Learning Abc's

Hi N.,
My suggestion is along the lines of Maria's. My Son who is 3 goes to preschool and what they do there is focus on one letter per week, they talk about that letter...explore the sounds it makes and also words that begin with the letter. (I also continue the work at home with him.) That way they can put a fun image with the letter and it helps them remember. I don't think Tristan will ever forget L...everytime we see it he immediatly shouts LOLLIPOP!!! Good Luck!

With my daughter I just concetrated on 1 letter per week. I would put that letter around the house and ask her to find it. I would also ask her to find the letter while we were in the car or reading a book. It worked for me. Good luck!

I got some great movies that my boys really liked. They are made by LeapFrog, and are carried at ToysRUs. We have Letter Factory, and Talking Words Factory, but I think they probably have more out now. My oldest son loved these movies and would go around the house singing the songs! You should give them a try, they seemed to really help for us. Good luck!
S. G.

My daughter just started to sing the alphabet and she recognizes some letters now on her own too. Maybe what I'm doing will help.

They way I started teaching her was I would sing it to her, over and over in the car until I couldn't anymore. We would cheer and clap at the end and she would say...again.

I got her the foam bath letters. I hold one up to her (or when she holds one up to me) I would say it very clear...eye contact if possible....R...That's an R. Aaaarrrr...to give her the sound it makes.

Then I would use it in as many sentences as I could while I had her attention. Thank you for the R baby. Do you want to hold the R? Here, hold the R. I want to hold that R. Can I have the R? Thank you for the R. etc.... It's repeatative but usually a moment later she would pick up that R and say it's name and over pronounced sound.

Hope this helps.

We also had a hard time getting our son to recognize his letters as well as numbers. We used the Letter Factory Video and game! I am learning, the hard way, boys seem to just be a little slower at picking things up and when it clicks it clicks. My son is also 5 and in Kindergarten at St. John Vinney. He just doesn't seem to pick things up as fast as alot of the other kids in his class, we are going to have to hold him back. It was a hard decision, but in talking to other parents, I am finding that alot of boys learn and mature slower than the girls. Also with my son, when we stopped trying so hard to force him to learn these things, he started relaxing more, picking up faster and wanting to learn more. Good luck!!

My son absolutely LOVES the Leapfrog videos. The Letter Factory is the best one to start with. He knew all his letters and sounds they made before he was 3 years old! It goes with the Leapfrog Phonics Refrigerator magnet game. Of course Sesame Street on PBS is also very helpful with letters and numbers. Now that he knows all his alphabet, Leapfrog has another video set that teaches 3 letter words (Cat, etc.), a Math Circus with numbers and a Storybook Factory with reading. I can't tell you enough how easy and fun it is for kids. Good luck!

Hi N.,

I'm kindergarten teacher and a mother of 3. I love the Leap Frog products. Try the the Leap Frog video "Letter Factory". I swear that's how my son learned his ABC's. They can be bought at any Wal-Mart. M.

fisherprice.com has a really good learning abc's game that they can play it really helped my daughter

N., I would say make it a game! Since you have a computer, there are a lot of fun websites out there. And since a lot of kids are visual learners, he could learn his ABC's from playing educational games online! Here are some resources: www.scholastic.com, www.starfall.com (love that one!), and of course www.pbskids.org! Hope that helps!!!!

N.,
There's a great DVD out from Leapfrog called 'The Letter Factory' and it teaches the alphabet as well as phonics. My son absolutely loves it and learned so much from watching it. Another thing you can do is get him a Leapfrog Leap pad. They have lots of interactive learning games your son might really enjoy, bc mine does.

Hi, I am a mother of 2 one is 6 and one is 2. I have had both of them sit and watch Blues Clues ABC and got them the VTech Smile. It helps with all different age groups. I hope that this will help. My 2 year old is already starting to reconize letters and numbers. I would be happy to help with any questions that you might have....Hope that I have givin you some ideas to try...

Hi there, sorry to hear that you are having problems with your son, but remember that every child is different and will learn at their own rate. My daughter is 2 and a half and has known her ABC's for about a year now, and the thing that taught her was the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics. We have it on the refrigerator and whenever I am in the kitchen cooking, doing dishes, etc, she plays with it. She loves it. After a while, we got the lower case letters to add to it, and then we got the one that has 3 letters...she now can recognize all of her alphabet, upper and lower, knows the difference between them....we point out letters wherever we go...the letters on the grocery cart, the cereal box, writing on her shirt, my shirt, daddy's shirt, etc. But, it all began with the toy on the fridge. It is a Godsend. It is pretty inexpensive as well, like $10 at Wal-Mart if I remember right. Good luck to you.
A.

Hey there. Check out fisher-price.com they have an ABC game that my daughter fell in love with.

My in-laws got my kids the coolest magnet toy. Its a leap frog toy. You put the letter in the toy then the thing says what the letter is, then the sound. I thought they weren't really realizing or connecting it to the letters, i thought they just liked the sound and music. However, now before my 3 year old puts the letter in the toy he says the letter outloud.

http://leapfrog.com/media/lf_phase_2/product/15fridgephon...;

when my daughter was about 6 months old we got her an ABC ball from walmart..i think it was Leapfrog or sumthin. anyway, you push the letter and it says the sound of it, what letter it is, and plays a classical music song. and when you spin it, it lights up and sings the ABC song or plays the classical music. Around the same time I also got her to watch Wheel of Fortune (at the time is was for the bright colors and sounds, but she was learning letters and numbers from Pat and Vanna :)

If you dont have the V-Smile gaming(really learning) system, you should look into them and possible get one. its set up in different age groups and tells you on the box what that specific one teaches, that way you can choose from their capabilities at the moment or the appropriate age group. sure the game cartridges are pricy but it works

Try Predoodle workbooks. www.predoodle.com They are erasable and very fun to use.

i thought my oldest son (now 12) had the same problem. his teacher kept telling me to work with him more. he was not interested at all. one night for some reason i pulled out his flash cards while he was in the bath. there was no tv, no one around, ect... he knew all of them! we had to get him away from all other stimulation because he was not "into it" at all. boys in general tend to have less interest in reading, he will problably excel in math.

Hi N.. I have a 3 year old who is very advanced for his age. He has learned the ABC through the Read with Me DVD program with the DVD story of Chica Chica Boom Boom which is a great story about all the letters of the alphabets. I also bought the Kindergarden hooked on Phonics and he learned the sound because I played the Cd at night as he went to sleep. They take in more while they sleep Over time. For identifing the letters I created a game using the bingo idea. Just make 25 squares with the same letter(large and small)together so they learn both upper and lowercase.Do not use a free space. Since there is only 25 spaces and 26 letters, make different cards leaving out letters he may already know. Example Leave out E on one card and T on another and so forth. I am in the process of teaching my 3 year old niece the alphabets and it is more difficult then I ever expected.She is not the least bit interesting in learning so I have to get creative. I am doing this game with her and allow a prize for the winner, a small candy out of the prize jar. It is worth a shot and it is more fun because it is a game and he could win a prize which is the extra motivation he may need. Good luck. P.S I also am make small word bingo cards for my son so he can learn to spell and sound out words on his own using the same idea. This can be helpful for your son when he starts getting spelling words in school and just save up the cards. Over time you can play to refresh his memory on all the words he has learned. I hope I have been helpful. Once again good luck!

Zoophonics is a great program that teaches kids thier letters and their sounds with music and movement. It's fun for parents too.

My son is 3 and has known his ABC's since he was two..he also can count to 30 on his own and knows all of his shapes including octagon and pentagon. The trick is just for them to hear it over and over again. Especially if they hear you then they will have an easier time with it. It's really all about memory. The more they see and hear something the more they will recognize and eventually memorize it. Like with numbers, I have always counted everything loud enough so my son even when he was a newborn could hear me....slowly but surely after hearing it so much I found him counting all alone at like age 1 almost 2....Like we count stairs out loud when we go up and down them. We count fruit or other items while he helps me put them away. In the car out of nowhere I'll start singing the ABC's as loud as I can in a ridiculous way and my son laughs and laughs and sings along with me. Or with either numbers or letters I'll go ONE...and then he'll say TWO! and then I'll say THREE! and so on and so forth. But my point is it's just about making learning an everyday all day thing. it really works.

As several mentioned, there's several Leap Frog toys out there that make the ABCs fun. We have about 3 or 4 of them!

Also, have you tried to musically teach him? Try doing the letters to rhythms. Tap them out. Find favorites songs of his and fit the alphabet to that tune! Music is a GREAT way if he's into it!

what I used is the ABC(all caps n lower case type) and number fridge magnets. I dont know how old you started teaching your son the alphabet, but I started mine at age 2, and it worked. and also, amazingly he learned all of it in 30 mins. and when we're somewhere (bus stop, mall)i look for any poster, and ask him to read the letters. he enjoys it and since he learned it fast, he also worked on reading the cars' plate numbers as well. hope this will help...

My granddaughter learned the alphabet with the alphabet song. When she was a small baby I couldn't think of or remember the words to very many lullabyes and so I frequently sang the alphabet song. At 6 1/2 she still sings it.

I played a silly game with my grandson years ago when he was a baby and he loved it until he was 5 or older. He had an alphabet puzzle with the individual pieces being the letters. He got to pick one letter to take out. I would sing the alphabet up to the letter that was missing, then I would stumble over the letter and make the sound, long and drawn out of that letter. For example: He would take out the letter "f". I would sing A,B,C,D,E,fffffffff. He would giggle and play all over again selecting a different letter. Not only did he learn the alphabet, recognized the letters, and sounds they made, he learned to read when he was two. Have fun, make it a game, and they will learn.

Good luck

LeapFrog makes some great learning DVD's. Maybe that would keep his interest because it is fun.

Hi N.,

Like some of the other mother's suggested, I used the computer with games from Fisher Price and Sesame Street, Winnie the Pooh, etc. to help my daughter learn her ABC's when she was 3 years old, she loved playing those games and learned her colors at 2 1/2. And we also got her the Leap Frog which for her didn't hold her interest as long. Well, every child is different and I think you just have to keep trying - hang in there and hope things work out. Take care.

My son is 4 1/2 and was having the same problem with the alphabet. I've gotten some great advice from people on what to do. Some of their suggestions were to get the alphabet cookies. Pick out a letter, and if he gets it right, he gets to eat it. Also, the foam bath letters work well with him. We got my son the V-Smile for Christmas and it came with a game called Alphabet park and it's really helped him, as well. I dont know about your son, but mine loves video games and computer games so that was a good thing for us. If you do a google search on alphabet learning games or something, tons of stuff will come up. Sing the ABC's all the time, too, like another poster said. He might get sick of you singing it, but it will stick in his head. Hope this helps!

HI,

I don't think it is as important to memorize the ABC's as it is to know what sound each letter makes. My twin daughters didn't know an "A" was an "A" but they knew it made the sound "aaa" . This way...when they get ready to read they know how to sound out words.

On the other hand, I was a little worried that they would write their letters backwards all the time. In kindergarten I looked around the room and realized just about every child in the classroom was writing down at least one of their letters backwards too.

I think it just takes repetition. Don't force it...your child is still really young. He'll come around.

Good Luck,
C.

Dear N.,

.....and, you do realize that young children have a short attention span - also I have known a lot of parents who hold their boy child back from entering Kindergarten for one year. I sure do wish that I had done that. One of my son's best friends was a very bright child and well socialized, but his parents held him back and he gained a lot of advantage in school from being more mature. I know, it would be a difficult year between 5 and 6, but if I had it to do over again, I would do it positively !!

My own very bright gr grand daughter is being made to wait one more year to go to K. because her birthday is two weeks past the cut off date, which is very early in the school year. So I had to work to calm down the rest of the family 'because she is so smart'. She will have a better time and chance in school, and be more prepared to pay attention in class. (That is the key to learning, you know, paying attention)

Play games with him that he likes, and he will pay attention for a longer amount of time. Also, your presence while he is doing a puzzle or making a drawing or art project is like GOLD. You and he will become closer and he will work on it longer, remember he is young and will tell you when he is finished. Just act interested in what he is doing and talk to him like you would a dear friend. He will be fine.

I always say that the year before a child goes to Kindergarten, and the year before they can get their driver's license are the two hardest years in life. But not really, there are lots more hard years, but it does kinda give you an idea about how the children feel.

Sincerely, C. N.