Learning Path Stones

Phonics Skills

Phonics Skills
Before they can read independently, children must learn the relationship of letters to their sounds and be able to distinguish individual sounds, or phonemes, within words. Phonics skills help children sounds out new words (If I can read "pot", then I can read "hot" and "spot").

Word Building

Word Building
To read and write, children must understand how individual letter sounds blend together to make words. Experimenting with building words, such as changing mat to cat to rat, helps with reading and spelling.

Word Recognition

Word Recognition
As children learn to read, they must be able to "decode" the words they don't know- to translate strings of letters into words. Eventually they can recognize common words that can't be sounded out (the, said, she).

Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness
Along with learning language and letters, phonological awareness - the ability to pick out and play with sounds in words (such as syllables and rhymes)- is essential for learning to read.

Rhyming

Rhyming
Rhyming songs and stories help children recognize the different sounds in words. Rhymes direct a child's attention to the similarities in words (hat sounds like cat), which helps them learn to read.

The Alphabet

The Alphabet
Knowing the letters of the alphabet is one of the first steps toward learning to read and write. Introducing letters to young children helps them learn to recognize the different shapes and names - an early indicator for reading achievement.

Consonants

Consonants
There are more consonants sounds than there are consonants in the alphabet. A consonant digraph is a pair of consonants that stand for a single sound (ch, sh, th, wh).

Vowels

Vowels
Spelling begins with regular short vowel sounds (cap) and long vowel sounds (with silent e, cap becomes cape). Finally, children learn the rules and patterns of vowel pairs (ee), digraphs (ai in train), dipthongs (oi in boil) and r-controlled vowels (farm, bird).

First Words in World Languages

First Words in World Languages
Children are born ready to learn any language. Early and continued exposure to language sounds from a variety of cultures may enhance a child's ability to speak more than one language.

Matching

Matching
Matching develops early logic and reasoning skills and is a component of early math and literacy.Children match like objects, shapes, patterns, pictures and stories, letters to sounds and pictures to words.

Memory Skills

Memory Skills
Memory skills are essential for learning. It is fairly easy to help your child train their memory using memory games, poems and particular memory strategies.

Sorting and Classifying

Sorting and Classifying
Children actively arrange their blocks, cars and dolls, using visual discrimination to sort objects around them. Essential for math and science, classification is the logical reasoning ability to identify and group objects by attributes such as color, size, number, function, length, volume, weight, area, time and other familiar characteristics.

Sorting and Classifying

Sorting and Classifying
Children actively arrange their blocks, cars and dolls, using visual discrimination to sort objects around them. Essential for math and science, classification is the logical reasoning ability to identify and group objects by attributes such as color, size, number, function, length, volume, weight, area, time and other familiar characteristics.

Music

Music
From birth, children love music and even prefer it to speech. Apart from the obvious joy of music there are a number of surprising benefits to listening to music: it helps develop language, problem solving skills, memory, and physical coordination.

Shapes

Shapes
Identifying and manipulating shapes lays the groundwork for geometry by giving children concrete experience with angles, symmetry and relative sizes.

Early Number Sense

Early Number Sense
As early as 6 months, babies begin to understand the concept of numbers, noticing small groups of one, two or three things. As children develop number sense they learn to count by ones, skip count and count backwards, gaining the foundation for operations. Children who have good number sense find learning operations like addition and subtraction much easier.

Nutrition

Nutrition
Understanding of food groups helps children make smart choices concerning their health and nutrition. Cooking and experimenting with food also helps children develop their palate and appreciate where food comes from.

Awards

• 2007 Outstanding Product, iParenting Media Awards
• 2007 Small Screen Award, Parents' Choice Foundation