Learning Abc's

Letter Factory video by Leap Frog. We watched this in the car and my kids learned their letters and their sounds in no time. - $10 at target.

Have you tried Leap Frog videos? "The Letter Factory" is great. Both my girls loved the Leap Frog series.

We used the series of leapfrog DVD's on phonics and by two several of ours could recognize and say all the letters and sounds. They are now a staple in our house. For now all you would need is the first one. The fact they are the same company as the fridge phonics if you are talking about the leap set will be a benefit since they will recognize the characters.

Sincerely,
K. B

www.shaklee.net/takecontrol

This is what I did with my boys (they are a year apart). I made up paper plates and on each plate there was the upper and lower case letter. 'Aa' on a plate and so forth. Anyway, I would put them in the living room and spaced them apart for musical chairs, so to speak. The music would play and when it stopped, they had to tell me the sound (not the name...I do sounds first, but you can still do it this way) it made. They had so much fun with this. As their knowledge built, I added more plates of letters. Eventually, we had all of them and of course not enough room, so I would replace a new one with an old one that they said correctly.

I did add chairs to the living room to increase the added size of letters. Now I have a 3yo girl and a thought just occurred to me to do the numbers this way too. I know she'll love it.

Hi S.,
The Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD is really great. My kids loved it!

I have an almost 4 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. they both learned from an ABC book called Brainy Baby. Brainy Baby has 4 books, ABC's, 123's, Colors, and Shapes. I got mine from a dollar store for $1 each. They were the best, very colorful, with pictures to associate the letter. My kids actually preferred these to the more expensive ABC books. They also have a baby laptop, i think it cost $30 at wal-mart. It has a raining letters game. I can't remember the brand name of the laptop, but it is purple and grey. That was all they needed to learn. They basically taught themselves. We would read the book everyday and they played the game. That was it. Good luck to you and your baby girls!!!

S.- My son is also 2 and he learned all his letters from a big playmat we have (like foamy puzzle pieces you put together) and also I have to credit Talking Letters Factory or Talking Words factory (DVD by Leapfrog) you can find them at Walmart, Target ....it's the best- he knew all of his letters by the time he was2- it's amazing!
best of luck
Nikki

Concentrate on picking out things in the house or yard that starts with "A". Get youngsters to find things that start with that for a week. Go on to "B", "C", etc.

Hi Sarah, it is nice to see another mother of twin toddlers whose yard is full of weeds and whose house has enough dust bunnies to fill an easter basket! My twin girls are 20 months and we have a puzzle of the ABC's, and also listen to music that has the ABC song (we also just sing the song alot!). We bought the Leap Frog letter factory, but I'm not crazy about it. Maybe I will like it as they are a little older, but we are not crazy about TV/video's, so I'll have to see... those are some other suggestions to start to teach them! Best of luck with your twins and that dirty house!!! F.

Hi S.. I don't know if you let your kids play on the computer, but www.starfall.com is a great site too. Maybe you can let them take turns on here. My son used it and a friend of mine has a little one who could recognize more than half of the alphabet by the time he was 2!! Good luck!!

J.

The Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD helped alot! I also got foam letters for the bathtub and my girls used to pick up a letter and ask what it was. Now they pick them up and tell me! There are also alphabet snack crackers that my girls love because they point out the letters then eat them. Hope this helps and good luck!

Look at Better Late than Early:

http://www.homeschool.com/articles/bookexcerpt/default.asp

As a teacher and mom to a 2 yo, I can give a little advice about reading and excellerated learning. Don't sweat it. Most kids who don't learn to read early, easily catch up with those kids who are pushed early, without the stress on themselves and their families. Because they're learning it when they are developmentally ready, instead of being pushed to do it early. A 2 1/2 yo should be able to recite most, but not all, of the alphabet. At 3 they should recognize most of the letters and START learning the sound associations. I would concentrate on singing the alphabet
song. If your kids already know it, then just talk about 1 letter a day for a very brief amount of time. Don't expect them to master it. At 2, exposure only is very appropriate.

BTW, I loved your description of yourself! I see so many "Super Moms" who say they have spotless houses, sew all their own clothes, feed their children only organic foods and all sorts of totally unrealistic stuff. It's nice to see a REAL mom out there!

My 2 1/2 yo got Letter Factory for Christmas and has really only watched it a handful of times. Already she can tell you all the letters and their sounds. Sounds like the easy way out of teaching your kids, but it's the best 1/2 hr of tv they can watch!

I urge you to look more into delayed academics or better late than early (http://www.excellenceineducation.com/better_late_than_ear...) studies are finding more and more that all this pushing kids to read more do more be more at an earlier age is really hindering them later on in life. did you know that by age 12 you can't tell the difference from the average child who learned to read at 4 or learned to read at 9 why then take away their childhood of l=playing which is the way children sort things out and figure out their place in the world from them. They are two they are already growing so fast sit back enjoy it read to them back with them clean with them play with them. Make part of your day to go for a walk even in the rain we have found some AMAZING things we would have missed had we not walked on some rainy days!

I will also include a post I made some months ago about a mom who wanted to send her 2yo to preschool but the general idea stays the same
read you are your child's first teacher and
"Please Do Not “Home School” Your preschool/Kindergarten Child!

Recently I have read quite a few letters from parents who are ‘home school’ their children, ages two to six, and who have questions and concerns about what to ‘teach’, what to do, how to be, what rhythm to use, and what materials or resources to buy for this task! Often parents are asking if they can move their young child ‘ahead’ to a grades program as the child seems to be ‘ready’ to move on! Each time I receive or read one of these letters, written by very well meaning adults, I cringe!

This is why: being at HOME with your children is the HOME SCHOOL of the Waldorf world! Just being at home, following your daily routines, including the children, is the HOME SCHOOL of the child who has not yet experienced seven springs (or Easters).

However, it is not being at HOME in the way we do in this modern century or modern times with all of our entertainment gadgets and inventions. The task of the parent with children under seven springs is to create and sustain a home rhythm that would have been very strongly present before the 1960s. I say the 1960s because that is when almost every household had acquired a TV, a dishwasher, and dryers….not to mention all the other boxes and machines that have come along since. In addition, at that time, almost all households had only 1 car, not two, and Daddy usually took it to work, or on the farm, shared a car with all the relatives living around the farm.

Imagine, if you could, that you go around your home and unplug all those cords! Imagine that you have unplugged those cords, and disabled the outlets, except for the refrigerator and the freezer, and you have no access to a vehicle for most of the day. Now you are back in the 1950s…..ok, you can keep the washing machine (they came with wringers by the way I can still recall turning my grandma’s for her….). Now you have the ideal setting for a Waldorf Home Kindergarten Experience.

Waldorf education in the schools for the younger children is an attempt to re-create the HOME in the school……you ARE at home, so make it a HOME….not a storage place for all the grown up toys that have been collected……create a home where breakfast is cooked and served, dishes are set on a table with a cloth and some flowers or beautiful arrangement in the middle of the table, where please and thank you are heard, where food is passed around in pretty dishes………..where butter has its own tiny knife, where the smells of the soup pot fill the house, where the garden is tended each day, where the floors are swept, and the closets are tidy, and the children have ‘work’ to do each day, with you or with Daddy, and the rhythms are in place!

Home rhythm is what is missing in our culture: it went away with the electric light, and now has nearly vanished with instant gratification and instant entertainment and 24 hour stores and literally the loss of a strong connection with nature! Hardly anyone observes sunset or sunrises any more……our homes are curtained and shut off from the seasons, and our eyes are glued to the SCREEN in front of us. Home rhythm is the critical piece for home schooling the young child, and we must revive this knowledge and provide a platform for parents to use as an anchor, which literally does not cost anything, not even one dime!

Using a curriculum for a young child at home takes the activity out of the daily rhythm that should be in the home already, makes it artificial, sets it aside, makes it too conscious-raising! Now we will learn! That bringing of ‘now’ awakens the child, hardens the nerve sense system, forces them out of the dream-time that surrounds them with beauty and grace, and clips off part of their childhood……….Now we will color, Now we will do a poem, Now we will sing this song and so on………the singing and the poems should arise naturally, out of the rhythm of the day!

When you make the bread on a particular day, you knead and knead, and out of the rhythm of that motion, your voice emerges and you sing…….Blow wind blow and Go mill go, so the miller can crack the corn, and the baker can take it and into bread bake it, and bring us a loaf in the morn! You sing about bread and grain and bakers and millers because you ARE making bread or muffins or biscuits…………it makes sense to you and to the child! You sing about washing, you sing about cleaning, you sing about angels at bedtime, you bring integrity and rhythm to the day in your home, with your children! You say a poem about chickens when you feed them! You bring the table blessings when you eat. You have a song about the wind when are outside, taking a walk, working in the garden, and so on……what you bring in your home is rich and repeated and steady and the children know that when the leaves begin to fall, mama sings that song! Every year! They count on it and they count on you, and this beautiful stability enters their thinking and their bodies and gives them strength and wisdom and prepares them to enter the world as free human beings.

In a daily rhythm, you can examine your life and think of how to order the tasks and chores: mostly they fall into several distinct categories: taking care of our clothing, our homes, our gardens, our food, someone else, and creating what is needed…….in those general areas, we can begin to build a daily rhythm for the children and ourselves………we clean our clothes on this day: including bed clothes and human clothes and dolls’ clothes, and so on. We wash and fold and hang out to dry and iron…..another day we take care of our home: we sweep and polish and dust and shine, we wash the porch, the surfaces, and we beautify the nature table…….on another day, we prepare our weekly foods, we garden, we harvest, we grind, we bake, we can, we dry, we glean, and organize our cupboards or bake a pie or cookies for the jar……………..on another day, we go visiting! We share what we prepared, we bring a small gift, we perform a small chore, we help our neighbor or parents or friends to construct or fix something, we trim and rake, we prepare lunch together, and enjoy the company of others……….these daily rhythms are so strongly needed for the whole family and the art of economizing and using our resources wisely is needed by everyone on this planet.

For the daily feeling, for me at least, the mornings are busy, lots of physical activities, lots of movement, lots of energy, and a mid morning break with snack and tea, is good, followed by an out breathing time with a walk outside for fresh air or play……..then perhaps a quieter period after lunch with reading aloud, looking at picture books, telling stories, working on the handwork by the cozy hearth, singing some quiet songs as fingers work the yarn or needles, then a resting time, followed by a slower pace towards the evening meal preparation, then the familiar comfort of warm bath, cozy bed time, story, candle, singing, and so on……drifting into sleep with a feeling of a day well spent, well balanced, well brought.

Provide for the young child a box of art items, that can be brought out when requested, with beeswax stick crayons, in red, yellow, blue, green, gold, brown, and violet. Have at hand, nice thick paper with rounded corners, in various sizes, for using when requested. Do not allow the children to just scribble a bit on many pages, keep a reverence for the clean white paper and the box of crayons, care for them, store them carefully away, and write on the paper the date and name of the child and honor the work that has been brought. Often the parent must sit right at the table, perhaps handwork at hand, being there, while the child colors…..also the same for painting, once a week or so, bring out one color of Stockmar Watercolor paint, premixed, in a small jar, and have ready a sheet of thick water color paper, rounded at the corners, lay it on a board, bring the rag, and the brush and the water jar, and allow this young child to paint carefully, while you sit nearby, with your handwork or mending, and just be there…..children 3 and 4, can paint with 1 color, age 5 and 6 can learn to use 2 colors…….keep it simple, and save the paints and they will last for years! Have at hand, Lemon Yellow, Prussian Blue, and Karminrot. You can order these directing from Mercurious.com as a homeschooler. Later, add Golden Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, and Rotviolet…..

Children and adults need more sleep than we allow in our time. Early bedtimes and rising with the sun are good habits for everyone and leave us feeling healthy and well. I have a natural feeling that if we leave our windows uncovered, the child will rise with the sun and be refreshed and ready for the day……bedtime for children up to seven springs should be at 7 pm. This is quite unusual to see families aware of this need: I see chronically fatigued and sleep deprived children and adults everywhere! Children up to seven springs need 12-14 hours of sleep per day…..if they cannot rest easily, examine the amount of brain stimulation they are receiving in the form of screens! For some children, screens can produce a brain activity like that of a person who just took several shots of espresso! Remove the screens in your home, from your child’s access, and you will find, over several months, a gradual and welcome return to natural sleep rhythms.

A home kindergarten is a beautiful adventure based on real life with real people and a house or apartment, and a dedication to rhythm, beauty, warmth, and health! Too often I hear young parents say, well, I have to do something with the kids to keep them busy while I get stuff done! So we train our children, then, to immerse themselves in an electronic virtual world of ‘mind numbing entertainment’ while we rush about to load the dishwasher, reheat an already cooked product in the microwave, download the latest computer program…….talk on the telephone……try to shovel in the mountain of plastic toys and parts into a closet or toy box….wish for a dryer that also folded the clothes……and so on……….and so on………this in itself divorces the child from her own world, his own work, her ability to feel confident about being competent, capable, and proud of what has been accomplished in this day. The child needs the full period of time of seven springs to play, to imagine with a few objects, to be quiet and to be busy, to rest and to run, to help others and to wonder. After the seventh spring, the life forces are freed up for memory work, for learning the letters, for directed academic projects and activities. Forcing or even enabling a young child into more directed educational activities is like forcing a tulip to bloom in winter: you can do it, but that bulb will never be as healthy again, it has spent its forces, it has weakened its natural state of development, for a temporary benefit. Be patient and rest in the knowledge that you are on the right path.

Please do not buy expensive K teaching manuals or curriculums. Buy a few books on how to knit, how to grow a bio dynamic garden, how to cook simple whole foods (Nourishing Traditions is a great one), a song book if you don’t know any songs, learn to play an instrument (I highly recommend a Choroi Pentatonic Flute and books at prometheanpress.com), a wonderful broom and dustpan, some lovely bowls for baking and mixing……….and sit down to examine your lives and see how you can bring daily rhythm into your home. The parents must work together on this effort, and support one another, and it is very good to gather once a week with likeminded families for play and social activities and outings, and sharing. If you can commit to spending 2 hours in the morning on the day’s activity, 1 hour outside each day in play and exercise, 1 hour each day in resting, story telling, and handwork……you will have a home rhythm that is satisfying and better than any kindergarten anywhere! This is the ideal for the school life, later, those first six years at home, with mama or papa, spent in a useful healthy rhythm and time for the inner forces of imagination to develop and flower. In time, the academic portion of the learning begins either in a more formal home school in the Autumn after seven springs, or in a school setting."

-mj

I was told to try the Leapfrog "Letter Factory" movie. It is great. It teaches them the letters and the sound that they make. I put it in the van on road trip and it keeps them entertained and educated. Perhaps you can rent it first to see if they would enjoy it.

My girl is two and she recognizes most of her letters on most days. She goes to daycare and I think they may do flashcards, but at home we only do fun learning like magnets on the fridge and ABC puzzles.I dont use alot of elecronic stuff...we are pretty old fashioned!

(Forgive me for the length of this post - I just have so many ideas I couldn't stop myself. I really love this subject)

Little Post-It Notes!! Write "Mom" on one of the little post-it notes, tell them what it says, and very seriously, stick it to your forehead. When they laugh, look at them like you don't know WHAT they could POSSIBLY be laughing about. They'll laugh even more.
Then you can write their names, and have fun sticking labels to things. (Especially if you have a pet. Cats look so indignant when you stick a post-it on them.)
Think "less is more" - they will ALWAYS learn more from interacting with a real human than any video or fancy toy. Save 'em for when you want to take a shower or they're stuck in the backseat of the car, bored. But if you're interacting with them anyway, you don't need an expensive toy or video, just your imagination and maybe a few plastic or foam letters, pen and paper, or anything around the house with writing on it. Letters are everywhere!

READ TO 'EM! As much as they can stand. At this age, most kids do best with non-fiction (at least that's what our Montessori program recommended and it seems to be true.) Picture books, science-y books, anything that describes the world around them. When they are a little older, fiction has it's greatest impact. To really touch the reader, to draw them into a story, to get them to REALLY love books, there's nothing quite like a novel that's just right for them. (Not too hard, not too scary.)

Dr. Seuss. Possibly the greatest genius the world has ever known. "Hop on Pop" and "Green Eggs and Ham" are good beginner ones, as is the "ABCs" one. Even "The Cat in the Hat" only has 220 different words.

Just have letters around, foam letters for the bathtub, a simple letter puzzle. If a kid is old enough to recognize several animals and imitate the sounds they make, they can start mapping the names and sounds of letters. Mix up lower case and capitals - so many times kids learn just the capital letters, but in regular written language, it's mostly the lower case ones. It takes much longer to distinguish between "b" "d" P" "q" and "g" because thoe depend on how they are oriented, which is unusual. Think about it, when they are learning shapes, an upside-down triangle or heart is still recognizable as a triangle or heart. An upside down cup is still a cup. They've generalized that rule and it takes a while to realize that some letters are a tricky exception. (Not to mention how much "l" and "I" and "1" all look alike.)

Have a few foam letters at the table during breakfast, and see if they can pick out the "O". Or round up all the foam letters before bathtime, while the water is filling. "We still need the 'Q' - can anyone find the 'Q'?" (Warning: If you're not careful, they may REFUSE to get into the bath until every last letter is located.)

READ to them, as much as YOU can stand! Get into the habit of CONSISTENTLY pointing to the words as you read, so it becomes natural to scan left to right, then top to bottom. If there is a picture of a named object, point to it, and then the word. ("See, there is the moon, and here is the word 'moon'.")

Play hide and seek with letters - "Where's the A?" Make letter shapes of of snacks, like pretzels. Try to make them pancakes one morning in the shape of their initial. Look in your pantry and you'll see thousands of words, often right next to a picture of the same thing.

And recognizing logos is a skill very much like reading, too. They might be able to recognize the logo of their favorite crackers or restaurant. Read the signs on the road. My kid was about 3 when we were driving home from the park. He looked out the window and sounded out "Buh" "Uh" "Mmm" "P" "Bump!" completely on his own and out of no where. My husband said "Yeah! And here's the bump!" Then they did the same thing for the stop sign, they sounded it out, and then stopped.

Books books books. Buy 'em. Borrow 'em. Let them see YOU reading for pleasure. (Yeah, in your copious "spare time" HA!) But, even if they just see you perusing the newspaper or a magazine for a few minutes here and there.

I'm not crazy about the "educational" DVDs so much - they won't get nearly as much out of it as they will playing games with you. But if they do regularly have some TV time (like when mom takes a shower), you can choose something that has some exposure to letters. I personally can't stand any of the Leap Frog things, the videos, the vast majority of their "educational" toys. (My husband got a few of the letter factory videos and the kids like them OK, but... I find them irritating, the many people find that Barney the Purple Dinosaur irritating.) I have a "They Might Be Giants" DVD called "Here come the ABCs" thats fun. And when they are a little older, there's good old Sesame Street. For my older child, we ordered some old "Electric Company" classics. It's hilarious to see Morgan Freeman decked out in his "Easy Reader" clothes, using this 70s slang.
"Groooooooovy Baby."

Read to 'em! Take them to the libary or local bookstore for storytime. Or just as a habit. For a while we had a Thursday night habit of Moe's burritos and then the bookstore. (Don't buy a book everytime - introduce the concept of a "Wish List" if you need to.)

I wouldn't try to go back into time and recreate the 1950s. I understand what The Waldorf folks are getting at - there are lots of distractions and easy exposure to inappropriate things. But do you really want to have to go down to the local library (especially if you have to walk because Daddy took the car to work) and use the card catalog, worrying about whether your two-year-olds are making too much noise, while you find a book on baby animals so your kids can see what a baby possum looks like? (A recent request from my kid, as an example.)
Or would you prefer to go to Google.com, select the "images" option, and type in "Baby possum"? I rest my case for technology. Besides, it's not like I'm Amish.

Here's another great use of the computer for pre-readers. Considering that the whole point of reading is to gain access to literacy, show them how words are useful because they can save their ideas. Sit down with your kids and help them make up a story and write it into a text editor. They may be a little young for this, but it makes the most impact when they see THEIR own words in print, when it's really thier story that they are dictating to you. Read it back to them, word for word. Print it out and read it to their dad or mail it to the grandparents. Save a copy for the scrapbook.

Here's another good one using a word processor. Type in a few letters. Use the font option to make them really big. Change the colors. Change the style. Have the kids type in a few random letters and "make" you pronounce it. Then letter them add one letter after another and laugh while you have to pronounce "hjyuiavl" "Please!! No! Not another letter! You kids are too hard on me!" (In my house, that would cause unstoppable giggles as they make mom do the letters game.)

There are lots of cool things you can do on the computer with them, and that's not even considering some of the fun children's websites like starfall.com, or enchanted learning. (PBS and Noggin also have some good ones, like Caillou)

My son had very good diction at two, so we played the "big words game" which he LOVED! We'd say a big word
(lots of medical terms are good, like "tonsilitus", "mastectomy", "appendectomy", etc.) The catch was when we said "Constantinople", he would shout "ISTANBUL!!!" (We had been listening the the Constantinople song.)

Remember those "magnetic poetry" kits that were so popular a few years back? I made something similar by getting some magnetic sheeting (office stores sell magnetic business cards and 5x7 size sheets you can cut up.) I cut them into long strips and started with the Dolch words that I found online. ("Dolch" words are the ones used most frequently in children's books, like "the" "and" "be" "his" "her") I cut those so that there was one word per piece, and then added fun words. (There aren't a lot of nouns or adjectives in the Dolch words). Because my son is enjoying potty humor, I put in words like "smelly" "socks" "feet" "toes" "nose", but also "cat" "dog" "house" and other common objects. So the game is to put together silly sentences for him to read. The silly sentence this morning was "A little dog can be smelly."

A lot of these ideas for the games and things I got from the book "Native Reading" by Timothy Kailing. That one is more about teaching young children (VERY young children) to read, but not in a rigorous, academic, "pushing them too early" way. It describes how to create a home environment where letter and word play is just a natural extension of social play. http://www.nativereading.com/

Also Jim Trelease has a classic book called "The Read Aloud Handbook" and Mem Fox's "Reading Magic." (The last two are more about reading aloud to your kids, why it's sooo benficial, and many great suggestions for books, and tips on getting the most out of the experience.)

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/
http://www.memfox.net/welcome.html

With my daughter, I sang the ABCs to her every night before bed (soft and slowly and enunciating each letter) like a lullaby. We also went to The School Box and bought the cardboard/paper ABCs like you see in classrooms and hung it up in her room and went over the abcs with her that way. By 18 months, she knew her alphabet and could identify letters by sight and knew how each sounded.

That said, I was staying at home with her all the time and had the luxury of time -- lots of time. Besides, that's not what most 18 month olds are like. Also, now that she's five, she reads on pretty much the same level as the other kids in her class so I don't know that it gave her much of a leg up. Maybe some but all that work didn't turn her into Doogie Howser.

I think what you are doing is great. If you want ideas on other ways to introduce learning into play here are a few:

-- Puzzles (for letters, numbers, clocks, maps, etc.)
-- write on a piece of paper (or you can buy cards that already have the top and bottom lines and the dotted line in the middle) words like "bed" "door" "chair" "potty" "sink" and put them all over your house (I did that too) and point out the word for the item when you are near it -- supposedly helps with kids' getting that letters make words that mean things
-- When they're a little older there are some great websites and software out there. My favorite is starfall.com
-- You're doing great!