Why Ee for Edge?

Why Ee for Edge? I've been wanting to write this post for a long time. I'm long overdue in explaining why we chose specific words to teach each letter of the alphabet. This is pretty heavy stuff so I may break this post into two parts.
Part I:
The words were chosen to represent the initial sound each letter makes. For the five vowels a e i o u, the choice was very important as they they are the basis for our language or the alphabetic principle*. Vowels are also very tricky because the sound changes from word to word. The new English dictionary distinguishes twelve separate sounds for the letter "A" alone! Where to start? ALWAYS start by teaching the short vowel sound first. When it comes to consonants, always teach the hard sounds first. Eg: c pronounce like "k" (cat) and g (gum). The soft sounds of c (cent) and g (gym) should be introduced later.
When teaching the alphabet I have found that it most effective if the alphabet is introduced first with the letter name, then a picture representing the initial sound, and lastly the sound the letter makes. Got that? Say, "A apple aaaa". Also, when teaching short vowel sounds it is imperative that you use hand motions to accompany them. Here is a demonstration of how I teach the vowels with the hand motions.
Watch Video

For many years I've been working with children that require early intervention in order to succeed in an academic setting. Struggling, reluctant, challenged, it doesn't matter how they are labeled, they all need an extra nudge to keep up with their peers. Often, it is a matter of developmental delays. Sometimes students simply lack exposure and/or experiences, therefore having underdeveloped skills such as a limited vocabulary. Whatever the cause, early intervention is sure to help each child reach their full potential.

Teaching the alphabet to children in the primary grades; preschoolers, kindergartners, first graders, and occasionally the second grader involves much practice. This practice involves being repetitive and as long the instruction is participatory in nature it is exactly this repetitive practice that leads to success. What does this mean? Children need to be involved, they need to use their voices and experience how their mouth moves.

*The alphabetic principle is the basic idea that written language is a code in which letters represent the sounds in spoken
words.

Do or Die in the App Store or Down the Rabbit Hole:

"Down the Rabbit-Hole" has become a popular term for going on an adventure into the unknown.

We did it! We made it into New and Noteworthy in the app store! Our 15 seconds of fame came and went quicker than we could have imagined. No matter, we are incredibly proud of our accomplishments and consider ourselves a total success!!! We did what we set out to do and our dream of being featured in the app store came true! Along the way, we learned a whole lot more about computers in general, app development, the intricacies of submitting to apple, and the idiosyncrasies of marketing. We rode the elevator up and down and experienced emotions we never knew existed. (Watch this video from our first blog entry, the double rainbow phenomena, now has had 13,482,184 views.) http://bit.ly/75ieRc

We also learned about revenue. After doing a bit of math and some serious research, we learned that it may take us 51 years to make our initial investment back! After a long walk/talk on the beach, we're thinking we won't be developing any new apps for awhile. Please check out this amusing (BUT TRUE!) comic about the price of apps.
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps


That's not to say that we are not sticking to the mobile education concept, just entering it through another door. And please let me clarify that we did NOT enter into the app development business solely to make money. We are teachers that have an expertise in early childhood education and a passion to share what we consider some of the best practices. Remember, as many app developers and hosts of app review sites, we also have other jobs.


So here is a bit of the research. Please read through it thoroughly, if you really want the whole picture. http://bit.ly/awD9h0 If you are tired or lazy, just read this excerpt:

The purpose of this blog article is to examine the economics - and hopefully help guide potential developers and investors - into seeing where is the real opportunity (if any) and where are the dangerous pitfalls. If it is, as I have been claiming now for many months, that the App Store hysteria is developing into a tech bubble, and that most developers will never recover their costs, then the sooner you the reader can understand this, the sooner you can make the needed moves to minimize your losses (or to avoid future and futile attempts to enter this area). I am confident in the long run there will be a vibrant and reasonable-sized market opportunity. but today all numbers scream the opposite. The math simply does not add up. By Chris Glode

It may be Labor Day Weekend, which has the connotation of a weekend off, and Earl didn't touch our pristine location. The weather is gorgeous, but we're off to work. Not on apps, right now, but on something else. Down the rabbit hole we go....