Lunar Letters from Micromega Longman Software Pilot your letter ship to a safe landing on the lunar base. Matched letters are the key to a successful trip. This program for 4 to 6 year old children practises letter recognition and matching - key skills for early reading. Longman Software - the new generation of learning materials. Each program is based on well-tried educational theories, brought alive by the creative wizardy of modern technology. Your children will be spellbound. At home, 4 to 8 year olds can discover, by themselves and for themselves, an adventure wonderland of early skills and abilities. The colour and movement on screen will fire their imagination. They will be stimulated and encouraged to enjoy counting and mathematical problems, spelling and word recognition. The wonder of the computer, the power of its appeal and the balanced variety of games and activities will keep your child fascinated, absorbed ... and learning. Longman Software Your key to early learning Notes for parents """"""""""""""""" Introduction """""""""""" Lunar Letters is a game that introduces young children to the letters of the alphabet. It has been specially designed for use by young children on their own, but parental involvement and support may be necessary in the early stages. These notes are to help you and your child get the most out of this program. Longman Software """""""""""""""" Lunar Letters is part of the Early Learning range from Longman Software - home computer programs from one of the world's most successful educational publishers. Longman have drawn together experts in the field of early learning and professional computer programmers to make the most of the advantages of micro computer learning. - computers provide endless and patient individual attention - computers present early learning materials in an immediate and compelling format, full of colour and movement - children can work at their own pace and in their own home - learning with computers is fun - computer familiarity and confidence are vital skills for the modern world - particularly now that there is a micro computer in most schools Lunar Letters - what's it all about? """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Lunar Letters is a reading and language development program that introduces the letters of the alphabet and helps to correct the common errors that children make with letters. Very often children get confused when they see letters with similar shapes. For example, they may reverse letters, reading b as d or p as q. Lunar Letters gives them the opportunity to practise recognising the letters and to deal with these problems. The object of the game is to steer a Letter Ship through space towards one of four landing bases. Each of the landing bases carries a different letter, but only one of them is friendly - that's the one with the same letter as the Letter Ship. By presenting letter recognition in an amusing and entertaining format, children gain confidence in handling letters, confidence which will be carried through into the early stages of reading and language development. Lunar Letters - playing the game """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" A When the program has loaded, four landing bases will appear on screen and you will be invited to 'Press P to play'. When you press "P" the game will start. B A Letter Ship hovers onto the bottom of the screen, followed by 5 intrepid spacemen. The Letter Ship then moves to the centre of the screen and takes off. The first spaceman is beamed on board. At the same time a letter will appear on each landing base. C When the spaceman has safely boarded the Letter Ship, he will be transformed into a flashing letter. His mission is to find the same letter on one of the landing bases. Only you can help him complete his task by steering the Letter Ship to the right destination. The ship is controlled by the four cursor keys in the top row of the Spectrum keyboard: | ^ <- v | -> While you are playing the game, you will see these arrows on the screen; each time you press a key the corresponding arrow will flash on screen. D If the Letter Ship docks with the correct landing base, then the letter is loaded onto the Letter Ship. The Letter Ship then returns to the centre of the screen and beams down the successful spaceman before picking up the next in line. Four new letters will appear on the landing bases, and the next spaceman must try to collect his letter from the correct landing base in the same way. E If you try to dock at the wrong landing base, visual and sound effect let you know that you have gone wrong. You must steer the Letter Ship to another destination. F When all 5 spacemen have completed their mission, they will be beamed back up into the Letter Ship and carried home to base to prepare for the next game. G Note that in order to encourage children to distinguish between letters which are similar in shape, every go contains some tricky choices. H All the keys other than the cursor keys have been disabled, so no harm is done if they are pressed by accident or design. Pressing CAPS SHIFT and BREAK will return the program to the start. A few dos and don'ts """""""""""""""""""" Do run through the program with your child. Help him or her with any letters that cause difficulty. Point out the difference between the letters. Do ensure that the game is played in a relaxed atmosphere where the challenge of the learning task and the pleasure of achieving it are the strongest emotions. Don't let your child get discouraged by making too many mistakes. The confidence that comes from getting things right is very important. Don't mix up letter names and letter sounds. If your child is already at school, it's best to find out how the teachers refer to the letters and follow their practice. (Letter names are the way we call letters as we spell them: ay, bee, cee. Letter sounds are the sounds made when those letters are part of words: for example, the a sound at the beginning of apple, the b sound at the beginning of boat and so on). Other word games to play with your children """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" - Practise matching initial letters (small letters rather than capitals) to words or to pictures of familiar objects. - a,b,c ... lift off! (also in the Early Learning range of Longman Software) will help your child to develop letter and word recognition skills. - Letter dominoes or letter lotto: use cards with letters on them to play games which involve matching one letter to another. - When you point out a word to your child (or when he or she shows you a word), ask about the first letter of the word or about any letter that stands out from the others. Ask if your child can spot a particular letter in the word. - Any games which involve finding the odd one out of a group or noticing differences are extremely valuable in building up the visual discrimination skills so important in early reading.