Teaching your kids the alphabet doesn’t have to be difficult if your kids enjoy the learning process. When children want to learn, learning is not a chore, it is a pleasure. So how can you teach your kids the alphabet in a fun way? Fortunately, there are many strategies you can use to introduce children to the alphabet and letter sounds. Here are 5 tips you can try with your own children.
Start with one letter at a time
Don’t overwhelm your child by trying to teach him the entire alphabet at once. Introduce a letter, work on the sound of that letter, and have them recognize it in words. You can start with A and work your way up to Z or work on the letters in your child’s name before moving on to other letters.
Point out the initial letters
When you are with your toddler or preschooler, point out the words around him in his environment, such as posters, cereal boxes, clothing, or anything that contains words. Point to the first letter and tell your child the name of the letter. Have your child repeat the letter to you. After pointing to the letter to your child several times, ask him to look for it somewhere and point to it. Make it a game and make a fuss for the kid every time you find the letter. You can even have themed letter days with your kids. All day you can focus on one letter and have fun coming up with ideas for each letter.
Stay positive
Never be negative and discourage your child if he makes a mistake. If your child makes a mistake, tell him it was a good try and then correct the mistake. Show them the correct letter and then spend some time reinforcing the correction. Once again, make a fuss about how many times your child does well.
Play an alphabet game
No two children are the same, so their interest in games will be different. Find a game that your child finds fun and play it fairly regularly. One idea is to enter a letter for the game. Point it out several times and make the letter sound with your child. Then have the child go around the house and collect 10 things that have the letter and / or things that start with the sound. Once the child has finished, sit down with him and ask him to point to the letters of the collected items or which objects begin with the sound of the letter.
Another game idea is to teach your child the sound of the letter and then have your child say as many words as he can think of that start with that letter. You can write down all the words your child says and then make a fuss over all the words your child knows. You can ask them to point to all instances of the letter in the words you have written. Words may not only start with the letter you are working on, but may appear in various other places in the word list.
Practice on paper
Children not only need to recognize and pronounce letters, they also need to learn to print the letters of the alphabet. You can do this on your own by simply printing out a sample letter and asking your child to copy it. However, some children need a little extra help to form the letters and really benefit from tracing the letters several times before attempting to do it without a template. Fortunately, there are many resources online where you can print these letter tracing templates. If your child starts to get frustrated, take a break. You want them to have fun learning and support you throughout the trip.
