Promoting Toddler Literacy Skills with Vooks

Last Updated on October 17, 2019 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Learn how to encourage toddler literacy skills using Vooks, an educational service providing a library of video-books to watch with your children. Includes a free year-long membership offer!

Vooks has recently updated their teacher appreciation campaign to remove the sign-up deadline, offering caregivers a free year of Vooks access indefinitely!

As the years have advanced, I have witnessed the incorporation of more screen time and technology in early education.

From someone who once had to flip through huge activity books at the library and scan the pages to take home, let me tell you- technology isn’t such a bad thing!

However, studies have shown that screen time only becomes educational when it is interactive and facilitated by a trusted adult.

Vooks is a great way to allot for worthwhile screen time while encouraging early toddler literacy skills by bringing books to life.

👉 Scroll down to see a FREE SUBSCRIPTION offer that’s for an entire year!

Promoting Toddler Literacy Skills with Vooks

Disclosure: I was asked by Vooks if I would review their product. All opinions are my own.

As an educator, I am always looking for new and creative ways to promote literacy skills to preschoolers.

I aim to encourage building preschool and toddler literacy skills in a way that feels fun and natural, so that they grow a real love for reading that hopefully lasts a lifetime.

When I read about Vooks, I knew that my little ones would love it.

Vooks is a phone app/website that allows young children to watch picture books come to life as videos, animating the illustrations as the words on the screen are read out loud to them.

We tried this out with a few of our toddlers, and they loved that the pictures from their books at home were now animated like short movies! And to be honest, I was pretty entertained watching Click, Clack, Moo and Giraffes Can’t Dance.

We know how it is as parents- sometimes you just need something on-the-go to provide a fussy child with five minutes of quiet time as you finish checking out at the grocery store, or to watch together in the waiting room or during a flight.

However, if we’re going to be utilizing technology, I think most parents would agree that we’d like it to be educational and beneficial.

Sitting with your child and watching familiar picture books allows for a more stimulating experience than a television show. They’re able to follow along word-for-word on the screen and begin to make connections between sounds and letters.

And to be honest, the selection process does feel a bit like Netflix for books!

To make the experience even more interactive, ask your children questions about the story that they are watching. Pause the screen and ask them,

“What do you think is going to happen next?”

“How is the character feeling right now?”

After the story ask concluding questions such as, “How did the character solve the problem?”

This helps toddlers and preschoolers develop comprehension skills before they begin reading themselves.

I like the video-books because it is a calming experience.

The background music and narration voices feel very relaxing!

Many of the books are narrated by familiar voices, such as Meryl Streep reading Chrysanthemum! This has become a fun guessing game of “Who’s That Voice” for me.