Anna is a lucky kid – not only because she has figured out that she has her parents wrapped around her little finger (I should say that I am the real sucker here and I find it difficult to avoid acquiescing to her demands- read this if you don’t believe me. Her mother is much better about saying no) – but more importantly, she is lucky because she has two parents whose favorite activity is reading and who both love reading to her. When it comes to the development of reading skills, having a couple of parents who like to spend time helping can only be considered a very good thing. That being said, a child can only learn so much from having someone read to them – eventually they need to start developing their own skills. Unfortunately the traditional tools that parents and teachers have at our disposal for educating these early readers are pretty pathetic. One can only listen to “Dick and Jane” so many times before having your eardrums punctured with a pencil starts to sound pretty appealing.

It’s a good thing then, that there are a few companies out there who realize the shortcomings of these old-school mechanisms and have started to introduce new programs that make the process of learning to read far more enjoyable – for children and parents. One of the newest of these programs is The Alphabotz and if you have a child in your life who is learning to read, this prize would make a fantastic Christmas present.

The Superphonic Decoder Cards are a set of 50 high-quality, illustrated cards that contain a “robot” character and various graphics that encourage kids to develop associations between letters and sounds while they use their imaginations to create games and adventures inspired by the characters. Instead of depending on old fashioned formulas and rote memorization that make reading seem like a hassle, the Alphabotz create an educational environment that helps your child look forward to learning. Plus, the little robot characters are pretty darn amusing and your children will soon be interacting with them as if they are old friends.

The Alphabotz are designed for children ages 3 and up. A lot of folks seem to hold the product in the same high-regard that we do based on the long list of accolades the product has received – check out some of the awards they have won here. The awesome set of Alphabotz cards that we are giving away today is the program’s first product, but it won’t be the last. A number of follow up products including a “Block Heads Music CD” that will include original songs to complement the program will be released soon. You can listen to a sample here.

Check out a few of the cards:

The Alphabotz website is probably one of the most well designed and useful product sites I’ve encountered in quite a while. In addition to letting you take a look at a bunch of the characters, you can also listen to a few of the Alphabot songs and download and print a whole set of very cool coloring sheets that your kids can use to color and learn their letters at the same time.

The Alphabotz cards are available on Amazon as well as these other retailers.

Giveaway!
One winner will receive a set of Alphabotz Superphonic Decoder Cards (ARV $19.95). To enter, simply leave a comment on this post after you have taken a look at the Alphabotz website. In your comment, leave the name of the character from the characters page that you think your child/grandchild/whoever you happen to be winning this for, will like the most.

Official Rules:
1. You must already be, or become a subscriber to this site in order to participate in this contest.
2.  To enter, leave a comment on this post and indicate the name of the Alphabotz Character that you think your child/grandchild/whoever will receive this gift if you win, would like the most. You must include this information to qualify. Comments that don’t include this information will be deleted.
3. One winner will receive a pack of Alphabotz Superphonic Decoder Cards (ARV $19.95). The winner will receive their prize before Christmas.
4. The winner will be selected using random.org, based on the number of your comment.
6. This contest will end at 10pm on Friday, December 13th 2009.
7. Winners will be notified by email and posted to this site. Winners will have 48 hours from the time of notification to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed within that time, an alternate winner will be chosen.
8. Each comment represents a single entry. Those entitled to multiple entries for performing “extra credit” must add a comment for each entry.

Extra Credit:

1. Follow me using the Google Friend Connect widget – 1 extra entry
2. Follow on Twitter and Tweet about this contest – 1 extra entry per day (include link to Tweet in your comment)
3. Blog about this contest – 3 extra entries (include a link to the post in your comment)
4. Enter any of the giveaways in progress on www.theartofbeingmom.com – 3 extra entries (include name of contest and your comment # )
5. Post a comment on any of the other posts on this site (from the past month) – 1 extra entry per post (leave post name and comment #)
6. Enter any of the other giveaways in progress on this site – 2 extra entries per giveaway (include name of contest and your comment #)

(remember, you have to leave a comment for EACH ENTRY when you do extra credit. We pick winners based on a drawing using the comment number. If you put 5 entries into a single comment, you defeat the whole purpose of the extra credit, since you aren’t increasing your chances of winning. No, I am not going to go through each entry and make sure that you’ve entered correctly, that is up to you.)

FTC Disclosures – We have received one set of Alphabotz Superphonic Decoder Cards to provide to the winner of this contest. No other compensation has been received for reviewing these products or administering this contest. Regardless of compensation, all views and opinions expressed here are my own.