Crazy Cursive Letters vs Squeebles Number Bonds

Features include; * Choice of cursive style letter e.g. two styles of the letter r. * Personalised feedback to tell kids which letters they are totally awesome at and which letters they could focus on practising. * Practice of single letters in cursive style. * The 100 most frequent words to try in cursive style. * Multiple Players, useful to track the progress of siblings or of up to 10 players in a class. * 'My Words', section where you could type in the weeks spellings to practice. * A phonics based approach supporting the writing practice. * Left / right handed adaptation * You can also use Crazy Cursive to help learn a new language! Select from American English, UK English, French, German, Italian or Spanish words and phonics. Your child can practice writing the top 100 words in cursive style and can also type in their own words to practice. Letters are sounded out phonetically to allow your child to develop skills of breaking down words which is particularly useful for children with Dyslexia. Thank you to the Teachers, Children and Parents of Fairlawn School London for your support and feedback. Special thanks to Fairlawn Teachers for being inspiringly Crazy for Cursive! 10 Benefits of Teaching Cursive Handwriting 1.Relative ease in introducing cursive penmanship to preschoolers. 2.Prevents reversals and confusion of letters 3.Enhances spelling ability 4.Develops internal control systems that can be used as tool for learning 5.Potential for errors are diminished 6.Improved reading skills 7.Enforces the skills for patterns in reading and writing 8. Prevents erratic spaces between letters and words 9. Helps Left Handed Children 10.Use as a tool to put thoughts on paper quickly and easily Conclusion: We should teach our children ‘Cursive First, Print Later’. Source: Samuel L. Blumenfield, "How Should We Teach Our Children to Write? Cursive First, Print Later!" The British Dyslexia association recommend that children learn the continuous cursive style. The cursive style has some significant advantages for Dyslexic students. The key advantages to this system are: * By making each letter in one movement, children’s hands develop a ‘physical memory’ of it, making it easier to produce the correct shape; * Because letters and words flow from left to right, children are less likely to reverse letters which are typically difficult (like b/d or p/q); * There is a clearer distinction between capital letters and lower case; * The continuous flow of writing ultimately improves speed and spelling.

Squeebles Number Bonds helps primary school children build their core mental arithmetic skills by answering number bonds questions across a variety of game modes. The app features a motivating reward system where Squeebles characters can be won for answering questions correctly, along with dragon eggs that can be hatched to reveal baby dragons (each with their own unique personality), once enough stars have been earned. Why Number Bonds? Number bonds can also be referred to as "number pairs" or "number families". A number bond is a pair of numbers that together make up a round number, such as 6 and 4 making 10; or 8 and 12 making 20. Working towards having an instant familiarity with these much-used number bonds is the basis for going on to work confidently with more complex or challenging maths problems involving larger numbers. This app focuses on number bonds to 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000 and decimals to 1 that, in line with the UK National Curriculum, cover the different number bonds your child will be learning across their primary school years. The app consists of four unique game modes with varying difficulty levels... Balancing Act: Drag numbered eggs onto a seesaw to balance the addition or subtraction questions. Number Smash: Select as many pairs of numbers as you can in the time limit, in an ever-changing grid of colourful sliding blocks. River Crossing: Lay numbered tiles across a river to make a bridge. The first number on each newly laid tile must form a number bond with the last number of the previous tile. Timed Quiz: Answer as many number bond questions as you can within a one or three minute time limit. Reward System: - 28 Squeebles characters to win. - 18 dragon eggs to earn and hatch into baby dragons. - Each dragon egg can be hatched by sprinkling a different number of stars on it. - Stars are earned by answering questions correctly. - Each animated Squeeble and dragon has its own personality and unique stats. - 5 of the dragons within the app were designed by our competition winners. Parent / Teacher Features: - A password-protected parent / teacher area allows adults to track progress and view stats for each child. - All progress is stored on the device, so no internet connection or child passwords are required. - Unlimited child accounts can be set up - Overall stats and daily stats for each game can be viewed on a per-child basis, allowing you to get a clear idea of how each child is progressing over time - Settings can be altered for each child, including the ability to lock certain number bonds, switch on or off the Open Dyslexic font, show or hide the countdown timer, and display text in UK or US English. Child-friendly Features: As with all our apps, Squeebles Number Bonds contains no in-app purchases, no subscription fees, no adverts and no links to the internet of any kind. This is a completely self-contained application. Finally... If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, you can e-mail us on info@keystagefun.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can, usually within 1 working day, often sooner.