Dinosaur Talking Flash Cards, 148-Card Phonics Reader & Sticker Set

Set him on the picture. He says the word out loud. Your child says it back, and goes looking for the next one.

He is a small green dinosaur with a speaker in his belly and a reader under his feet. No screen, no app, no wifi, and nobody has to read anything to anybody. What comes with him is a whole phonics course: 148 cards in five ring-bound sets, printed on both sides, 592 words between them. The alphabet, short vowels, vowel pairs, consonant blends, and a phonics list, in that order.

Each card carries a full sentence too, not just a word, so it goes past naming things. The small ball fell off the wall. I have a blue blanket.

Six sheets of picture stickers come in the box and they go anywhere: the fridge door, the oven, the back of a chair, the arm of the couch. He reads them there just the same, which turns the whole house into the lesson. A three-year-old will cross the room to get to the next one, and then the one after that.

Put four rings in the drawer and work on one. He charges by cable. Nothing to unscrew, no batteries to buy.