Friday 9 September 2016

Peppa's Alphaphonics Campervan - Review

I have introduced phonics to C in the past by flash cards and paper but with him starting preschool at the beginning of September, I was eager to get him back into learning again. We were given the opportunity to review the Peppa's Alphaphonics Campervan and it was perfect timing. C has loved Peppa Pig since he was little so I knew it would be an instant hit as he'd recognise the characters that he loves.


The Campervan has a slider at the top where you can choose to play one of 8 games such as Try & Spell, What's the Letter?, Find the Letter and Copy Me.

When you have the pointer on the first picture on the slider, you can press any button on the keyboard which has a letter and picture of an item beginning with that letter. When pressed, you will hear, for example, "D is for Dinosaur, rarrr!" and similar sounds for the rest of the letters. We started off with pressing all of these as it got C used to what was on the campervan in full. It was also great for encouraging him to remember the sounds and focus on his concentration.

The second task gives you the phonetic sound of the letters and a word that begins with the letter - "kuh as in kiss". I found that having C press these and copy the sounds for himself helped him recognise letters and words and he was able to remember these himself the next time he played.

 
The next few games are a little bit more difficult
. Peppa asks you to find a word in one of them so C really had think and pay attention to what we'd learned before. If Peppa asked him to find the van, he had to remember the sound that the word started with then the letter. Finding the first letter of words was probably the hardest for C. I had him repeat what the game asked, specifically sounding the first letter then trying to have him work it out on his own.

    I won't lie, C found some of these a little tough to begin with as generally, he expects these types of button-pressing toys to just play music or say phrases. It took me to sit with him and explain what to do but once I'd told him once, he took to it like a duck to water. Some of them he still does struggle with, especially spelling the full words, and needs help with but I think it's a great introduction to phonics. 

     
    I love that the campervan has a music button to play the familiar Peppa Pig theme song as it makes it a bit more "fun" rather than just all about learning. There is a repeat button too which C uses quite a lot but it's a great way for me to see that he is really concentrating. The only downsides that I feel the campervan has are, although there is a volume button it is still quite loud on the lowest setting. There also isn't an off switch so if another toy falls on top of it in the toy box, it can be set off then Peppa will repeatedly ask you to pick a button until she realises that it isn't happening and then it goes off on it's own.

    All in all, I think that the Peppa's Alphaphonics Campervan is a great toy especially for getting children ready for school. It's recommended for children aged 3 years+ and it retails at £19.99  

    (We received this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.) 
     
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