Learning Resources Skill Builders! Alphabet & Letter Sounds Activity Set, Learn the Alphabet, Upper & Lowercase Letters, Reading for 3 Year Olds, Fine Motor Skills, 91 Pieces

Overall this is a nice product and I think it would be really good to do with my 4 year old however I’m missing the lower case “r”.Appears I’ve received 2 “i” instead. Can’t find a way to ask if I can just get a replacement letter r as only option seems to be return it which is a shame.*update - contacted learning resource about the missing letter and they have posted me the r within days so increased star rating from 2 to 4*

Paperwork is only useable once unforyunately. Would be better as a dry wipe format.

This set of letter activities can be useful to do some early learning games with young children, though I feel it could be better designed.In the box you get two sets of plastic letters, one capitals, one lower case, and two long shoelaces. The plastic letters have holes in such that you can thread them onto the shoelace to arrange them in words. This brings up my first criticism, that there is basically an alphabet of each type letter, i.e. just one of each letter. This severely limits the words you can make because any words with more than one of the same letter are ‘off limits’.There are some activity worksheets printed on paper though I don’t think these are that appropriately designed - as written instructions are printed on the sheet - but the child, by definition, won’t be able to read them, so they can’t really do them independently but, I guess, they can do it with an adult sitting with them to explain what’s required.There are also some illustrated cards with a coloured picture on one side and the other side has dotted-line versions of the capital and lower case letter that is the initial of the name of the corresponding picture (e.g. a goat and ‘G, g’). The cards have a plasticised surface so, with a dry-wipe pen, the child can re-use them many times to trace over the letter shapes. This is quite a good idea, the pictures are nicely illustrated and the dotted-line letters are a good size for kids to trace over - it’s just a bit of a shame that they haven’t thought to include a dry-wipe pen or two in the box.Finally, there is a leaflet included but that really doesn’t have a lot of suggestions on it. I’d have thought they’d have included a wide range of suggested activities a parent could try with their child using the contents of the set. However, there really isn’t much of that. The only real suggestion in it is to see if your child can use the letters to spell their name - which, since there’s only one of each letter, they may not be able to do if they have a name like Peter or Harry or Milly - with the same letter twice!I’m a retired teacher and I could come up with a range of varied activities for a young child to use these letters but not everyone will have had that sort or training or experience and so, if this is something a first-time parent has bought to try and help their child’s early learning, I think it would be much more helpful to give them a range of activities and games they could use.So the set can be useful to help little ones become more familiar with letters but I think it could have been far more helpfully designed.

As an experienced early years teacher my wife has explored this alphabet and letter sounds kit, which comes in an easy to carry box with a handle.The pack contains a set of lower and of upper case letters in colourful plastic, they are quite small and not magnetic. But they have holes in them so you can thread them on to the laces provided. Start off with threading for hand eye coordination practice, move on to making words like your child's name or putting the alphabet in order. There is a small coloured spinning wheel to play games like Find a Letter of this colour etc.Then you have a set of glossy colour picture cards with the initial letter on the back formed in dots you can write over with a wipeable pen. The pictures show appropriate initial letter sounds such as i for igloo but a few odd ones eg a for alligator but most children would identify the picture as a crocodile. Apple would have been simpler!There are paper work sheets which I do not think are appropriate for 3 years olds, in my experience many children are not ready for this type of practice until about 5. The instruction leaflet given for adults is good and suggests a progression of activities according to your own child's interest and skills. A nice addition to home learning resources but do not neglect all the tried and tested hands on fun and games to help your child learn about letters and sounds - made up rhymes, I Begin with games, bag of small objects to handle and name their initial sound.

The children enjoyed threading the plastic letters (both lower and upper case options) onto two separate strings. I tied the ends to keep the alphabets together and not lose any letters. You could use them as visual aids after a child finds it from a small group of letters and then practises writing it. I'm not overly fond of the letter 'f' manipulative as UK schools teach it as an ascender and descender but this is quite a small letter compared to the rest of the set. The pack includes a large pack of thick cards with both the upper and lower letter on the reverse in a dot font. I think you are able to write using a wipeable marker on top of these cards. On the other side is a cute picture of an object that phonetically begins with sound. e.g b for bee. Unfortunately, the 'x' grapheme has a picture of an x-ray. It would be better to have box and the final sound matches the phoneme taught in UK schools.The pack includes some worksheets and great if you can photocopy or in my case I have a transparent plastic slip case that I can slide worksheets into so my children can write on and rub off so that I can re-use.The box itself is a good quality box that you can keep all the resources in and has a thin rope-like handle.