LeapFrog Leapster Game: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends

Join Bloo and Mac at Foster’s Home and practice spelling words. Any learning game you choose will automatically adjust to your skill level.

Bloo and Mac have been recruited to care for their imaginary friends at Foster's and they need your help. Lend a hand and practice spelling and phonics skills a whole new way.

All Leapster games work with all Leapster Learning Game Systems (Leapster, Leapster L-Max and Leapster TV).

Learning skills:

• Spelling

Children first learn to spell by breaking down words into sounds. But many sounds in our language have irregular spellings. Children must learn the fundamental spelling rules and recognize commonly misspelled words.

• Letter names

Young children typically recite or sing the alphabet before they recognize individual letters. By preschool they begin to identify letters by name and shape.

• Letter sounds

Before they can learn to read, children must learn letters and their sounds. Once children associate printed letters to sounds, they can begin to sound out words for reading and spelling.

• Word recognition

As children learn to read, they must be able to "decode" the words they don't know - to translate strings of letters into words. Eventually they can recognize common words that can't be sounded out (the, said, of).

• Grammar

Grammar refers to the rules that govern the use of language, including standard usage (such as selecting the right word) and mechanics (such as punctuation conventions).

• Phonics skills

To learn to read, a child must understand the letter-sound relationship and distinguish individual sounds, or phonemes, within words. Crucial to reading, phonics skills help children sound out new words (If I can read "pot," then I can read "hot" and "spot").