Leapster

Julia and I have been working with the Leapster 2 every day since Christmas. The first two days, I had to do a lot of encouragement. The Kindergarten program that I bought really does take a kid through the basics in how to use the pen, the arrow pad, and the A button. Julia was frustrated at first, especially when she had to use both the A button to jump and the arrow to move in a direction as she jumped. I tagged the Leapster to the end of our reading work and we sat of the couch with a blanket over us, cuddling down together. We worked with the Leapster for about 20 minutes together. Today, Julia is sitting beside me and doing the Leapster by herself. She is getting better at the four games on this program and can "buy" the monster parts with the tickets that she earns. She is beginning to get it! She is stil working with level 1 for all of the games but I expect that she will move up as the games get easy.

I have read about Leapster and how kids learn and use it but did not expect Julia to catch on so fast. Oh, I am pleased. There is a educational component in each game -- sometimes not a big one but something. Any reinforcement of letters, numbers, words, math is time well spent for her. AND it seems to be based on following verbal directions, with a button to repeat questions. And she is paying attention and little by little is listening more, as in "pop the orange heart with the lower case p." This is complex listening that I didn't know she was able to do. Now, she is not perfect and needs to listen more carefully, but she is doing just that. And she is enjoying the rewards.

Cheshire and I are having a day out -- shopping, that is, returning her Christmas presents and getting what she wanted, then hair cuts, dinner and a movie. Julia is getting Daddy time before therapy today. Oh, this should be fun!