Sandy Beach, Where it’s fun to learn and fun to be a kid! Sandy Lane School is about the three R’s and more. It covers a broad spectrum of early learning needs for ages 3 to 6 years. You’ll find a variety of fun activities and games that teach colors, shapes, the alphabet, writing, reading, spelling, counting, and even English/Spanish vocabulary. With reading, Sandy Lane School begins with the alphabet, and presents a series of activities that escalate to full-on reading.

Sandy Beach, Where it’s fun to learn and fun to be a kid! Sandy Lane School is about the three R’s and more. It covers a broad spectrum of early learning needs for ages 3 to 6 years. You’ll find a variety of fun activities and games that teach colors, shapes, the alphabet, writing, reading, spelling, counting, and even English/Spanish vocabulary. With reading, Sandy Lane School begins with the alphabet, and presents a series of activities that escalate to full-on reading.

Alphabet Beach

Alphabet Beach teaches the alphabet, the names of the letters, and more importantly, the various sounds the letters make - all supported with pictures. Alphabet Beach also teaches how to write each letter, with step-by-step instructions and animation.

Sand Castles

Sand Castles is a game that allows children to test their ability to recognize letters of the alphabet. The mix includes upper and lower case letters, numerals, plus symbols and shapes — because at early ages, it all looks the same to kids. The game allows the child to pick from three levels of difficulty. The first level gives the child lots of time and fewer choices, and each level up from there gives more choices and less time. The top level is quite challenging — and a lot of fun!

Mystery Words

Mystery Words is a game that teaches spelling by having the child identify missing letters from simple words. If the child makes no mistakes on the first set of challenges, the next set automatically becomes more challenging. The activity includes three levels of difficulty. Play automatically adjusts to the child’s performance. After a period of time, if the child has not identified the correct missing letter, the program jumps in and says “let me help” and then shows the child the correct answer. The levels of difficulty are achieved by using different types of words, and by having different parts of the word missing. The first level uses three letter words in which all of the letters have standard sounds and the words are consonant, vowel, consonant, with the initial letter missing. Higher levels use last or inner letters missing with three and four letter words, etc.

Sentences

Sentences actually teaches a child how to read complete sentences by sounding out each word individually, and then reading the whole sentence. The words are sounded out with a karaoke-style highlight pointing to the letters in the word as they are being referred to. The sentences relate to the characters and to the stories in the Sandy Lane Bookshelf DVD. The child advances at will through each word in the sentence. The child also has the ability to advance through the list of sentences.

Numbers

Our Numbers activity teaches each number individually, and shows how to write each number. This activity also has the ability to switch between English and Spanish for the names of the numbers. The Canadian version switches between English and French. Each number shows the numeral, plus the quantity of a certain item. We have five sets of items, so that each time you play, you’ll see a different set of items. This helps the child learn that it’s about the quantity rather than the item itself.

Colors

Colors teaches the four colors used on the controller buttons. After explaining the four colors, the child is presented a game to correctly identify the colors.

Shapes

Shapes first presents a cartoon that explains basic geometric shapes along with a few other common shapes (like heart and snowflake), then the child is presented with a game to test their knowledge of shapes.

Spanish Lessons

The language and vocabulary activity provides basic Spanish/English vocabulary. This activity allows users to toggle between languages to be able to translate and compare words. Each word is supported with a picture.

The wonderful new Sandy Lane characters are back with four great interactive storybooks, the likes of which have never been seen before! Each of the books is centered around one of the four characters. All four stories are fully bilingual in English and Spanish. The user can toggle between languages on every page! It’s a wonderful way to become familiar with another language!

Sprinkled throughout the pages are Effects that enhance the stories and take the stories to a whole new level. All four stories include silent and narrated versions. Narrated versions include a karaoke-style highlight to help your child follow along. The silent versions offer a great opportunity for you to read aloud to your child while he or she turns the pages and cues the effects found throughout the stories.