he's not getting as angry at his brother for knowing how to read
I love letter factory!
My oldest two are less than a year a part and are totally different learners, so they are actually more like 3 years apart knowledge-wise. My 6 year old can read and had picked up letter sounds all on his own (which we built on with books and starfall and is how he learned to read...not much actual "instruction") but my 5 year old gets angry and frustrated when he sees us doing something like reading words and can't.I told him that I would help him with his letter sounds if he really wants to learn, but his memory seemed sooooooooo bad. He could do the same letter on Starfall over and over and still not recognise it. We did the "letter a day approach" and just tried playing fun games and using the letter as much as we could, but he still wouldn't even recognise it by the end of the day (and we didn't even TRY learning the sounds since we never even learned what one letter looked like). I know kids learn at different ages, but when we'd try backing off he'd get upset and want to "read" like his brother, so it was a lose-lose situation.
Well, I bought Letter Factory and the first day he seemed to love it. On day 2 he saw it starting up and yelled "Oh no! I need to go get my homework!" and ran to get a pencil and paper, which he sat with in front of the TV and copied EVERY SINGLE LETTER as they did it on screen (mind you, we had never really attempted writing because I wanted him to be able to identify the letters before he stresses over writing them). A couple of the days he just watched, but most days he ran and got paper to write as he watched.
It's now been a week since we first watched and he's asked for it every day. After the video today, he brought me his brother's capital letter flashcard set and asked to play. I was kind of dreading it because just trying to recognise the "A" card a week before had reduced him to tears. I told him that there were a LOT of letter cards, and we were just going to count how many he knew so we could try to beat that number NEXT week. He told me OK and said he was ready.
He not only knew EVERY SINGLE LETTER, but he knew EVERY SINGLE LETTER SOUND. And this isn't even the type of set that has picture clues...it's just black letters on white cards. He even asked to mix them up and go through a second time! And this is the kid who didn't know ANY letters or sounds just 8 days ago!
Then, he wanted to get paper so he could write his letters. I told him to pick 5 and write those ones, and he did, but then handed me the cards and said "you hold these or it's cheating". He then wrote the letters...well...he wrote 5 letters, 2 of which were not from the cards he handed me, but when I asked him what they were he told me the correct letters and sound for what he wrote
Anyway, I almost feel like it's magic. And he's so happy about it that he's not getting as angry at his brother for knowing how to read
I love letter factory! 
. I also purchased Talking Words Factory but haven't watched it yet. I wonder if that will help her learn that reading is just putting the sounds together.
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