Lionsgate puts out some really cute educational children’s programs. Two of them are Clifford the Big Red Dog and LeapFrog, a family favorite. My kids love watching LeapFrog and I love watching them learn from watching it. Miles learned to recognize most of his letters that way. This July, Lionsgate released two new titles under these family friendly programs.

Clifford the Big Red Dog: Dog Days of Summer

LeapFrog: Sing and Learn With Us!

Enjoy the summer breeze and warm sunshine with beloved Scholastic character, Clifford the Big Red Dog™, as Lionsgate Home Entertainment releases Clifford the Big Red Dog: Dog Days of Summer this July 19th 2011. Arriving just in time for summer, this all-new Clifford adventure includes five fun-filled episodes that have never been released to DVD, but are sure to become another classic collection. The title supports a larger effort to reach kids and families across the country with the Clifford BE BIG Campaign for civic engagement.  Inspired by Clifford’s 10 Big Ideas (Share, Help Others, Be Kind, Be Responsible, Play Fair, Be a Good Friend, Believe in Yourself, Have Respect, Work Together and Be Truthful), the BE BIG campaign invites people of all ages to take positive action and make the world a better place. This DVD will focus on the Be Truthful theme of the campaign. In addition, the DVD contains the kid-friendly direct-play feature, allowing children to insert the DVD and watch without help from an adult.  Clifford the Big Red Dog: Dog Days of Summer, which also includes six bonus Speckle Stories, will be available July 19, 2011, for the suggested retail price of $14.98. 

SYNOPSIS

Every summer day, Clifford™ sets out on fun-filled adventures with his friends and learns big lessons about friendship, loyalty, and other ways to BE BIG! In these five playful stories, Clifford discovers that one of the best ways to BE BIG is to always be truthful. From Emily Elizabeth teaching Clifford that it doesn’t help to hide things, to T-Bone learning to do the right thing, to Cleo learning a lesson when she plays tricks on her friends, cuddly Clifford leads neighbors and friends around Birdwell Island to learn how to BE BIG by always being kind to each other and being truthful!

“Leap” into the “Back-to-School” season as Lionsgate Home Entertainment and top educational toy maker LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., team up again to release LeapFrog: Sing and Learn With Us! this July 19th 2011. Originally available in the toy aisle as the “Sing-along Read-along” Early Reading Set, the title makes its DVD debut with an all-new cast of characters performing 12 animated sing-along shorts focusing on developmental reading skills, short vowels, phonics skills and comprehension. In addition, the release allows viewers to download 12 Sing-Along Storybooks so that children can bring these lessons wherever they go! Featuring brand new artwork designed to increase its profile on store shelves, LeapFrog: Sing and Learn With Us! will be available on July 19, 2011, for the suggested retail price of $14.98.
LeapFrog, an education innovator and a leading developer of fun learning solutions for children, remains a favorite year after year and the brand continues to grow.  LeapFrog’s award-winning product portfolio is designed to help every child achieve their full potential by delivering best-in-class educational curricula through age-appropriate technology-based platforms, fun toys and engaging content.

SYNOPSIS
Set the stage for independent reading with rocking songs, the fun, loveable characters of the Us band–Og, Al, Gus, Izzy and Meg–and easy-to-read-along stories! Children are introduced to short vowel sounds as words appear on screen with each playful song, allowing them to build reading skills and confidence as they sing, laugh and read-along with 12 animated, musical stories. Twelve matching storybooks are also available on DVD for download to reinforce the learning and inspire kids to read at home or on the go.

I probably let my kids watch way too much TV. I grew up watching TV and so do they. But, we only watch DVD’s which allows me to have a huge amount of control over what they watch. One of my favorites out of all the DVD’s we have are from LeapFrog, so I get quite excited when they launch new DVD’s, games or video games. Earlier last week, two new DVD’s arrived on my doorstep courtesy of Lionsgate: LeapFrog: The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park and LeapFrog: Numbers Ahoy. LeapFrog: The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park and LeapFrog: Numbers Ahoy were released on January 18, 2011, for the suggested retail price of $14.98 each.  Both titles are also be available on Digital Download.

My kids really do learn from these DVD’s that LeapFrog puts out.

In The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park the kids were singing little a, big a, little b big b. The other day, I put this on for Miles while Zoe was in preschool and he started singing and he looked at me and said, “Come on, sing with me”.

“Mom, sing!”

So, of course I had to sing with him!

The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park (Ages 3-6): When their firefly friend, Edison, takes Tad, Lily and Scout to the place of his childhood dreams, the gang is shocked to discover that Alistair Alphabelly’s Amazing Amusement Park is… closed! To make matters worse, Edison has gotten himself stuck atop the Fantastical Ferris Wheel. The only way to save him is to turn on the rides in the park with the magic of the alphabet. Now the children must learn all of the letters, big and small, to save their friend, save the day and perhaps even meet the rhyme master himself, Alistair Alphabelly!

I actually didn’t watch this one, and Zoe kept saying: there is a bad guy on this one, but he’s not too scary, and I kept telling her she was wrong, then finally I realized he was a bad guy because he captured Scout, but he wasn’t too scary, just like Zoe said!

LeapFrog: Numbers Ahoy SYNOPSIS
Numbers Ahoy (Ages 3-6): Tad and Lily need a little number sense to help them get through a complicated game. So their magical firefly friend, Edison, takes them on a fantastical journey under the sea! When a pirate mistakenly captures their cute puppy pal Scout, they must use their new understanding of counting, grouping and estimating to rescue him. Join them as they navigate the deep and face foes such as sharks, crab henchmen—even Pirate Pythagoras himself—and begin to see numbers in a whole new way!

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LeapFrog: The Amazing Alphabet Amusement Park and LeapFrog: Numbers Ahoy

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This giveaway ends February 7th. I received the above DVD’s on behalf of Lionsgate to review for this post.  All rules can be found under giveaway rules.

Teaching kids math is pretty easy once they learn to count. So first you need to teach them number recognition and sequences. Leap Frog has an entire system to get kids ready for learning math. The first is with Leap Frog’s new movie Math Adventure to the Moon. Lionsgate sent me a copy of the DVD to review in honor of Math Day, March 14th, and I like watching it with my kids.

Tad and Lilly are trying to count in the beginning and Tad can’t get past the number four. So their friend Edison transports them to a Spaceship where they can fly to the moon.  This space ship helps them with their counting when it only allows them to take 10 items on the ship with them. Ha Ha, ten items, thanks Leap Frog for the adult humor. Part of math includes counting in different intervals and learning sequences and I was glad that Leap Frog included both of these in their math adventure. Tad and Lilly never made it to the moon. On the way they ran into a space storm and crashed onto a cute cube planet; where they had to do even more counting before they could return home.

LeapFrog: Math Adventure to the Moon is great for kids and parents alike as it encourages a shared and interactive educational experience that allows parents to watch their kids learn! You can purchase the DVD and see clips from the new film at http://www.leapfrogdvds.com

Also included in Leap Frog’s arsenal for preschool kids and toddlers are math toys that only re-enforce all of their other teachings. Remember it’s through repetition and interaction that your children are going to learn.

Learn & Groove® Counting Maracas – Get in the learning groove with the Learn & Groove® Counting Maracas. Music Play mode encourages baby to explore and create music—inspires creative interaction and open-ended play. In Counting mode, each shake encourages your child to count to 10 in both English and Spanish. $16.49; 3-36 months

Chat & Count Cell Phone – Fun learning in a smart little phone! Sing along to songs about counting and phone routines, explore more than 15 phone activities and call on Scout for learning fun as you trade calls and voicemails with your puppy pal. Parents can connect to the online LeapFrog® Learning Path for customized learning insights and ideas to expand the learning. $14.99; 18 months – 3 years

They also shared math tips with me to share with you.

TIP #1:  Math is everywhere! 

Next time you’re in a waiting room with your child, scan the room (or the magazines on the tables) for evidence of "math."  Advise your child to find as much math as possible, and you can give clues if you need to.  Numbers, patterns, shapes, categories, and measuring devices (e.g., ruler, scales), are just a few examples of some of the math you might see all around you! 

TIP #2:  Patterns and Codes are All Around Us!  

Make patterns using standard household objects.  For example line up repeated objects–sock, stuffed animal, sock, stuffed animal, and so on. Next, ask your child to continue the pattern to figure out the "secret code."  You can vary the difficulty of the pattern to suit your child’s ability–banana, banana, pear, banana, banana, pear.  You can also make deliberate errors that your child needs to find–pear, apple, bananna, pear, apple, banana, pear, pear, banana.

TIP #3:  Play the Sorting Game!  
Take a deck of cards, and discuss with your child all the ways you can sort the cards.  They can be sorted by color (red versus black), suit (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs), numbers (2′s, 3′s, etc.), royalty versus numbers (jacks, queens, and kings versus the numbers), odd versus even numbers, etc.  Sky is the limit!  You can play the sorting game with many collections of things around the house, such as socks and building  blocks. 

TIP #4:  Since It’s the Weekend — Make it a game night!  

Playing number-related, age-appropriate board games, such as Chutes and Ladders, can help support many math-related skills.  For an important twist, help your child practice saying each number he or she lands on and passes by with each roll of the dice. For example, if your child is on 23 and rolls a four, help him or her say "24, 25, 26, 27" instead of "1, 2, 3, 4."  This way, your child can learn about order and magnitude (i.e., how large or small a number is in relation to other numbers).

TIP #5:  Count-down for Launch!  

You and Your Kids can pretend to be rocket ships set for launch.  Practice counting down to blast-off!  You can make the challenge as easy or difficult as you want remembering that you don’t have to start counting down from 10.  You and your kids can count down by ones (e.g., 17, 16, 15, 14…) or  Practice counting by 2′s (e.g., 25, 23, 21, 19…)!    For advanced math students, try multiples (e.g., 21, 18, 15, 12…)!   

Leap Frog is just like everyone else and offering some great Black Friday Deals. Check them out.

· 25% to 75% off sitewide

· Select Leapster games as low as $5

· Select Tag Books as low as $5

· Up to 75% off on our gift packs

· Spend $50, get free shipping

· Black Friday Bonus, Spend $100, get $10 off

I am a bit irritated at myself because I wrote this post once already and instead of hitting publish I hit delete. Do you know how long it takes to write a good post/review with links and information about my family. I’m so angry at myself, esp since I didn’t even notice until last night that it wasn’t published. I was looking for the link to send to the rep who was kind enough to send us this from Lionsgate. MMMM.

So, Leap Frog Learning DVD set take two….

We were sent a copy of LeapFrog: Learning DVD Set to review, but what’s to review. We already reviewed two of the three DVD’s and then there are 26 alphabet Flash Cards that come along with the set. I know that we would get a lot of use out of them but at the same time I can see how this makes such a great addition to the Toy Drive. It is a great learning tool and well disguised as something for for kids to do.

Included are:

Leap Frog: Let’s Go To School my Let’s Go To School Review

Letter Factory (we have not viewed this one)

Leap Frog  Talking Word Factory my Talking Word Factory review

26 Flash Cards

We love Leap Frog and Lionsgate. They are both excellent at making learning tools for children. Leap Frog products aid children in learning the alphabet, numbers, math, reading, and problem solving skills. I have been very impressed with all of the products we have purchased from them so far. Of course, they do have a hard time standing up to the toddler year, but we don’t pay any attention to “recommended age”.

YoBaby has just teamed up with LeapFrog.  They have come up with a promotion called Stony Rewards. Just like most rewards programs you have to find the code on specially marked packages and enter them on-line. WHY couldn’t they have done this sooner when I was spending a fortune on their yogurt. Or, perhaps it’s because I wasn’t in the “know” then like I am now. So help a mom out by spreading the word about what she can get for her kids by buying healthy yogurt.

Stony Rewards

Stonyfield  is now offering consumers the chance to earn special freebies as part of a unique loyalty program. From free yogurt to carbon offsets, the rewards possible through the myStonyfield Rewards Program “show this isn’t your typical loyalty program,” says Stonyfield President and CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg. The process begins by consumers looking for reward codes on Stonyfield yogurt products, and then signing up on-line for a myStonyfield Rewards account at www.mystonyfieldrewards.com. Once registered, consumers enter the lid codes in an online account, save up points, and redeem them for rewards that will be shipped free.

The promotion begins in October and the Leap Frog item should be added before the end of the month. Consumers can buy any four YoBaby Yogurt products, Multipacks, YoBaby Drinkable Yogurts, or the new 3-in-1 YoBaby Meals and enter product codes online to receive a FREE Tag Junior ABC Animal Orchestra book.

The promotion continues through December, and you can find all the details on specially-marked packages or at YoBabyYogurt.com/Leapfrog.  Like the Tag Reading System for older kids, Tag Junior uses a Pal – a handheld pen with a small, sophisticated infrared camera that recognizes or “reads” letters, words and symbols printed on the page.

The Pal allows children to hear each page read aloud, hear fun sound effects embedded in the pictures, and listen to music

Leapfrog sent me two DVD’s out, just in time for back to school. We reviewed one of them but now that I’m back in my new house I want to give the extra copy away.  In this new DVD, Tad and Lilly are back and getting ready to go to school. Leap gets them everything they need and then they realize, we’re going to school and they are afraid they aren’t ready.

The DVD titled Leap Frog: Let’s Go To School hit stores on August 18th, and even if your kids have already started school or are going to next year it would make a great stocking stuffer. I know that I’m going to start my Christmas Shopping soon. I’m still working on cleaning out all the moving boxes. I need to get busy so we can start thinking about Christmas decorations too.

Leapfrog has a new DVD out, just in time for back to school. This DVD will get your little ones ready to go back to school or just to go to school for the first time. In this new DVD, Tad and Lilly are back and getting ready to go to school. Leap gets them everything they need and then they realize, we’re going to school and they are afraid they aren’t ready.

The DVD titled Leap Frog: Let’s Go To School hit stores on August 18th, just in time for Lilly and Tad to help your preschoolers get over their nervousness of heading off to school themselves.

SYNOPSIS

School starts tomorrow, and Tad and Lily are nervous! Join Tad, Lily and their magical firefly Edison as he gives them a tour of the classroom and shows them that the classroom is more nervous than they are! As the twins reassure the blocks, globe, clock and more talking ³teachers,² they learn key lessons about phonics, counting, days of the week and animals.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES *

· 5 Sing-along songs

· Interactive alphabet book

· A sneak peek at Math Adventure to the Moon *Subject to change

My daughter loves Leap Frog. She tells us all the time she wants to watch Leap Frog. I love it to because it has songs and everything in it is decent. She can learn how to count and how to read and her alphabet by watching Leap Frog. It’s not common anymore for children’s entertainment to be educational or completely appropriate. As my father would put it:

“Cartoons these days have scary looking characters and are just weird”

But he still loves to sit down with his grandchildren and watch whatever makes them smile.

Leap Frog is so wonderful. My kids are learning their abc’s with our Leap Frog Fridge Magnet. We also have the Fridge Words Magnetic Word builder.

Miles loves to push the ABC button over and over again. He’s trying to say them too. Zoe can say every letter, not necessarily as the alphabet or in order but she knows her letter fairly well. Esp, for a two year old.

And we have this DVD to look forward to..

This new trailer is from Lionsgate’s Fall DVD release LeapFrog Let’s Go To School. It’s really cute and the best, most exciting part is that it’s NEW and not a re-release! It has been FOUR Years since they made a new one.

 Leap Frog  Talking Word Factory is a Family DVD. I enjoyed previewing it with my children. They were both glued to the TV while it was on and they were sounding out letter sounds. I just love watching my children learn. Leap Frog is full of educational toys, books and software to encourage children to learn.

This DVD runs for 35 minutes telling you the story of Leap working with his older sister Lilly and his older brother Tad to enter their dad in the best dad contest. Leap doesn’t know how to read and write so he asks his brother and sister for help. They take him to the Talking Words factory where he learns how to read and create words that describe his dad.

There are a ton of cute songs that help children sound out words. It’s a great way to introduce phonics to children. Even my one year old started sounding out words. It’s amazing. “Every letter makes a sound”….

I noticed on an Amazon.com review that they wished it had play over and over again option. I also think that would be nice but I also hate letting them sit and watch things over and over again. Even though today that is exactly what we are doing. Visit Leap Frog to learn more about the entire Leap Frog collection.