Leap Frog - Talking Words Factory 2 - Code Word Caper

My 3 year old loves this. She ask to watch it without realizing she is learning. Highly recommend.

You DO learn something new every day, and this DVD will give you a few days worth.

While visiting the Complex Words Complex with their Dad and the Professor, Leap, Lily and Tad accidentally cause Mr. Websley to lose his voice in the Silent E Machine, and have to solve a word puzzle to get it back for him.

This DVD teaches three lessons in an easy and fun way that will have kids singing along and actually enjoying an educational program.

First of all, we learn about the silent E, visually depicted by a semi-transparent letter E with band-aids across its mouth. Next, we learn about the sounds CH, SH and TH, and finally, how to pronounce words where two vowels come together.

Of course, given the complexities of the English language, these simple rules don’t work in all cases, but your kids will easily grasp the basic concepts.

My one problem is in the opening sequence, where it sounds as if the Professor is incorrectly singing “the O says Aaaaah”, but that may be a case of either a strange accent or a bad audio transfer, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

It certainly opened my eyes to a few learning tools, and I would recommend it to the parent or guardian of any child between 2 and 6 years old.


Amanda Richards, May 1, 2006

This is a nice dvd that assists with words and letters. It is not one of the best on the market, but it served its purpose.

This is the only leap frog dvd that my daughter owns but she actually asks for it by name. She even tries to sing along. I continue to love leap frog products and recommend them to family and friends.

My son has every Leapfrog DVD and they're all *excellent*. Code Word Caper is no different, showing children long vowel sounds, how the silent "e" changes a word, vowel blends, etc.

This DVD explains how that although there are 26 letters in the alphabet, there are far more sounds than just 26.

Through an engaging caper at the Complex Word Complex, Tad, Leap and Lily learn about A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y. At the Silent E Machine, it's explained that the silent "e" makes the first vowel say it's "name". For example, cap and cape, pet and Pete, hid and hide, hope and hope, cut and cute, dim and dime, not and note. There's a fun song reinforcing this principle with lots of examples.

Then, at the Ch-Sh-Th Sound Machine, the youngsters are shown how to make blends and how they sound, e.g., chin, chat, ship, shop, thin, and think. Using another fun song, children are shown how consonant combos form blends: "First you take a letter C then you add a letter H--put them both together and a whole new sound you make."

Lastly, Code Word Capers demonstrates "vowel teams"...when two vowels are "stuck" together. For example, oa, ea, and ie. An excellent song (whose lyrics were once on either Sesame Street or the Electric Company...I remember it as a kid!) says "When 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking". So the first vowel says its name in a vowel team. E.g. team, tail, leap, pay, pie, goat, boat, bee, and see.

My son really enjoys this DVD and it wasn't long before he was singing the songs around the house! Code Word Caper has helped him read consonant blends, vowel teams, and words with the silent 'e'...the results are very noticeable.

I highly recommend this DVD for children who have mastered short vowel sounds and 3-letter words and are ready to move on to more advanced Phonics.