Learning Letters

Catherine recently learned her letters. These are some activities to help her learn her letters that she has liked.

Maria recently did a post about these Baby Einstein Alphabooks. Catherine has really enjoyed them too.

When we first got these books we would sit down with Catherine and read them to her. We made sure to always say the name of the letter that we were reading about when we started a new book. After a while, Catherine knew what all the pictures were and could "read" them by herself. She liked the independence this gave her, and we encouraged it. One day she picked up a book and said, "H". I looked, and sure enough, it was the "H" book. To test how many letters she knew, I laid out 6-7 books at a time and asked her to pick up a specific one. For example, I would put out a, b, c, d, e, and f. I would ask her to find the "F" book. When she found the correct book I read it to her, and put a new book out. After a few days of doing this, I increased the number of books that I laid out at a time.

Next, we used the books like flash cards. I would hold up a book and ask Catherine what letter it was. Again, for a reward, I read the book to her before we moved on to a new one.

After she mastered the books we wanted her to associate the letters on her books to letters in other places. I thought that she might have just memorized what the book covers were and knew what she was supposed to say with each cover. To help reinforce the letters we bought her an alphabet puzzle. When we first pulled it out, I put all the letters on the floor and asked her to find certain letters. It wasn't working. She was overwhelmed by so many things to look at and couldn't find the right letters. I reduced the number of letters that I put out to about 8-10. We went through a similiar process as we did with the books. I asked her to find a certain letter and showed her where it went on the puzzle. Once she was familiar with the puzzle (there are pictures under the puzzle pieces, and so it wasn't simply a matter of matching the piece with the board. She had to learn what picture the letter was associated with) I asked her to find a letter and told her what picture that letter went with.

A while ago we bought a used computer keyboard from Goodwill for Catherine to pound on. Now that we are working on her letters it has become useful to help her recognize her letters. She likes to point out the letters on the keyboard. We can talk about the letters and I can remind her of some words that start with that letter.

These are all activities that Catherine really likes to do. She thinks they are a lot of fun, and I enjoy watching her learn new things. I hadn't intended to teach Catherine her letters this early, but once she showed an interest in it I like thinking of new ways to help her recognize the letters all around her.

Hide and Seek

The key to teaching kids is to make things fun, right? At a young age kids get excited about the smallest things, so why does it feel like hard work coming up with ideas? Well I have started this blog to catalog things I come up with that Tanner enjoys.

A great way to teach shapes and numbers . . .

1. First print off two pages of shapes. I used the "Trace Shapes" from http://www.coloringcastle.com/. You can find it here.

2. Color the shapes in pairs. (i.e. the triangles green, the circles red, etc.)

3. Cut out all the shapes on one page.

4. Place loops of masking tape on the back of the shapes you cut out.

5. Match up the shapes, sticking the loose one on top of it's mate.

6. Introduce the shape if your toddler is new to them. (i.e. point to the circle and tell them the name, then ask them to show you the circle.)

7. Then have your toddler take the shape off and hide it somewhere in the room. (i.e. stick it to the wall, chair, couch, or door)

8. Continue will all six shapes.

9. Then ask your toddler to find the shapes one at at time. (i.e. "Where is the circle?") If needed give them clues if they are struggling to remember which one is a circle. (i.e. "the circle is red" or "is it the one on the door?")

10. Then have them stick it back on to it's mate.

Variations: You hide the shapes and your toddler hunts for them, laminating the pages and using Velcro instead of tape would make this a game that will last for multiple uses, it works great for numbers or letters too (it is easy to make your own template in Word.)