Fundanoodle

 

Fundanoodle is a fun, hands-on learning system that prepares children for school.  The brand includes products for 3, 4, 5-6 year old students.  Color coded levels correspond to age groups.  I received one product in the blue colored series “I Can Write Upper Case!” to review.  I also received the Magnetic Dry Erase Lettering Practice Board for review.  The first product is one of 6 products in the blue series that includes:

I Can Do Math! Level II

I Can Write Numbers!

I Can Build Upper Case Letters!

Muscle Movers I Upper Case Motor Cards

Max & Alphie’s Adventures! Activity Book 2

I Can Write Upper Case! teaches preschoolers to use commands like zip across, zoom down, hop to the top, and buzz around to teach children proper upper case letter formation. These commands make it easy for the parent to direct children’s learning by giving them specific terms to use while teaching their kids.  One of my favorite features of this product is the use of green “go” lines and “pink” stop lines so kids know where to begin and end their letters on a given line.  Each sheet has plenty of space to practice each letter.  Only one line of letters include the green and pink lines so I found myself using a colored marker to include these go and stop lines on other lines.  The go and stop colors seemed to be most helpful for my child. 

The entire learning system seeks to:

• Help fine and gross motor coordination
• Enhance eye-hand coordination
• Encourage touch & visual exploration
• Promote problem-solving, discovery, and self esteem

Personally, I can attest to the fact that it builds self esteem.  I have 6 kids in my home – 3 biological who are all homeschooled, and 3 foster kids, two of which are in school.  Kid#5 worked with this Fundanoodle product.  She is always wanting to do and know as much as the older kids.  She went to the Headstart program last year and would come home wanting to do homework like her older brother.  She would also see my kids doing their homeschool work and she always curiously looked on.  I’ve purchased workbook type things for her in the past (dot to dots, coloring, etc.) and we also taught her all her letter sounds.  My kids work with her as they have time but this was the first time she had her own “real” work to do. 

When we started working in I Can Write Upper Case! school hadn’t started yet.  So she eagerly worked through several pages in one sitting.  Now that school has started she worked on one to two pages a day.  She has completed the whole book and asked why the book didn’t have lower case letters!  I guess that means I need to purchase the I Can Write Lower Case! tablet that is in the green color coded series.  I almost forgot to mention the stickers in the back of the tablet you can use after you child has completed a page.  The stickers match a specific page and signifies a job well done.  I used the stickers sparingly.  I reserved them for the pages she did exceptionally well to ensure she took special notice to penmanship and neatness.  You may choose to praise each and every page as a well done page.  This is a personal choice.

Three year olds have a series of products in the orange color coded series; Pre K to K students have products in the blue color coded series; and K to First Grade students have products in the green color coded series.  Prices range for each product but the product I reviewed I Can Write Upper Case!, is priced at $5.99.  We didn't use the dry erase practice board until my K'er finished the writing tablet.  Then we broke open the dry erase practice board for her to practice writing whichever letters she wanted.  I noticed that she wanted to keep practicing those letters she had the most difficulty with, namely the "z" and "y."    Unlike other dry erase boards I’ve purchased, the Fundanoodle board includes the same grid lines and boxes the writing tablet has.   It is priced at the Fundanoodle website for $9.99. 

Another great feature of this learning system is the resources available at the Fundanoodle website.  Even after your child uses all the pages in the writing tablet, you can download extra pages from the website and print them out.  My K student enjoyed her tablet and I think it worked great in helping her form her letters. 

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