Recognizing letters/numbers

Drew's in preschool, and it's going okay, but I know some kids his age know all of their numbers and letters by sight. He's not quite there yet (not that I'm worried about him - I know he'll be fine).

I would like to work with him a little at home on recognizing letters and numbers. How did you or are you doing it? Songs, books, coloring books? Preschool does a kind of one letter a week thing which I've considered.

Also, curious if you respond - how old were your kids when they knew most/all of the letters?

I feel like his brain is a sponge and I'd love it to absorb important things. He's constantly learning new words and he's gotten into the "Why"'s, which hasn't irritated me yet - I love the challenge of continuing to answer until he's satisfied. It really hit me recently since we borrowed a library book "Cecily G and the 9 Monkeys". By the end of the two weeks (and maybe even by the end of the first week), he could point to all 9 monkeys and tell me their names and the listed attribute, word for word in the story. If he can keep up with monkeys' names, I believe he has the capability to know all (or at least most, or some!) of his letters.

Anyway, I'm not sure where to start - right now, I've started drawing a letter on paper or a whiteboard over and over for a few days, talking about what it is and some words that start with that letter. It's not really fun for him and doesn't seem to be sticking. I probably need to put more energy into it and be a bit more creative, so I'm looking for ideas. Thanks!

 

One of my DDs knew all her letters and numbers before turning 3. She was just REALLY into it and we went with that. Now she is starting to read. We didn't really do anything with her except to read to her and point out the letters when she asked us. My other DD started to get into it after she turned 3. I'm not sure when she learned all her letters but now she knows them all (3y8m), and is starting to be able to write them too. For her my DH downloaded some games on his iPad (I'll have to ask him for specifics) in addition to reading to her. The girls also love SuperWhy and WordWorld and I think those really helped them learn their letters too.

Oh another cute game my sitter plays with them is she writes uppercase and lowercase letters on stickies and then they play a matching game with them. They match the big letter with it's little letter. They both love stickers so this works well for them. Then they go thru magazines and pick up pictures of things that start with the letters, cut them out, and glue them on the paper too.

 

Mine recognize some, but definitely not all.

 

Mine too...they know most of their letters and some numbers. I just use books and drawing and I let them point out letters and numbers on shirts I wear.

 

Mine were in the 2.5-3 range when I taught them letters and numbers. I got a set of letters and numbers they could play with in the bathtub, that's what worked for me! It was a game, they would pick a letter and I would tell them what it was.

 

Mine knew all of their letters by 2.5. I had no clue when kids learned letters, so when we renovated their playroom (they were 20 months old), we did stencils of letters on the walls and put up words near stencil pictures (zoo near some animals, bugs near insects, ocean near some fish, etc.). Piper and Cricket loved singing the alphabet song and would point to each of the letters on the wall as they sang. Once they were pretty certain of the letters on the wall they started asking about letters in books, and voila, they learned them all. We didn't do flashcards or any other "learning" type activities... just had the letters around to see and I guess we talked about them a lot.

Oh - Kate's post remineded me, we also had magnetic letters for the refrigerator and foam letters for the bath tub. So maybe we focused on letters more than I realized!

 

Mine just sort of absorbed them. DS (10) really learned them well in K4 at home with me. I really wouldn't stress about it. Just encourage it when he's interested. We use a lot of Leap Frog toys and DVD's at home. DS (8) learned his letters and sounds with Letter Factory when he was younger than 2. That was just him. The twins are much more typical, picking up some here and there. They don't know them all (that I know of), but they are learning them. I know it'll come. They ask about them on signs and TV, etc. So I just answer their questions.
I actually think Joshua may be trying to read, but I'm truly not ready to teach them how to read. If he's going to read early he'll do it, but there's really no point in pushing it (IMO).

 

As a former teacher I wouldn't start them in a sit down and learn your letters session yet. They will learn them and learning them early has no bearing on how smart they are or how well they will do in school. That said DS knows his letters and finds them everywhere. IT is not from me "teaching". I hvaen't taught anything other than the letters of his name in a little book I made for him. He just picks them up and mostly form watnign to have letters of family members written on his paper when he is coloring. DD know about half of them. They both recognize all numbers to 10, can count them as well. I on purpose haven't put mine in preschool yet as they will have plenty of school ahead of them. If you want to encourage here would be my ideas
1-go to library and read the books many times through out the week
2-get some puzzles/toys with letter/numbers to play with
3-write letters/words when they are coloring
4-point them out on signs and other places when you see them

Also one of my pet peeves as a 1st grade teacher is to teach the lower case letter first. They are so much more important than capital. And when you teach them to reecognize/write their name, don't do it in capital letters. Other wise they just have to relearn in school.

 

Mine learned their letters and numbers (1-9) just before they turned 2. I credit Sesame Street, those Leap Frog Fridge magnets - we played a lot of games with them, and puzzles and books. We never really pushed it, they just picked it up.

 

My boys only know a few letters and numbers. My Dd learned them before she was 2. She only had to be told once what the name of them was and she picked it up. My boys are very different from that and have only learned the ones they associate with something, example: Captain America has an A on his forhead so they know that one lol

 

L&L knew all of their letters by 3 & I don't know when they learned all of their numbers, but it has been quite awhile. They started learning their letters first when they were watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory dvd. Great for learning letters & their sounds. Then, we have just reinforced it here & there with books and they are doing the one letter a week thing at preschool right now.

 

DDs knew letters by sight/sound at or during age 2 and #0-10 around then as well. (they got screened for 3 yr old preschool and knew them then- dont know how long they had known them previously) It was nothing 'packaged' that we did...we had the Leapfrog magnet toys, DVDs, and I read to them A LOT. They were VERY interested in words/letters etc.- numbers , not so much.

3 & 4 yr old preschool reinforced it through play and crafts.

I teach 3 yr old preschool and about 1/2 my class knows letters and #s 1-10 (a few know letter sounds too) and the other half does not. My kids range from 3y 3 m to 4y 1 m. All but one or two kids recognize their names and some of their friends names. We dont focus on academics so much, rather do a lot of crafts for fine motor skills and touch on letters/sound and numbers. We talk about shapes and colors more (which is part of the 3 yr old statewide curriculum).

At 3 we want them to:

recognize their name
count out loud up to 10
recognize 4-5 letters
recognize #0-5
know 5 colors
know basic shapes
wait in line
follow two step directions
use scissors
draw a line, circle, & 'T' shape
know gender & age
attend to a short story
run, hop, stand on one foot briefly, ride a trike
use the potty independently


anything else is a bonus. Our kids come from wide a varied backgrounds---but all have supportive families. Some kids are have mastered some of the skills above already and others are still working on them. Some have the academic skills but not the gross motor and vice versa. It is totally kid-variant on their interest and prior knowledge!

 

I'm only slightly embarrassed to say that my kids know their numbers solely based on one episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse that they watch over and over and over and over (the Number Round Up episode). After we figured out that they did know most 0-9, we bought some of those foam numbers for the bath to keep practicing. The get 6/9 and 2/5 mixed up sometimes, but they're right like 75% of the time.

As for letters---well, they call them numbers and know exactly 0 of them, but I am not stressing. It's the last thing I'm worried about. I was shocked enough with the numbers, that was all on their own.

 

My twins will be 3 at the end of January and my dd knows 23 letters of the Alphabet. My ds knows 12. They both know their numbers 1-11 and dd knows a couple more but I haven't counted.
We do flashcards. We've been doing them for a long time and they have a picture on the front and we started with that and now we do the letters on the back as well. My dd can also write a couple letters and some numbers but we're working on it. She LOVES to draw and write so she has time to "practice" but my ds doesn't care to draw so he doesn't even try. I'm in no rush but I sure do love to read to them and have them "read" to me.

 

great thread, so interesting to read what everyone has said!

I loved the part about learning in lower case. that's a great reminder, I think I usually write in lower case, but I think my dh writes in upper case... it always bugged me, but I couldn't pin point why I thought he shouldn't write in upper case.

Ours sort of know numbers, they repeat lots of numbers, but they get them mixed up... they both jump to say 4,5 and then some of the other numbers. My ds can recognize 0-9 when written, and even out of order.

as for letters, we haven't looked at those yet, but I like the idea of taking it slow and focusing on the letters in their names.

 

Thanks for all the replies!! It looks like lots of your kids are way ahead of him - he just hasn't been as interested in learning them...

After I posted this, I talked to his preschool teacher and found out that they don't really stress them knowing their letters until the 4-yr-old class...anyone who knows them now is just a bonus.

Thank you for these!! We do most of these, and have quite a few number/letter toys, but he's just not very interested... If I do work with him, I will remember the comment about lowercase letters - I had never thought of that and it makes so much sense!!

Love this!!! Thank you so much!! Way more than his teacher gave me, so it gives me a good feel for what's appropriate for his age. (And it feels good that I can check most of those off )

I don't want to push him too fast, but I know that I loved to read and he currently loves books. It seems like he'll enjoy reading more if he's good at it, so I want to make sure he doesn't get behind.

 

My two know their letters and numbers. I don't work with them a whole lot, but my mom does and so does my husband. They have big foam letters for the bath tub and I think that's where they first started picking it up, b/c they'd play with them in the tub and then they started with "M is for Mommy, J is for Janice" (my mother) etc. My husband does flashcards with them, and I know my mom plays memory game with them that is matching letters and colors.

Also, I have picked up little foam art kits from Wal-Mart that are $5 a pack. It's a piece of foam in the shape of a piece of paper and then little foam letters and shapes that you stick on to the paper. The girls call it doing arts and crafts and each time they put a letter on the foam they ask me what that letter is, so I think they learn that way too.

 

How did you or are you doing it? Songs, books, coloring books? Yes to songs, books, coloring books, we bought a dry erase board and they write a few letters. Honestly, the daycare spends more time with them on their letters and numbers. They knew all of their letters and numbers by the time they were 3. I think Alice is figuring out the tens column of numbers. She was talking about the clock two or three days ago and said, "now it's forty four." What? Then I asked her in the car yesterday and she said the time was "twenty three." (5:23) So I'm not sure what to make of that yet.

As an aside, Alice can do all of the physical things in the list, but Royce refuses to ride a bike. He will sit on it and push with his legs, but refuses to pedal.

 

I am a deaf parents so I had to be sure that both of my kids stay on TOP of everything. We used Leapfrog DVDs, Signing Times Vol. 1-10, flash cards, and play counting cheerios, letters foams in bathtub, and etc. I believe that all kids from 2-5 yrs old will blossom at their own pace and it does help when the parents are also teaching as well that a bonus too. My twins are in preschool this year and both are doing well. I must admit that I am proud of Justin's ability to read & math advancing himself to 3rd grade level but his social, verbally, and engaging communications & friends are a big problem for us. Rianna, on the other hands is just a normal typical preschooler learning as she goes.

We just had Justin's preschool screening test done a few days ago and now we are waiting for a phone call to see if he will get help in the little area with social issue.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Diana