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
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Introduction
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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- 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.
