learning letters

[laura]

fak

the other night when we were getting ready for bed, DD was a bit resistant and dh told her that it was important to get a good nights sleep because you grow when you sleep and when you grow and get bigger you can do more things.

last night DD woke up at about 3am (which is normal) and said "mum i'm sleeping in the night so I can do more things. can I learn letters?"

I said of course you can learn letters, when the sun comes up.

so back to sleep we all went.

This morning she asked again about learning letters....

so where do I start??

DD will be 3 in January, she's really into animals, dinosaurs and cars at the mo... so i'm wondering how to incorporate that...

I don't really have a wall chart of the alphabet, but i suppose i could make one.

but any ideas on how to start learning the alphabet????

[Sadorian]

With Tiana, she learnt how to write her name first. Simply by copying us. Now (at 5) she will write letters asking us which letter to use each time. I used to sing the alphabet to her too which she always loved.

[Ayla]

I was going to suggest starting with letters in her name, then in mum, dad, etc., and then dinosaurs, etc.

[laura]

well we've sung the alphabet a few times and she's statted humming along, so that's good.

She seems to recognise a few letters from her name, like X and E so that's a start...

will try showing her MUM DAD DOG etc good idea

She doesn't seem to understand how to copy letters, like by writing or painting etc, but on the computer, she seems to be able to recognise them better...

not pushing the writting thing. don't think she's ready

[Janet]

My children love alphabet books and online alphabet stuff.

[Honesty]

although it isn't something that we have ever got involved with (my children have never asked such questions yet!), i have been told by other parents that part of the montessori method is to introduce physical, 3-d structures of letters somehow also incorporating (or being associated with a receptacle for that shape) a word that the letter can represent.

certainly my eldest (who is a boy and aged five) loves to trace over large letters and numbers with his fingers. if he ever asked about learning letters i think i might be stumped too initially.

for example, he recognises all the letters but has never been taught them directly or formally, just by living in a bookish home i believe and having that aptitude. he can also copy letters (and other shapes) that i have written (never asked him to, he just does so when he wants to). anyway, i digress. i hope that you and your dd enjoy whatever methods you choose! she is obviously a keen student of letters already!

[~*heket*~]

Making a wall chart sounds like fun!

Also singing a phonic alphabet is a good idea. Sounds dorky but your kids don't know that :lol

What about letter snap? make 3 of each letter (only about 5 or 6 letters per game or you never get to SNAP iykwim ;) ) and off you go! You can also do snap with pictures and letters when they're a bit older, so B would snap with Box and so on.

[Ayla]

That's a really good idea Heket :D

[Ceres]

Another idea is sand play - get a big dish of sand to write letters in with your fingers. Apparently the sensory experience helps kids to learn about the letter shapes.

[~*heket*~]

Wow! I like that idea!

[Ayla]

Cool :)

[laura]

DD would LOVE!!!!!!!!! the sand thing.... I'm going to try that one today.

I like the snap idea too. We haven't played snap before, so not sure she will get it, but we'll try.

and the phonetic alphabet song.... do you mean that one that goes -
A is for apple a a a(with the a sound)

totally forgot about that song.

loving these ideas!!

[Currawong]

Starfall (http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/play.htm?f) is a great place for learning letters. My ds1 learnt all his by using this site over a couple of years.

[Janet]

We like www.poissonrouge.com (http://www.poissonrouge.com) because it's a neutral accent more like an Australian one. :)

[Aurora]

We have a wooden alphabet puzzle and DS loves us to do it together. He also loves his alphabet and number books. :)

[~*heket*~]

I mean like singing the alphabet only with phonics.

[Lyric]

Do lots of phonic awareness stuff - songs, rhymes, poems and playing I spy using the sound of the initial letter. Later you can add the last sound and the middle sound until she can break a word down into its component sounds. Children usually love this game, but it is important to start slow eg. choose ten or so objects and put them on a table or wherever and then say "I spy something beginning with Mmmm" or whatever while touching the object. As she practices more she'll be able to start picking out the sound herself.

My 21 month old is very interested in letters so I made her some sandpaper ones, like the ones we use in Montessori classrooms (I'm a Monte early childhood teacher). I cut out the shapes of some lower case letters, starting with the ones in her name, and stuck them onto heavy cardboard. Then I help her trace over them and say the sound. She loves it and can already recognise her name and sometimes the individual letters. We just do a bit whenever she picks them up. Tracing the sandpaper, hearing the sound and seeing the shape means three senses are involved and the tactile sense is very powerful until about three and a half. Tracing in the sand is really good also, as PPs have suggested.

Later, once she knows all the sounds you can make duplicates of all the letters out of cardboard and she can start to use them to write words. She'll probably only hear the consonants at first, so giraffe might be 'jrf', and tiger might be 'tgu' and she won't be able to read it back. Writing should come before reading, then with enough practice, they just spontaneously start to read it back one day. It's a magic day when that happens!

I've probably written enough here, but feel free to PM me if you'd like any more detail.

[Asrathiel]

We've got the sandpaper letters- my mum had them made for me and my brothers!
Malachi just started asking about and recognising letters one day when he was 2 and a little bit. He likes alphabet puzzles, letter magnets, random signs... anywhere there are letters, he spots them. He's just getting into numbers as well now. I think I just started pointing out letters to him once he showed an interest, starting with letters in his name etc.

[Sarasvati]

What's the deal with *sandpaper* letters? Why sandpaper?

[Janet]

Is it the textural add on?


I realised a few days ago that Isobel can identify letters too. :lol Cor blimey I'm some bloody ace teacher. :rofl

[Blossomtime]

Our phonic alphabet is sung to the usual alphabet song but goes "apple, bear, cat, dog, egg, fish, goat... horse, emu, jumper, kitten, lolly, mummy, nanny, obe (DH), person..." etc. Just make it up. :)

Auds loves working through starfall too. She's been practicing writing letter shapes for ages. In the shower on the glass screen, or on the windows in the kitchen if they get all steamy while we cook :) At the beach, in books, everywhere... She sees letters everywhere like a stick could be in the shape of a T or something. Its cool :)

[Beatrice]

K has gotten bored singing the Alphabet Song tune, so now she sings the alphabet to any other tune she thinks of. She can get it to scan really nicely, too :lol My favourite is probably her filking of "Happy Birthday", or possibly "Jingle Bells" :rofl

[Lyric]

Sandpaper is a good texture to stimulate the nerves in the fingertips which are very very sensitive in under three and a half year olds especially. Giving the tactile as well as the aural and visual representation of the letter helps children retain the knowledge due to the relationship between the movement of the hand and the synaptic connections in the brain. A fine/medium grade sandpaper is best.