Posted in Educational

Now I know my ABC’s…

 
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Well not ME… no wait…I DO know my ABC’s. No really I do, I was talking about my son when he was 2ish. He learned to visually recognize the letters of the alphabet around the age of 27 months-ish. Don’t get me wrong singing the Alphabet song is fun but why just teach them to sing the Alphabet song?

I figured my son would learn the song in daycare, but I wanted to teach him to “see” the alphabet. Well recognize the letters that is. So I got some flash cards with the capital and lowercase letters (he focused on the capital ones though).

I started by going through them in order and I would ask “what letter is this?” Of course I knew that he didn’t know them. It wasn’t like I expected him to answer me…well ok maybe there was a bit of hoping. Anyway, after I asked him I would answer myself in a positive tone “A” or whatever the letter was then would say good.

Yes I was asking myself questions and answering  myself…and telling myself good job for doing so. Hrmm…not as crazy as it sounds promise. My 2ish year old son was in front of me watching and saying “yay” occasionally so I wasn’t totally crazy…right?

Moving on. Doing the flash cards helped him hear the letters in order over and over. Being able to see the letter at the same time actually teaches him what they are and is a huge step to skip on the path to reading.

Here are a few ideas for teaching your child the alphabet visually.

  1. Flash cards are fantastic! You can buy them at craft stores for $2-$3 or educational stores for about the same. Or you can make you own out of felt, foam or paper.
  2. If your child loves to color you print large versions of the letters and go over them as you help him color. This could help go over colors too!
  3. There are computer games you could do with him that shows the alphabet. www.sesamestreet.org is a great resource for online games and videos.
  4. There is even an app for your phone that shows the letter and says it too.

There are plenty of ways to “see & say” the alphabet, charts, cards, phones or make it yourself options. Choose one that works best for your child and if one way doesn’t work try another. It is always best to start with free or cheap ways just in case they end up like my kids and don’t want to learn from their mommy lol.

“There’s no limit to how much you’ll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go.”
~Dr Suess

Author: sandyz