The Alphabet....

Everyone always thinks it is so great that a child can learn the alphabet song. Don't get me wrong, it is fantastic, however, it is also (in my opinion, as all things on here are just my opinion) repetition. Children learn through repetition, this is true, but why just teach them to sing the song?

I decided that my son would learn the song in daycare, but I wanted to teach him to "see" the alphabet. So I got some flash cards with the capital and lowercase letters (he focuses on the capital ones though) and began "playing" with them with my son. We would go through them in order and I would ask "what letter is this?" and at first of course he wouldn't say anything, so I would answer myself in a positive tone "A", and then say good. I would go through them until he lost interest. Then try again later or the next day.

This is also repetition, but with a twist. He hears the letters in order over and over, and his singing the song reinforces that. 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 (we are working on sounds of letters now to start reading soon).

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. (If you would like help with making your own contact me for tips or tricks or view my D.I.Y. section)
2. If your child loves crayons then get down and color with him. Write each letter in order (capital works best to start or start with lower case but be consistent). This also shows him how to write the letter.
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. You could get 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.

An introduction..

I have a two year old son and I have been working with him since he was born on various educational things. My husband also does this and he now knows the following things:

• He can visually identify all the letters of the alphabet.
• He can write the letters A, L, E, D, M and O
• He can visually recognize numbers 1-20
• He can count to 14 on his own and 20 with a little help
• He knows all his colors (rainbow basics and purple, pink, gray, white and black)
• He knows basic shapes (square, circle, triangle, heart, star, oval, rectangle and we are working on hexagon)
• He can use glue, hop on one foot or jump with two feet and paint with a paintbrush on plaster figures (not in the lines, but he is painting different items different colors)

He knows a few other things too like how to play pretend, stacking blocks as high as his little arms can reach after he goes and gets a stool (no we didn't show him this). So I thought he would be ready for preschool. Well it turns out that preschool doesn't teach these things. they teach the foundation for these things. I couldn't believe how much farther along he was then 3 year olds. I thought he may have been a little ahead but he seems to be a lot ahead.

So I can't get him into preschool yet but I don't want to stop teaching him things or letting him move forward. He loves learning. If he ever doesn't want to learn something we do something else. So I just keep working with him every day. My husband and I work with him for 15 minutes every day at least. That was while both of us were working full time and I was starting a company. We spent quality time with him and taught him things. It was a win/win. This blog is for those of you who work with your children or want to start. I hope it will be a resource for you so you can get ideas of how or what to work with your kids on.

Keep in mind that each child learns differently and at different paces. I will be posting how I taught my son things or how I work with my 4 month old daughter, but your child may learn a different way. Adapt the idea/lesson/whatever to how your child learns. No one knows your child better than you.