Holiday Gift Guide 2012: Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card Review & Giveaway

When it comes to Christmas shopping for my kids, I like to find educational toys that make learning fun. Afterall, at this age kids learn the most through play...so why not incorporate it as much as possible?! That's why I love Learning Resources!

Learning Resources is the leading manufacturer of innovative, hands-on educational products for classrooms and the home. They have been a trusted source for teachers and parents for more than 25 years and continue to grow and impress with their diverse product line of now over 1300 products!
As I visited their website recently for gift ideas for my kids, as well as nieces and nephews...I was thrilled to see that on the homepage are easy to use categories that make Christmas shopping even easier! There are Holiday Favorites you can click on, or different age ranges as well. I began looking for Kaelyn in the 5-7 age range and instantly was drawn to the Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card. I couldn't have been more happy to learn we were going to have the opportunity to review it!

Features/Benefits:

• Encourages children to practice word building as they combine beginning letters and blends with word families
  
  
• Challenges children with three skill levels
  
  
• Features handheld size, simple operation, immediate feedback and volume control
  
  
• Measures 5"L x 4"H
  
  
• Requires 3 AA batteries, not included
  
  
• Grades K+

Although this toy is geared toward kindergarten age children, Kaelyn has shown an interest in letter sounds and making words lately, and has even started to spell some simple sight words and write them down on her own. To help challenge and encourage her, I thought the Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card would be perfect for her! I was right!!

When the product arrived, Kaelyn was thrilled when I told her what it was. Out of the package, I put the batteries in (which are not included) and read through the instructions. I was thankful for the user guide, but it is pretty simple to use and could have probably figured it out on my own as well. This is something I appreciate, as I wanted it to be easy and fun to use since Kaelyn is the one using it.

To get started, we pressed the power button to turn it on. We then found the selector switch and selected a skill level. There are three, level 1, 2 and 3. Level one works on beginning letter sound with 2 letter word families. Level 2 works on beginning letter sounds and 3 letter word families. Level 3 works on blends combined with 2 and 3 letter word families.

Once we had it on Level 1 which is right where Kaelyn is right now, we pressed an answer button to start the game. The Word Whiz drill began and Kaelyn had 60 seconds to build as many words as she could. I love how simple it is, yet so educational at the same time. She has a lot of fun trying to fine the correct beginning letter and build a word with it in the center of the screen. She knows when she's gotten it correct because there's a "correct" sound and a "negative" sound.

At the end of 60 seconds the unit will display a score indicating the number of correct words built out of the number of words that appeared. She always gets so excited to show me her number - which is a great way for her to work on number recognition as well!

For those who just want to practice without a timer, there's also an untimed mode too. To disable the timer, the user simply presses and holds an answer button. This gives the child time to practice without being timed.

Overall we've really liked the Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card from Learning Resources. It's a lot of fun, and best of all it's educational, challenges Kaelyn...all while being fun at the same time! I would highly recommend it to parents with children ages 5-7. It's something that can grow with them with the different levels of difficulty and would definitely make a great Christmas gift!

Buy It: You can purchase the Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card from Learning Resources for $16.99.

Win It: One very lucky reader is going to win a Word Whiz Electronic Flash Card! Just enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below. If you don't see the form, click here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will end 12/13 and is open to US Only.

**The products for this review/giveaway were provided for free by Learning Resources, however all opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.