Learning their letters, alphabet etc?

I have 2 1/2 yr. old twin girls and an almost 4 year old son (just started preschool). I am a SAHM and am really feeling guilty that none of them know their letters or the alphabet. Needless to say my son is more of an outdoorsy type and would rather play than learn anything. My girls are similiar but a little better. Any ideas on how to incorporate this into our day. It always seems that kids pay better attention/listen to other adults (teachers) than to thier parents. Is it terrible for me to be ok. with them learning this at preschool vs. me teaching them? There is just so much to do in a day with 3 under 3! It is also really hard to get them all to gather around and "teach" things. Thanks for any help!

 

You can try to integrate it in their play... or to get some fun toys that would help if your kids like electronic toys (the leapfrog ones are good). It's kinda sad though, when I was growing up no parent ever worried about teaching anything to their kids before preschool, now there's that pressure to have 2yo that know letters, numbers etc... Let them be kids!

 

Thanks Fran27! I completely agree, the pressure is ridiculous! LET THEM BE KIDS. I don't know any normal functioning adult that doesn't know their ABC's!

 

My guys are starting to love to sing, so I've taught them the ABC song. Sure they fudge a lot of the letters, but it's a start! We also have old-fashioned wooden blocks that have letters and numbers. I talk about the letters and point them out while we're stacking. Just some ideas!

 

I got a set of letters and numbers that they can play with in the bathtub, that's when I did a lot of teaching their letters. I would just hold up B and say "B," just that simple. Colors are easy, you can just always mention the color of stuff. If they are outside: the green tree, red car, blue sky, orange ball, etc. Even driving: green, red and yellow lights, red sign, white car, and so on. It's pretty easy once you put yourself in that mind set.

 

We do flash cards during meals, it keeps them from fussing about their food and they LOVE doing it! I bought a set at first but once I discovered how much they liked them I started making my own. Like you won't see "P is for Potty" in a normal set of flash cards :laughing: I also do numbers, colors and shapes.
I think just having fun with it is the key.

 

Another thing I did was teach them to play Uno. In the beginning they would just match the color or the picture, before they knew their numbers. But it also helped them learn numbers later on too!

 

Sesame Street!!!! Seriously there is an OLD SS video called "Learning about Letters" (its frm 1986 so its Pre-Elmo and Luis has dark hair LOL)...anyway my kids loved that video and would watch it daily - I'm embarrassed to say they both knew their alphabet by 18 months!

 

Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. The sing-song audio and entertaining visual combo was perfect for them and my kids had the letters and their sounds down cold in three viewings. They are super busy, active kids but that video would draw them in for long enough to get through it (it's pretty short).

ETA: The kids who started K not knowing their letters are really behind because they haven't got a hope of being able to read the 2-5 words per week they are expected to learn.

 

I'm worried that when my youngest sees the letter 'M,' he is going to say McDonalds every time! Thanks to his siblings!

 

Another show that might help with ABC's is Super Why on PBS, it's all about letters and reading. Honestly, I think that show has really helped my two with their letters and the catchy songs have helped with the alphabet.

 

I'm another Sesame Street fan. That was the only show I used to put on for them when they were babies - mainly because it was the only thing to hold their attention. I discovered around 18-20 mos that they did know a handful of their letters. So we just started playing games. We have those fridge letter magnets and I'd ask them to go bring me the A or the B. I think they were 21 mos when they could both do all of them and rarely make a mistake. It's amazing how they just catch on. I wasn't consciously trying to teach them - I wouldn't even know how to teach them. We also have the letter blocks, they have a lot of letter and number puzzles they did alot, and their favorite book for the longest time has been the ABC Dr. Seuss book. We used to read it every night. They really just picked it up themselves with a little encouraging from me. In the last few weeks they have gotten the ABC song down. Again, they just heard it from tv or from a lot of their fisher price musical toys. We never really worked on it.

On the other hand though, I think creative/imaginitive and independent play are equally if not more important skills for a 2 year old. It sounds like your kids are doing just fine.

 

We're just doing numbers right now... just using the books we have at home, and occasionally checking out a number DVD from the library. one thing I was going to say was that for washing hands, my kids would do this all day long so I felt I needed to put a time limit on it... so when I heard a friend sing the ABC song while washing her ds's hands at a playdate I loved the idea. so now, we say "1-2-3 for getting the soap on their hands, then sing the ABC song and then I end with a silly "rinse and dry" phrase.

anyway, I think we'll put some effort into learning, but we are taking our time.

I do the thing about mentioning colors while we're on our walks and the bath toys etc.

 

Singing the ABC song and counting is very different the actually knowing the letter and numbers. I don't think you should worry about that with the 2 year olds. The 4 year old should pick it up pretty fast in preschool and there is certainly not anything wrong with the teacher teaching him that as opposed to you. That is why you pay them the big bucks

 

The preschool teacher in me feels like I need them to know them. Afterall-I was a teacher! So imagine if my friends kids knew whatever it was-and my kids didn't! That said-I think it helps for them to have a basic understanding-but not have to KNOW them specifically. My boys know their capital letters, letters in their name, colors, shapes, and can count to 20. But-they don't recognize the numbers.

Now-that doesn't mean I sat there and drilled it into them. There was Sesame Street, Super Why(great show!) amongst other things. I did do flashcards at night before bed. We did pictures and letters. They loved it-so I went with it. They even did it with their grandmothers.

As for during play-which is when I would "teach" :
-point out the colors of whatever it is you are playing with. If a block is blue-accentuate the B...and make the B sounds. Block starts with B and blue starts with B! You might think they are not listening-but part of them is!

-We would sing the alphabet song throughout the day.

-I would point out letters to them, if they didn't first. I first noticed their interest when they were looking at the writing on my shirt. So I would point out the letters on my shirt, or theirs, or anywhere around the house-in books, magazines, toys, etc.

-When giving them a snack-we would count out the crackers, pieces of cheese, fruit, etc. And I would take their hands and count individually with them.

-We would count the blocks when stacking. If they made something and wanted me to see it-we would count whatever it was they used. Or said what colors they used.

-Read. Read. Read.

-"Play with Food"-They would take spaghetti and say it looked like a letter of the alphabet. So we went with it-and would make more letters.
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A few quick ideas. I didn't do these things every.single.day. Oh-and a HUGE thing they loved-was writing on one of the magna doodle things the letters/numbers/counting. That's a huge hit-and still is! I also got them some Leap Frog products which are awesome! One that was like a board and had all of the letters in the shapes of bones. And I got one for the firdge-it says the letter, the sound it makes, and I think a word that starts with it. Leap Frog is great!

Personally-I wouldn't worry to much about it. Like I said-as long as there is some exposure-they should be fine!

 

"-"Play with Food"-They would take spaghetti and say it looked like a letter of the alphabet. So we went with it-and would make more letters. "

I second this! I hollered at my son many months ago for playing with his spaghetti non-stop and then he showed me how he'd spelled out his name on the table with his noodles. It blew my mind. He's nowhere NEAR spelling it out with a crayon, though. They also love making letter with carrot sticks, celery sticks etc.

 

Great suggestions everyone! We just read a lot and when they are interested I point out letters and numbers. One of my girls is VERY interested and is well on her way to reading (she can sight read and is already sounding out words). I go with her interest and encourage it by getting new books from the library and doing crafts that involve letters. My other DD is less interested, except to write M's on everything (she is like my little zoro!). But when she does display an interest, I use that opportunity.

I guess my point is to follow their leads and just make it part of your daily life. No need to set aside time each day to 'work' with them right now. They are little and don't need that structure (and you probably don't need the pressure to do it). They are sponges and learning while doing everything right now!

 

My kids go to daycare part time, so I cannot take credit for all their knowledge, but we do teach them things at home (along with reinforce what they learn at school). But, like many have said, each kid is so different. Both my boys know shapes & colors. My DS, Conner, can write his name but my DS, Aiden, has no interest. Aiden, on the other hand, can identify all capitol letters & most lowercase letters, along with all the numbers 1-10, whereas Conner knows about 90% of the capitol letters, MAYBE 2 lower case ones, & numbers 1-5 (on a good day) . Both my kids LOVE flashcards. We have some purchased ones, but I want to make some, too. We're now really working on letter sounds & they ask CONSTANTLY what letter a certain word starts with (ie "What's Ball start with?") so then we sound it out (ie "BA-Ball, Ba, Ba, Ba, what makes a BA sound?"). Thanks to Letter Factory, Super Why, & daycare, they know a lot of letter sounds (Aiden more so than Conner). Like Megan said, we work on letters & numbers just around the house...on our clothes, things on the wall, magazines, etc. Our daycare focuses on 1 letter per week, so I kinda follow along at home with their letter.

Does that mean I structure in daily learning time? No. We mainly do it with play, if the boys ask, or if we find a good educational toy (we have various electronic toys that work on letters/numbers). Each of my kids will have a spurt where they'll want to sit down & learn, but then other days, they have no interest. I second the Magnadoodles, that's how Conner first learned how to spell his name!

For what it's worth, my kids were just evaluated by our school district (it was mandatory, I didn't do it with any concerns). The 'child development chart' they used stated the following:

*Identifies at least 4 colors by name correctly --- 3y3m
*Counts ten or more objects (not counts aloud til 10, counts OBJECTS) --- 4y2m
*Prints a few letters or numbers --- 4y4m
*Prints first name (four letters) --- 4y9m
*Reads a few letters --- 4y6m
*Draws a person with at least 3 body parts --- 4y6m
*Draws or copies a complete circle --- 3y3m

So, while I was surprised at how late some of those things seemed, to me, it's good to see that our school district feels that those accomplishments should be on that timeline. That being said, almost all the things achieved after 4 (when they'd enter preschool or a 4 year old kindergarten), are things that the teachers can teach them! Just start planting the seed in your play & they'll be FINE! You have 3 young kids...I think just ensuring they are loved, fed & safe is wonderful enough !

 

Another teacher here, and I never did any kind of flashcards or "formal" teaching with my boys. They did have the Leapfrog letters, and watched the Leapfrog DVD's. What we did do is read to/with them. All that said, we discovered Jon could read at 3 1/2 when we walked in to his room to find him reading Curious George. Marcus had no interest in reading until he was "told" it was time to read in K. Between 1st and 2nd grade, he decided he was ready to really read and jumped about 2-3 reading grade levels over that summer.

That said, the general preschool curriculum goes like this: 3 year olds: colors and shapes. 4 year olds: letters and numbers.

 

We never did anything specific with them to learn letters. They learned some at preschool, but that's it. Having said that, when they started K, there was an expectation to know lower-case letters, but not uppercase (or the other way around. I can't remember). Kids really are all over that spectrum. Some will be proficient readers entering K. Some won't even know all of their letter. K teachers expect that.

So what am I saying? Don't stress about it. Just incorporate letters in to their lives through play. What about letter cutters for the playdough? Or use letter cookie cutters on really cookie dough and let them help. Then spell out their name in cookie letters. Put those letter magnets on the fridge. We loved the Dr Seuss alphabet book and the LeapFrog videos.

 

I am teaching preschool and the area we are in is fairly academic.

I would look into your K curriculum when you DC are around age 4 or so. The above statement is very true around here. K is all day and kids are expected to read some sight words mid - year, kids that dont know their names or letter recognition have a lot of catchign up to do. Some areas are different and more play based (I wish ours was).


Mostly do what PP said, play with words, read....

From age 2.5 + mine helped around the house.

hey helped cut/paste pics for a grovery list

We sang (nursery rhymes actually help develop rhyming skillS)

We played with letter magnets, stamps, etc

We read and counted things

I put thier name on everything so they could recognize it


It was a very little every day.....very little, think minutes here and there. All informal. You will be surprised at how quick it is to get in the habit of pointing things out.


BUT dont worry, you have 3 small people at home- in K/ PreK the teachers are used to a wide variety of skills and will work with you. Have fun and enjoy them!

 

another vote for super y!.. I even told my kids's speech therapist to watch it and she agreed it was a great educational show!
My dd watches and knows a lot of letters...ds is not so interested in tv and says a lot less letters. We have a disel board with big
magnetic letters) to my surprise one day dd just started to bring letters to me and saying the sound of each one...she knew a lot
more than I thought she did!
and of course the abc song..and abc books...

 

My boys really loved the Melissa and Doug wooden number and letter puzzles. They also love the little Leap Frog fridge thingy where you put the letter in and it sings a little song. (They love it a little too much of course.)

 

We have the Fridge Phonics letters from Leap Frog and the Leap Frog Letter Factory, Number Factory and a couple of others. Meghan and Nolan knew most of their letters by mid year in their 1st preschool year (so at almost 4). Liam knew all his letters and numbers (and lower case letters) at 2 1/2. All kids are different.

We did a lot of flash cards and just talking about A is for...B is for.. etc.

 

I agree that you shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself about it. They'll pick it up at some point. I had plenty of kids in my Kindergarten class who came in knowing nothing. No letters, no numbers, only some colors etc. But by the end of the year, not only did they know them, but they knew the sounds, and how to put some of them together to form words. Don't worry. It will happen. But...if you really WANT to do something with them to help them learn (which hey, I'm all for. Why not?) here are a few things I did with my kids to help them learn them.

1. I bought tons of basic alphabet books (like one letter with one word that starts w/that letter on each page) and I would sing the book to them using the alphabet song. But all alphabet books in general are a great thing to have!
2. The foam alphabet letters and numbers that you use in the bathtub. Almost everyone has them (Target, Babies and Toys R us, Walmart etc) and we would play with them while the girls took baths. I would sing the song and we would find the letter that match what I was singing. We would write their name, make small words (cow, take way the c and put an n and you have now etc.)
3. Sidewalk chalk. You can write the alphabet and make up all kinds of games (run to the letter than your name starts with, skip to the letter that CAT starts with etc). And be sure to write their names as often as you can because kids take special interest in letters that relate directly to them!
4. Not sure if your kids are too old for this, but my girls LOVED Brainy Baby ABC's. It's a slow paced but a great dvd for letter recognition and sound. I used to let my girls watch it in bed while going to sleep
5. Alphabet puzzles. One of my favorites was one by Melissa and doug that says the name of the letter as you put it (can be annoying sometimes to the adult, but my girls loved that thing)
6. If they don't know the alphabet song--I used to sing it to them while they waited for something to be ready. At the time, it was their chocolate/strawberry milk (it was the only way they would drink it) and they used to get impatient waiting so I would sing the alphabet song while mixing the power and milk and they knew when the song was done that their milk was ready. Before I knew it, they were singing the song with me (though that was at 18months).
7. The fridge Phonics letter factory that pp mentioned. My girls LOVED that thing too!
8. I guess overall, my girls had a lot of educational toys that taught letters and letter sounds, numbers, colors, shapes etc. but they were also toys that were fun and so the girls were always learning while playing.

Well, that's off the top of my head. If I think of anything else I'll be back, but please don't stress about it. As pp said, there are no adults that don't know their alphabet (unless they are drunk and on the show COPS trying to pass a sobriety test. sad. LOL)

Mel

 

The other posts have so much great advice that I can only add one more thing, it's not mine - and I read in a magazine a while ago. If it's nice out and you can use sidewalk chalk, that would be the easiest, otherwise do it on cardboard or something similar inside. You write out each letter of the alphabet all over the ground out of order and sort of scrambled around. Then make a game where you have to run to a certain letter. You could start with just capitals if you wanted and have all of you race to find and jump on the same letter or take turns or the way I read it, it was just a mom and child so the mom went to the capitals and the child went to the lowercase. However you decide, just the idea of having the whole alphabet spread all over the floor and having to run around sounds like fun to me. We haven't tried it yet, but it sounded like a good way for active kids who might not want to sit still for flashcards, etc.

 

This sounds like such a fun idea! Even if they know all their letters it could still be fun for them. And also a good way to move to the next level with letter sounds and what do things start with. And good for outdoors, or an indoor rainy day activity. Thanks for sharing!

 

With my background as an elem teacher...I couldn't help wanting my girls to learn before attending any formal program, but I believe at this age, they learn through play. Using a lot of descriptive language to describe colors, how many and what shape come naturally from playing with Mega Bloks and having an Magnetic Easel with letters from the Letter Factory where all very natural ways for the girls to learn. There are also a lot of simple projects we did that helped them to develop fine motor skills which also helped them get ready for preschool and now kindergarten.

 

I did work with mine a lot. I went to Barnes and Nobles last summer and bought them each a Preschool workbook and we worked in it all last summer and this summer. I would make them write their name on each page we did and Sarah was able to spell her name rather quickly. Allison just started writing her name all on her own after she started preschool, even though I had worked with her constantly. I had flashcards and such as wel,l and we practiced building words, although they never really caught on to the sight words until just recently after they started preschool. I am a teacher as well, and I have a son who has been at least a grade level behind every year until this year. So, I did work with my girls more out of fear and guilt over my son then anything. I didn't push them, but they loved it so much that I did as much as I could do. I started signing their alphabet to them at 12 months and by 2 they knew pretty much all the signs to their letters and although they don't know as many now, they can still remember some of them. I guess that is how it all started for us, with the signing. Then the leapfrog DVD was a huge hit and the girls learned all of their sounds because of the catchy songs on there. I am a math teacher, so this past summer I really focused on their math skills (simple addition and subtraction) and the kindergarten app on my Ipod was a huge help in that. By the end of the summer they understood basic subtraction and addition and understood what zero meant. They picked up on rhyming words on their own and they love to rhyme, so anywhere we go we do rhyming games. A lot of what we have done has been in the car on the way to places. Singing the leapfrog sounds song from the dvd, the alphabet song, rhyming words...you can do a lot in the car just going places. However, I think a lot depends on the personality of the child. My Sarah is a go getter and loves to learn. She asks several times a day to work on schoolwork and really excels. Allison, however, could just care less and has not learned to the extent that Sarah has. However, Allison seems to do better in a preschool setting where everyone is learning because she has come much, much futher because of preschool than because of learning at home.

 

Daycare does so much of mine. I feel like I have no idea what they should be learning, so I end up just supporting what they are learning at daycare. Right now, they can say their ABCs and count to 20. They seem to have meaningful number usage beyond reciting numbers, i.e. they can see four cheese cubes and identify from looking that there are four cheese cubes. They recognize some letters--K seems popular. They are getting to the point where they can recognize their names, and I think they are practicing spelling them at school--although Jack says J C A K, and Anna usually gets stuck and says A N N N N N N A A A or something. At home, I try to support those efforts by asking them to spell their name, reading to them constantly, pointing out words and what they spell, etc. It's all fun to them, so I don't feel like it's being forced upon them. I think modeling it for them is a lot of it--read, and they will spend a lot of time looking at words; talk to them, and they will pick up speech patterns (I've been noticing that mine use pronouns appropriately--"Daddy and Anna and I put the puzzle together, but you didn't because you weren't home in time." "Daddy is carrying me up the stairs, and then he is going to get Anna.") I think it's just listening to us talk and read and model.