imgresVTech’s Write and Learn Touch Tablet has a focused mission of teaching 3 to 6’ers number and letter formation. It succeeds. It’s effective, fun, simple and inexpensive. That’s good stuff, “effective, fun, simple and inexpensive!” Kids warm to both the device and letters/numbers by using the easy-to-hold chunky stylus learning to draw lines and basic shapes. All guided with arrow prompts and accompanying sounds with visual feedback, young ones are both shown and encouraged to move through progressive levels of complexity. After learning and getting comfortable with shapes, the same friendly interface that did intro patterning now introduces upper and lower case letters, with their associated sample word sounds. This newer VTech unit includes number writing. Overall learning is reinforced with a “hide & seek” game where jungle characters are leaping up and down in front of a letter. Detectives need to be familiar enough with the shape to call it out. To get hints on what alphabet members the critters are masking, tickle them with the stylus and they scoot to reveal more lines. All for around twenty dollars, this is an exceptional value for the child ready to engage in letter and number learning. They easily “solo” once getting the hang of it, and for those with more than a minimal interest, they’ll soon be pulled along by the thoughtful tablet interface which makes learning entertaining, quick and nearly transparent.

Available at VTech. Click here