Tech Savvy Mama

Parenting in the Digital Age

Website of the Week- Clifford Interactive Stories and Games

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Little Miss Techie loves the fact that she has her own folder of bookmarked links. She bounces around between a bunch of different websites which of course have been pre-screened by her Tech Savvy Mama. (Pre-screened? Yes, I’m that kind of mom. Not the overbearing type, just the kind that doesn’t want her child exposed to the nastiness of the internet. Don’t worry, I’ll be posting more on internet safety soon.)

Anyways, Little Miss Techie is in love with the Clifford The Big Red Dog interactive stories and games on the Scholastic website. The stories and games are perfect for preschool beginning and early readers since they teach letter recognition, letter sounds (phonics), and rhyming.

Stories are interactive because Little Miss Techie chooses the ending herself and the page updates based on her word selection. You may be asking how a 4 year old completes such a task. Each line of text has a speaker icon next to it. Little Miss Techie clicks on the speaker to hear the text read to her. When she gets to the bottom line of text, the speaker leaves out the missing word. Little Miss Techie can choose from three different word choices. I’d love to say that she can read all the word choices herself but she can’t. Click on the word enables her to hear the word read by the computer. Genius, don’t you think? And there are Spanish and English versions for each story.

There are also an assortment of phonics games that assist with early reading skills. Letter Match helps Little Miss Techie distinguish the beginning letters of words by having her sort words into two different groups. In Make a Word, vowels are dropped in the middle of 3 letter words to make as many words possible. Little Miss Techie likes this game because she can create as many real words as she wants. When she’s done she can choose to print out a word list of all the words that have been made. I like this game because it is open ended. Sound Match is fun because Little Miss Techie gets to practice beginning word sounds. A picture appears in a box and she finds words that start with the same sound as the picture name. Concentration is just like the game Memory but instead, players have to match objects with the same middle sound. This is a great game for early readers.

As an educator, I love the Clifford stories and games because the games are open ended, reinforce beginning reading skills, and aren’t difficult for beginning computer users to navigate. Little Miss Techie loves them because they are engaging and just right for her.

I just know my next blog post will be about setting limits on the amount of time Little Miss Techie spends on the computer!

 

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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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Comments

  1. Elizabeth says

    Thanks for sharing this info about the Scholastic site. We will definitely check it out. I love http://www.starfall.com for my 4 y.o. daughter. I think it’s a great tool for teaching her to read. We have to set the timer when she’s on the computer though or else she would want to be on it all day.

  3. Annie says

    Wow, you can imagine my joy when I came across your blog. What luck to find a consumer report mommy for my very own community of Silver Spring. Thank you oodles for doing the leg work for us busy mommies out here. I will check back regularly.

  5. Anonymous says

    Everyone I know who really knows something about computers (ie, people with PhDs in the sciences) wants to keep kids this young away from them and encourage reading instead.

  6. Jessica says

    Thanks for turning us on to this great site, I love that it is much less commercial than the preschool games sites associated with the 24 hour kids cable channels (that I can’t dog too much, as they are my electronic nanny at times.) Little Miss Techie’s old pal will be loving his online time with Clifford.

  7. Tech Savvy Mama says

    Anonymous-

    You make a good point about encouraging reading. By no means are the Clifford interactive games and stories meant to teach reading or be a substitute for adults reading to children.

    Your comment has sparked a whole new idea for a post. Look for it later this week.

    Thanks!

  8. Nicole says

    Thanks for the Clifford heads- up!
    My son loves the Noggin site right now and we’ll check out the Clifford site!

    Welcome to DC Metro Moms too! It’s a lot of fun 🙂