Brillkids Little Reader

I've started Valerie on Little Reader (LR) and Little Maths (LM) about two months ago. How I got to know about them was through a search for Shichida maths files. A mommy has created the maths files and uploaded it in LM format. So I downloaded the trial version to have a look and tried in on Valerie. And she absolutely loves it!!! If you want to find out more, check out their website http://www.brillkids.com/ . They give a 14 days trial.

When I showed Valerie the first lesson, she immediately took on the actions words on the screen, following each action word (eg. point, wave). When the lesson has ended, she would cry for more. Sometimes she even grabbed my mouse to try to get the lesson to start again.

The LR lesson has 3 parts initially: Word Flash, MultiSensory and Picture Flash. In later stages, it now includes a Phonics flash. The Multisensory shows the word, and then the picture with a one line narration and lastly a short video clip of the object. I find this is really good to teach the meaning of an action word because a video clip tells it all. As for lesson on animals, you can also hear the sound of the animal makes. So this is exactly what I'm looking for.

Apart from that, I also like the functionality of the program where you can create your own flash cards and there is a setting to choose whether you want to flash only the words or the pictures or both! And you can even choose if you want the words to be shown first or the picture. There is also a setting to shuffle the words/pictures randomly. This is sooooo much easier than using the powerpoint.

LR also has a large library for you to download from and these files are created by mommies / daddies themselves. So it's pretty good, save myself a lot of time as most of the topics (Music, Arts, Encyclopaedia Knowledge) that I want to show Valerie were already created. All I need to do is download and import them into the LR :) They also have files in powerpoint, feel free to take a look.

As for LM, well, Valerie followed through initially but after a while she found looking at dots quite boring. Now, she'll whine when I show her LM but I still continue to show here anyway :P

I'm not sure if this is actually teaching Valerie to read or not as she's too young to show it. But one thing for sure, she enjoys LR and that's all it matters. And even if she isn't reading yet, my thought is, at least she's building up her vocab. Upon hearing a word, she know which object it is or which body part to point to or what action word to show me. At night after she has washed up, she knows it's LR time. She would grab my mouse and hand it over to me. And then try to carry my laptop to bed. Aiyooo.. so small girl but want to carry such a heavy thing. I have to go and help her of course...

Just a few days back, she gave me a surprise. During the words flash, she suddenly said 'Eye', and then 'Nose' correctly even before the word is being pronounced. I couldn't believe it! Does this show my baby can read? Even if it's just two words, I'm really elated. But it only happens once, hopefully more to come in the future :)

Here is a video clip of her watching LR, the first one is on Parts of the Body...


This one is on Action Words...