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What is Letterland? 

harry hatmanLetterland is a phonics based scheme for learning to read.This means it is based on the actual
sounds that letters make in words. For example, instead of explaining that C is the letter cee, you
tell your child that Clever Cat makes her special whispered ‘c...' sound in words like cat, cup and
Letterland makes learning letter sounds fun! In Letterland, letters have good reasons for
behaving the way they do. And children love knowing why. It is much more fun to learn that
Harry Hat Man whispers ‘hhh' in words because he hates noise, than to remember than ‘aitch'
makes the sound ‘hhh'... .

To learn to read and write, your child will need to know the sounds that letters represent in
words. But traditional letter names like ‘aee, bee, cee' don't help because many of them begin with another
letter's sound (e.g. eff, aitch, em, are, you). By contrast, each Letterlander's name
always begins with its letter's usual sound. So it's brilliantly simple:

START to say the Letterlander character's name, but
STOP after the first sound!

That way, the right sound will immediately be on your child's lips!sh
You can also listen to the correct sounds on the Letterland Alphabet Songs
CD. Letterland also makes it easy to explain why two letters sometimes
come together to make another sound. For example, in Letterland sh makes the
sound "shhhh" because Harry Hat Man is telling Sammy Snake to hush.

How does it work?

Letterland works by capturing children's interest and attention. Children relate to characters like Bouncy Ben,
Harry Hat Man, Sammy Snake and Talking Tess as friends. So learning about them feels like play.Yet they are
laying solid foundations for successful reading. Why? Because all the information that your child needs is
embedded in the Letterland characters.
The Letterlanders will also help your child with writing. Simple
verses, set to music in the Letterland Handwriting Songs Cassette
or CD, explain how to form each letter correctly. 

Draw Dippy Duck's back.
Go round her tum.
Go up to her head
And down you come.


The Letterlanders include clever
clues to help prevent your child
from mixing up letters that look

Letterland even explains why
capital and lower-case letters
have different shapes.

When can children start learning to read?

There is no rule, since all children are different. Children can enjoy books almost from birth. By the
age of two or three, they may well start to be interested in letter shapes.The main thing is to let it happen
naturally and to go at the pace that is right for your child. Because Letterland characters
are so child-friendly, even very young children can enjoy them.