At 19 months old, Tube Stop Baby is just starting to find her voice. Words are coming thick and fast, with a new one added most days. She’s obviously started with ones that are important to her – milk and cake have featured early – but she’s really increasing her vocabulary with the names of things that she sees around her at home. She’s loving books and enjoying pointing things out in the pictures that she recognises. This recognition and increase in vocabulary means it’s the perfect time to review two sets of Flash Cards from Bright Sparks with her.
With gorgeous, stylised illustrations by Polish Illustrator and designer Dominika Lipniewska, the Alphabet and Three-Letter Words flash cards are targeted at children aged 3+. Whilst my daughter’s not yet in that age range there’s still loads you can do with them with younger children. She might not be ready to read yet, but she can most certainly recognise the pictures.
Three-Letter Words Flash Cards
The Three-Letter Words set of flash cards is very much as the title suggests; flash cards of various three letter words. A picture on one side and the word written on the other side of the card. They cover some of the standard three letter words that you might expect a child to start with, cat and dog for instance, but there are also other three-letter words in there that she’s already starting to learn.
One of my favourites has to be the word “hug”. We’re a family of huggers as it is and it’s an utter delight that she’s already learnt the word, and is pretty good at dishing out hugs.
Alphabet Flash Cards
In the Alphabet flash cards there are two different styles of card. Half of them simply have a capital letter on one side, and the lower case equivalent on the other. The other half of the cards have a picture on one side and on the reverse are the upper and lower case initial letters of the word depicted above the word itself. For now Tube Stop Baby just points at the letters, but also loves shouting out the names of the objects she recognises.
There’s something about going through flash cards with a small child that is a totally different experience to reading a book with them. That may sound obvious, but I’m not sure quite how a toddler understands that difference and reacts somewhat differently when they’re put in front of her. She happily spends ages on her own working her way through the box and saying the words she recognises over to herself. If we, or her older sister, sits down with her she’ll proudly point at the pictures and shout out the words she knows. She regularly goes and gets the box off the table and asks us to open it for her.
Language is so important for young children, and there is such value in reading to them as much as possible. Having been stuck at home so much during lockdown I’ve been trying to make up for some of the stimulation that she would have normally had as part of busy family life. This has certainly been one way of doing so, and it’s lovely to have an alternative to the books we’ve been repeatedly going through for months now!
The Bright Sparks Alphabet and Three-Letter Words Flash Cards are published by Button Books and are available to buy online here, with an RRP of £7.99 each: *Alphabet Flash Cards, *Three-Letter Words Flash Cards.
Disclaimer: We were sent The Bright Sparks Alphabet and Three-Letter Words Flash Cards by Button Books for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links that are marked with a *. If you buy a product via these links I receive a small commission, but it does not alter the price you pay. Many thanks for any purchases you make. It is greatly appreciated.