One thing I have had to learn and accept the past few years is that all children learn differently. Just because my first child had the discipline to sit and learn, even when it was not excessively fun, does not mean my other two children could do the same. That is why I have had this A-B-C Magnetic Fishing Set from CP Toys on my wishlist to review for well-over six months. Our 5 year old son especially needs educational toys such as this to keep him interested because, if he is not interested, he just wants to get up and go do something else.
This alphabet fishing toy actually comes with 2 boxes, each containing 26 magnetic dense foam letters and a pair of magnetic fishing poles, so you could split this purchase into two gifts if desired. The fishing poles have a very high coolness factor because they are retractable. Even our 8 year old son was impressed and could not stop playing with his.
(Click any photo to enlarge)
How we used this toy for an ABC learning activity for preschoolers . . .
1. Place all the magnetic foam letters in a large bin, basket, or bowl.
2. Taking turns, ask each child to fish out one letter and name the letter. (If an older child or an adult is playing, you can ask him or her to fish out a letter, name the letter, and say a word that begins with that letter. Just hearing what the older child says about each letter will benefit the preschooler and they may soon be able to do this extra step as well.) Then have each child keep all his or her letters in a pile.
3. (This is something you can do when your child has moved on from letter recognition to sounding out words and spelling.) After all the letters have been fished out, with your help, have each child try to make as many words as possible with the letters he or she fished out.
Something that was very helpful about this toy is that the letters are yellow on the correct sides and blue on the incorrect sides. This is great for children who tend to accidentally write some of their letters backwards.
Although our children enjoyed this activity, I should have started out with just 26 letters instead of the 52. Since there were 3 children playing, the activity did not move as quickly as a 5 year old would like. There was quite a bit of pausing and thinking to remember the names of some of the letters.
I also want to point out that I kept the boxes along with the molded plastic inserts to store the rods and ABCs while they are not being used. This worked out very well, especially in keeping the rods separated. Since they contain strong magnets at the end of each line, it is very easy for them to become attracted to each other and for the lines to become tangled.
To learn more about this and other educational toys for kids, visit CPToy.com.
Thank you to CP Toys for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.
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