Sydney Mum Makes Early Learning Easy, Effective and Entertaining!

Online, August 17, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Research shows that the first five years of a child's life are the most important in moulding their future development. Many child-care facilities are all too aware of this and ensure that they are fully equipped to provide a variety of play-based educational activities. But what can parents and carers do at home to encourage learning in these vital early stages - and stages where the attention span is often very short?

Bright Tomato has the solution. They have released a range of My First Academy JUMBO Reading Cards - an ideal resource for parents or carers of small babies who wish to accelerate language development or to simply teach babies their first words.
Jumbo Reading Cards are currently available in three titles - Common Items in the Home, Clothes We Wear and Fruit and Vegetables. Plus they have two new titles - Numbers and Colours, and Farm Animals - that look like they will be as popular as the original titles. All illustrations are bright, colourful and generic enough for the child to be able to generalise to real-world objects.

"The cards also work really well for children with various forms of developmental delays," says Bright Tomato's Director, Slava Prakhiy. "We have had feedback from parents that, for instance, they use the Clothes We Wear cards to teach kids how to dress in the morning. By placing the cards on the walls, pointing out objects and describing actions they create a 'dressing routine'. This helps the child to associate words with pictures and actions."

What sets these cards apart from any others is their size - they are the size of an A4 page with a large illustration in the middle and a word description in large red print underneath. Most other flashcards are a lot smaller which means they are less visible from a distance and are a lot less attention grabbing. At this size, even the very young, with very short attention spans, are able to concentrate on the bright and colourful picture.
The thickness of the cards allows them to be placed on the walls in frequent view of the child thus utilising wall space and eliminating the need for an active child to sit down and stay still in order to learn.

Bright Tomato Learning was established by Slava Prakhiy after the birth of her son. Being fascinated with the concept of early learning and development, Ms Prakhiy went in search for suitable resources and tools to help her. However she was disappointed at the lack of both information and resources.

Although childcare centres and preschools are filled with simple, interesting toys that stimulate brain development and encourage creative and imaginative play, they are mainly only available from wholesalers that service schools and childcare centres. Ms Prakhiy also realised that first-time mums had nowhere to turn when they wanted to come up with fun, interesting and educational activities for kids to do at home. So she set about to change that.

Ms Prakhiy's particular interest, however, was in early reading. "I always believed that starting reading early was the key to developing a love for it later on in life. If a child starts reading early it becomes part of their being and they cannot imagine life without it," states Ms Prakhiy.

The literature on early childhood and development indicates that introducing kids to print and the written word as early as possible is the key to early reading. However, because babies and toddlers find it difficult to focus on tiny print in books and small flashcards, Ms Prakhiy decided to create jumbo reading cards. Using simple printouts of different colourful pictures with a large word label printed underneath, Ms Prakhiy began using these cards with her son - and he absolutely loved them. These humble cards became prototypes for "My First Academy - JUMBO Reading Cards".

In addition to the online store, the Bright Tomato website - http://www.brighttomato.com.au - has a wide array of practical early learning information - information that is usually reserved for early childhood educators. There's even a unique Early Learning Forum. Parents, grand-parents and carers are welcome to join in the forum discussions that cover topics including child development, forms of education, and children with special needs such as gifted children, and children with ADHD, Downs Syndrome, Autism or Asperger Syndrome.

Slava Prakhiy is available for an interview and can be contacted on the telephone number and email address below.

For more information, please contact:
Slava Prakhiy
Director, Bright Tomato Learning
PO Box 6200, Alexandria NSW 2015
Ph: 0421 601 759
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.brighttomato.com.au

- END -