Pros: 40 sheets per pad, white not newsprint, inexpensive.
Cons: Can be hard to find, some versions do not have a letting guide.
The Bottom Line: Learning to print and write can be a frustrating ordeal but this Learn To Letter part of the Mead Academie Junior series can be a huge help!
Freak369's Full Review: Mead 48170 Jr. Pads Legal Letter 8"x10"; White
Thankfully I haven't had a need for the Learn To Letter tablets from Mead for a few years but I do remember the frustration that came hand in hand with some kids and learning how to properly write certain letters. I am a complete proponent of creative learning but making your own alphabet is best left to people like Wesley from the story Weslandia. Mead has a lot of great tablet styled workbooks for kids who are learning to letter; these range from the wide ruled lines of newsprint paper sheets to the bone white sheets that are the final step before a child is ready to write on the wide lined sheets of loose leaf.
One thing that I love about this specific table is that it makes use of white sheets instead of newsprint. Newsprint can be a little messy to work with if you are writing with a pencil because the lead tends to smear. There can also be problems when ripping them off of a tablet or folding them to make them into a booklet. This is a horizontal styled tablet with the adhesive section located at the top of the tablet. I prefer the horizontal tablets to the vertical ones for younger kids because they don't have to worry about how large they are making their letters when they are first starting out with the tablet. Once they get the feel of lettering on this tablet they can work on their penmanship and write a complete sentence on less than two lines.
This is a standard early learner tablet with a solid top and bottom line; the lightly dotted are in the middle is a nice guide to help them with hitting the mid-section of letters so they can have accurate scaling and form. That was one of the biggest problems for two of the boys, it was almost impossible to tell the difference between their lowercase "R"s and "N"s because they would make them too large to too small. It was an uphill battle with two of them, the other two tried to argue their way out of learning to letter properly by saying, "By the time we grow up everything will be done on a computer so we won't need to know how to write". They also added that there would be no need for pens either; coming from my offspring, that is complete sacrilege.
Annabelle used this tablet as well as the NorcomBasics lettering tablet when she was starting out with her letters. She also used both of them for writing sight words and then moved on to basic sentences. It was tough to wean her off of these types of tablets; she didn't like wide ruled loose leaf paper so she would often get plain paper from the printer and make her own lines with a ruler when I would hide the Mead Learn To Letter tablets from her. Eventually she moved on to using regular paper and laughs when she sees the "baby tablets" at the store. These are suggested for kids in kindergarten and first grade but you can use them with older kids that are practicing cursive writing as the dotted guide lines really make a huge difference in helping them learn the scale of the letters.
What makes this worth the almost two dollar price tag? The white paper is stronger than newsprint which makes erasing mistakes a lot easier but the slightly raised solid lines are what can help kids that are getting frustrated with regular paper. When they hit the bump on the page they will be prompted to stop writing the letter; there is no raised ink on the dotted lines. It is best that they use pencil on these sheets so if they make a mistake they can easer them; if they aren't all that motivated about the writing process consider getting some erasable colored pencils. Sometimes allowing them to write with the erasable colored pencils is all it will take to get them excited about lettering or the first stages of cursive writing.
The tablets contain 40 sheets and the tablets measure 8 x 10 so they are the perfect size for younger kids as they will fit perfectly in to backpacks. They do cost a little more than other learning to letter styled tablets but they are well worth it. Mead makes several different types of tablets for kids who are learning to write; there are three that can be used before this one and two that can be used after this one to further enrich their writing skills.
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