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Teaching to write alphabets


Teaching Preschoolers to Write Letters At Home – Blue and Hazel

Are you wondering how to teach your preschooler to write letters of the alphabet? You can do it! We do this as part of our homeschool preschool and continue practicing for homeschool kindergarten.

Maybe your child is already scribbling down nonsense and calling them letters? That’s a good sign they are ready for more. I’ll share what we’ve done/are doing and my kids’ ages. Each one has been on their own timeline, and I think it’s important not to push that too much.

Writing starts way before letters are formed (think coloring/scribbling), and it will continue to be perfected long after preschool. Writing letters is a process that takes lots of practice! Hopefully this post gives you the confidence to start helping your child learn to write their name and the whole alphabet.

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What age do kids learn to write letters?

Personally, I’m a fan of waiting till at least age 4 or 5 to begin learning to write letters. But it really depends on your kids eagerness to begin.

My oldest son learned at age 5.5 ,my daughter was ready by age 4, and my 3rd (a boy) is 4.5 and just starting to show signs he is ready. I’ll probably wait with him till he turns 5 because there is NO RUSH.

If anything, starting too soon and expecting too much too soon can put some serious negative pressure on them when they just aren’t ready yet. I’ve learned this the hard way. Instead, focus on hand strength and coordination through coloring, legos, drawing, and Play Doh.

Learning to write all the letters in their first and last name is one of my goals by the end of our homeschool preschool. Kids begin to do a lot more writing in Kindergarten so it is helpful if they can write some letters by then.

Signs that your child is ready to learn to write letters

Before a child learns to write, they are going to come to the conclusion that letters have meaning.

They see it in books, when you write, on road signs, through shows and apps, and through seeing their name on everything.  If you feel unsure if your preschooler is ready to write, ask yourself:

  • Can they recognize letter names when they see them?
  • Are they interested or asking how to write a letter? That was my hint!
  • Do they pretend to write making scribbles or symbols for their “letters”?
  • Do they know how to hold a pencil correctly from drawing and coloring?
  • Are they experimenting trying to write letters in their name, even if it’s upside down and backwards?

I love this post on the stages of learning to write and draw. You will be able to see what stage your child is at and if they are developmentally ready!

How to teach a preschooler to write letters

Once your preschooler can recognize certain letters, it will make teaching writing easier. They’ll know what it is supposed to look like, and be familiar with it’s name and general appearance.

I tell everyone to use Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool for a fun and worksheet free way to do preschool at home. It’s my favorite route to exposing them to the alphabet, songs, books, and more. Each day is short and mapped out for you! Here’s my full review on Busy Toddler’s preschool curriculum.

But to teach letters, I like to casually show them “their special letter”, which is the first letter of their name. Point out letters on cereal boxes and coloring books. Here are a few ways I like to begin teaching them to write letters at home.

1. Do TONS of pre-writing activities before attempting to write letters.

As preschoolers get older, they go from making marks on paper to being able to make circles and lines (or round faces with stick legs)!

Eventually, they can also draw shapes like triangles that use tilted lines. My favorite prewriting booklet is the purple Doodle booklet by The Good And The Beautiful. My kids both loved it. In fact, my reluctant oldest child even enjoyed doodling with this, after we backed off of formal handwriting. I saw he wasn’t ready and needed more hand coordination and strength!

2. Strengthen their hands

Anything that works on fine motor skills will help with hand writing later on, like:

  • Drawing
  • Coloring
  • Tracing straight lines, tilted lines, and shapes like circles
  • Painting
  • Threading fruit loops
  • Do A Dot Letter Stamping
  • Drawing in salt, dirt, sand, or flour
  • Using scissors
  • Picking up pom pom balls with tongs
  • Tracing fingers over glitter glue letters

3. Show them how to write the letters using sensory activities

Sensory letter writing is a fun way to make letters without having to use a pencil and paper yet. Think forming letters in the dirt or sand.

They can learn the motions and it’s fun! It’s helpful for kids to see you forming a letter, and to have an example to look at. Note that just because they watched you write the letter B top to bottom doesn’t mean they’ll think to do it that way.

There are lots of fun ways to get preschoolers to start forming letters on their own! Some I’ve seen are:

  • Forming letters out of shaving cream or sprinkles in a pan.
  • Write out a letter with glue and let your kid place noodles or beans on the glue.
  • Bath paint on the wall writing out the letter with their finger

3. Write on blank paper

Since kids tend to start out writing BIG letters, I’ve found it’s easier to start on one letter at a time on a large blank piece of paper.

I usually write out the uppercase or lowercase letter somewhere on the blank paper so they have an example to look at. They can take a different colored marker and trace over your letter.

4. Trace letters on paper

I highly recommend buying/printing some pre-traced pages for each letter so that you don’t have to do it by hand!

Practicing on lined tracing paper teaches them to pay attention to proportions within the lines, and it’s what they’ll be using in kindergarten.

This is a tracing notebook we have used.  I like this book because the letters are already there to trace, which saves me from having to make a ton of dotted letters by hand.  And, the first page of each letter has arrows and numbers to show the hand strokes.

A lot of lined notebooks have just one letter for kids to trace and a bunch of blank lines for them to fill in the letter by memory. These are too advanced to start with, because they haven’t had enough practice yet to remember the motions.

My son needed to trace at least 10 of the same letter before really being able to draw it from memory. If blank lined paper is all you have, then you can fill in letters by hand. I dotted in one full line of capital B and one line of lowercase b.

Or, write the letters for them in pencil and have them trace over them with a marker.

A printable tracing workbook designed to be used side by side with the “Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons”

Update January 2020: We recently tried these new printable letter tracing pages with 100 pages of practice with my 4. 5 year old.

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I drew in about 10 dotted uppercase and lowercase letter b for him to trace. Then he filled in the rest by memory. It’s important to watch kids practice so you can keep them from forming letters the wrong way (like bottom to top). 

Teach preschoolers to write their name

If you want to motivate your preschooler to write, then start with fun ways to teach them the letters in their name! 

Kindergarten classes like to have kids able to write their name coming into kindergarten with the first letter being a capitol and the rest of their name in lowercase.

I found these awesome FREE printable name tracing worksheets and loved how easy it was to customize the font, size, you can even save the file to print over and over, or just bookmark the page.

We also love these dry erase letter tracing cards! They come in uppercase and lowercase. Note that if your child has two of the same letters in their name these ones only come with one of each.

My kids love tracing on these reusable dry erase cards! Awesome way to practice tracing letters.

Be encouraging

While it’s easy to want your kid to do it right (and I do think the  hand strokes are important), handwriting takes A LOT of practice. If they feel criticized and corrected instead of encouraged, they could easily be too frustrated to keep going.

I tried to use phrases like “That’s almost it! Make sure the b touches the middle line next time” or “Good start! Now try again making the loop a little more round.” I found encouragement worked better for my son (who gets discouraged easily) rather than saying, “don’t do that” or “the loops aren’t round enough.”

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Should you start with uppercase or lowercase letters?

Don’t worry too much about this.

Some people start with all uppercase letters first and lowercase letters second, since uppercase letters are a bit easier.

It’s a good time to introduce that names are always spelled with a capital letter if that’s new to your preschooler. It’s also good when reading out loud to make the connection that every sentence starts with a capital letter.

Just want a handwriting curriculum?

I hope you see that for preschool level…you truly can teach your kid to write their name and learn to form letters.

But if you are like me and want something you can whip out once a day to practice that’s planned out for you…we are LOVING Handwriting Without Tears. It’s a SOLID program used by homeschoolers and in elementary schools.

This is their pre-k version called Kickstart Kindergarten. We buy the workbook and chalkboard. Nothing else, and you don’t need the teacher’s guide.

DO buy their official chalkboard and a pack of chalk snapped into 1 inch pieces. The smaller pieces encourage proper grip, and the chalkboard helps them write the BIG version of the letter and focus on which stokes come first.

Then, using a tiny sponge cut up, they’ll erase it using the same chalk strokes getting to form the letter twice.

We are now using Handwriting Without Tears as our main way to teach letter formation

I actually am having my now 1st and 2nd grader go back and do the kindergarten and 1st grade levels.

Somehow they’d slipped into some wonky habits and were doing a lot of bottom to top letters, which isn’t great for neatness or speed or cursive later on.

They do 1-2 pages a day. The orange kindergarten book was so easy for my 1st grader she flew through it in 1 month. The boxes and letters are larger in that book than the 1st grade book. And there’s more repetition for each letter.

I feel good knowing they are reviewing letter formation, and it’s helping me to teach them things like bumping the top line and bottom line. Plus, I’m loving the memorable phrases like “Frog jump” for letters you have to pick up your pencil. Or “Magic c” for letters that begin with that curve.

I’ll probably gently introduce my 4.5 year old to letter tracing letters this year using sensory bins and play…and start him on Kick Start Kindergarten next year around age 5 or 5.5 towards the end of preschool. He has to be ready though, or I’ll wait. Sometimes preschool is just too early, especially for boys!

Handwriting mistakes to avoid

Forcing your kid to write before they are ready.

Sometimes kids are capable but uninterested.

My philosophy is that if they are not interested, but capable, I don’t force it unless it’s something I deem necessary. I want my kids to be writing letters by Kindergarten (age 5.5-6). But, if they are 4 and uninterested, then wait 6 months and try again!

The majority of writing begins in the Kindergarten years anyway.

Doing worksheets before any pre-writing activities.

If they are interested in letters but can’t seem to follow directions to trace or copy, then back up and do some fun pre-writing activities.

I didn’t realize that “pre-writing” was an official thing, because kids naturally do some of these things first. Think drawing shapes and lines (my 3.5 year old currently draws mama as a big round circle with about 5 lines of hair).

Also coloring, holding a paintbrush, beading, drawing letters in the air, or anything that strengthens hand muscles and makes writing easier later on is considered pre-writing.

Letting them write or trace the wrong way. 

It can be a lot more work to correct a bad habit than to make sure they learn the strokes correctly the first time. I’m living this. You can’t hand them a worksheet and walk away. You’ll have to stay at watch till a habit is formed.

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen all my kids try to do is write from bottom to top.

Some examples are writing the letter O starting at the bottom instead of top, or my son wanting to write the tail of the lowercase “g” in his name before circle on top.

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How to teach a left handed child to write

My oldest is a clear lefty and my middle is a righty. There is not a huge difference when teaching them to write letters, so don’t be too intimidated!

  • Make sure they have a proper pencil grip. I have them pinch the pencil with their thumb and index finger, resting the pen on their middle finer.
  • Hold the pencil close to the tip for better control, but far enough away that they can still see what they are writing without having to bend their wrist all wonky.
  • Tip the paper a tad, so the bottom right corner of the page is bit down. This is opposite of the way I tilt my page being right handed.

This is an excellent in depth post on Tips for teaching left handed kids to write if you want to read more.

You can teach your child to write at home

If you are beginning your homeschool journey and feel overwhelmed, know that you have what it takes to teach your child to write their letters! Homeschoolers have the freedom to go at their own pace, and it’s a great way to spend one on one time with your child. 

If your child will be attending kindergarten, then there will be PLENTY of letter practice there. Or, consider doing kindergarten at home! Kindergarten teachers know that some kids can write many letters and others only some or none at all.  They really try to meet kids where they are at!

Either way, helping your child to learn their letters at home will help them so much! What is one thing you worry about when it comes to teaching handwriting? Let me know in the comments!

Follow Blue and Hazel on Instagram!

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5 Ways to Teach the Alphabet

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. See my disclosure for details.

Teaching the alphabet is foundational for reading and writing. Around the age of 2, children begin showing interest in learning alphabet letters. While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. Today I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ways to teach the alphabet to little ones.

Here’s what a preschooler should know before kindergarten:

  • Recite/sing the alphabet
  • Identify uppercase letters
  • Identify lowercase letters
  • Match uppercase letters to lowercase letters
  • Identify the sounds each letter makes
  • Traces letters
  • Write some alphabet letters

Here are my five favorite ways to teach the alphabet to children.

1. Read Alphabet Books

Read all sorts of alphabet books to your children, even starting as babies. The repetition will really help your child learn the alphabet at a young age. When my oldest was born, I was surprised at how many alphabet books we had been given as gifts. We loved reading all of them because they were different from each other. I found that around 18 months both my kids really started enjoyed reading alphabet books. Here are a few of our alphabet books:

Here are some of our favorite alphabet books.

The Three Bears ABCChicka Chicka Boom Boom (Board Book)Eating the AlphabetThe Farm Alphabet BookG is for GoatHarold’s ABC (Purple Crayon Book)I Stink! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan)Bad KittyThe Letters Are Lost!AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went FirstZ Is for Moose (Booklist Editor’s Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))Q Is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing GameABC T-RexWork: An Occupational ABC

2. Sandpaper Letters

Using sandpaper letters is a great way to introduce letters to children. My favorite ones are Didax Sandpaper Tracing Letters or School Supply Tactile Letters Kit. This is a perfect pre-writing activity because children use their finger to trace the sandpaper letters.  I love that the cards tell the child where to start and which direction to go.

Sandpaper letters are part of the Montessori approach to learning how to read. These letters provide a tactile and visual way to help children learn the alphabet. In the Montessori method, you teach letters to a child in the 3-period lesson.

1st period is introducing the letter (“this is” period). Show your child the letters. Have them trace the sandpaper letters. The best way to teach children alphabet letters is by telling them their phonetic sound.  So each time they trace the letter, say the phonetic sound.

2nd period is association (“show me” stage).  Ask your child to follow simple directions with the letters. For example, please pick up the /m/ and set it by the window. Continue to do this with each letter several times to reinforce this. If it is too difficult, return to the first period.

3rd period is recall (“what is this?” period). Only go to this period when they’ve mastered the other two periods.  Put a letter in front of the child and say “Can you trace this and tell me what it is?” Continue with the other letters in the same way.

When you use these sandpaper letters, you are teaching them 3 things: the shape of letters, the feel of its shape and how its written, and how you pronounce its sound.

3. Alphabet Puzzles

I think teaching letters with alphabet puzzles are an amazing tool for teaching the alphabet. This is my favorite puzzle, from Melissa and Doug. It’s a beautiful wooden puzzle with neat pictures. This is a great way to practice vocabulary and verbal skills, too.

4. Sensory Activities

While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. I’ve always said that children learn best when they have many multisensory experiences with letters.

I love to incorporate sensory play into learning alphabet letters. When children have meaningful activities with repeated exposure, they start to pick up on letter names. One way is this alphabet ice excavation activity.

You could also make a colorful sensory bin!

Or practice writing letters in the sand, like this sensory writing tray.

5. Alphabet Printables

I have quite a few alphabet printables on my blog, but here is a set that is easy and fun for preschoolers. You will need Do a Dot Markers or dot stickers to fill in the circles.

I love pulling printables out for a quick and easy activity. I’m always advocating for hands-on learning, but sometimes it’s nice to do a few paper activities. Using Do a Dot markers or dot stickers is great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

If you’d like to download this printable, just click the button below.

5 Ways to Learn the Alphabet Quickly and Easily with a 3-6 Year Old Child – Somersault

Before learning the alphabet with a child, it is important to understand what you are not going to do. Namely, learning to read. This is a more complex skill, so it is worth putting it off until the time when the child gets acquainted with all the letters and will confidently recognize them and write on their own. Until then, put off the alphabet and reading by syllables.

In this article, we have put together the basic principles to quickly learn the Russian alphabet with a 3-6 year old child in a playful way. For all games with letters, you can use plasticine, paints and any improvised means or magnetic letters - they will easily attract the attention of the child.

Contents:

  1. Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles
  2. 5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child
  3. From alphabet to reading

How to Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles

Each child can find an easy way to learn the alphabet that suits him or her, but there are basic principles that are important for all children. If you do not follow them, study will turn into drill and the child is unlikely to ever love to read. Here are a few such principles on how to properly learn the alphabet for a child.

  1. Learn sounds first, not letters . At the first stage of learning, it does not matter how the letters in the alphabet are called correctly. Now only sounds are important for the child - "d", and not the letter "De". The names of the letters will only confuse the child, who first needs to learn to recognize the shape of the letters and their sound.
  2. Not learning the alphabet in the correct sequence . Until a child goes to school, it is of no use to him to know how the letters are arranged in the alphabet. This information will only distract him from what is really important: how the letters look and sound. The sequence of the alphabet can be learned later or even at school, where this knowledge will be tested by the teacher.
  3. Do not turn learning into a lesson . Learning from call to call is difficult even for children at school, let alone a baby. Therefore, all learning should take place in a playful way and not for long: 5-7 minutes a day to get acquainted with the letters will be enough. Gradually, this time can be increased, especially if the child likes the proposed games with letters.
  4. Use material objects . At the age of 3-6 years, the child learns the world by touch and taste. It is difficult for him to work with abstract letters spoken aloud. Therefore, it is better to stock up on plasticine and paints and create letters that are more understandable to the child and can be touched. Such a game for children will allow the child to learn the letters of the alphabet and he will recognize them in different forms regardless of what they are made of.
  5. First vowels, then consonants . Vowel sounds are easier to pronounce, so it's worth starting with them.

The main thing is not to force anyone. If you see that the child is inquisitive, enjoys exploring the world and is ready to learn, you can move on to learning letters and the alphabet. So the child will be happy to learn the alphabet in a playful way and gradually learn to read. So that the game is not abstract, you can use the magnetic letters TUMBLING.

5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child

1. Use an interesting topic to study

Use your child's interest to spur his motivation to learn. For example, if your kid is crazy about cars, let them be the topic in which you learn the alphabet. Use any words related to cars:

"A" - bus
"B" - trunk
"C" - driver, etc.

You can show cars and their parts, draw or sculpt from plasticine. It is important that the child's focus shifts from learning to doing what they love. Additionally, the method will help expand vocabulary and knowledge about the world.

2. Cross out a letter of the alphabet in the list

Fill in a small square with arbitrary letters. The task is to cross out only the letter that you are studying. This will help the child focus on one letter and not get distracted by the ones he doesn't remember or don't know.

3. Pulling the letters of the alphabet out of the pouch

The soft-touch magnetic letters are perfect for this method. Put the letters in a bag and give the child the task, without looking, to pull out only the letter that you thought of. Let there not be too many letters in the bag, otherwise the child will get confused. 6-7 pieces will be enough. To start, use letters that are very different in shape, such as "O" and "M". Gradually, the complexity can be increased and searched among similar letters, for example, "K" and "X". Don't forget to praise and encourage your child. You can alternate the learning process with desktops.

4. Recognize letters of the alphabet by ear

You pronounce a word, and if it contains a hidden letter, the child claps his hands.

With this game for kids, you can learn individual letters or the entire alphabet. For example, you name a word, and the child inserts its first letter into the insert frame. To stimulate your child's interest, you can use only words from his favorite topic, for example, the names of animals.

5. Guess words starting with the first letter

You choose one letter and think of a word that starts with that letter. For example, the letter "Z":

- What is this animal with big ears and loves carrots?
- Hare!

This game form is again suitable for learning individual letters or the entire alphabet. If you learn only one letter, the child gets used to quickly recognizing it in different words. And if you give words with different letters, the child as a whole learns to understand with which letter they begin. With the study of the account and the English language will also help TUMBLING.

From the alphabet to reading

When a child learns the Russian alphabet, confidently recognizes all the letters in different words and can draw or mold them on his own, it is worth moving on to reading. Because you need to learn the alphabet just so that the child can read. If knowledge is not used, it will hang as an extra burden, and by the time school will be forgotten. Therefore, you should not learn the alphabet too early: at 3-4 years old, a child is simply not interested in reading books in order to learn something new. He is more interested when his mother reads. Conversely, by the age of six, the child will be glad to have his own books to read them himself.

How to quickly learn the alphabet - learning letters with a child

Letters are all around us. The child sees them in books and magazines, on product packaging, in shop windows. He can't help wondering what it is. Over time, he begins to understand that adults can read, begins to copy his parents, having learned a poem or a fairy tale by heart, and pretending that he is reading a book.

Experts recommend teaching a child to read shortly before school, since at an earlier age his brain is not yet ready to perceive such information. You can learn sounds with it, learn to distinguish them in oral speech, start mastering the alphabet. This pre-letter period is very important, because thanks to it the child will be able to learn to read fluently and understand what he read.

At what age do you start learning letters?

Many parents are sure that a child's development should start almost from the cradle. But neuropsychologists warn that learning letters and numbers before the age of 3 is harmful. At this age, the emotional and sensory sphere should be formed. If we force a child to learn, then we violate the laws of brain development, which can have negative consequences.

No specialist will tell you that at the age of 3 or 4 a child should know all the letters. Of course, if you wish, you can force him to learn the alphabet, but this will not be useful, but, on the contrary, can harm. The brain is ready for reading most often by the age of 5-6, and only in 20% of babies - by 4-5. Before this time, it is not worth studying letters.

But this does not mean that you can forget about the development of the child. At 3-4 years old, you need to work on the development of speech, teach the baby to ask and answer questions correctly, pronounce words, and study the world around him. You need to work on fine motor skills, teach him to dance, form a sense of rhythm, and so on.

These are the recommendations. However, all children are different. If a child has shown a sudden interest in letters, it means it's time to start learning. And it does not matter if it manifested itself late, for example, at 6 years old. The child should want to read, only after that you can study with him.

Psychologists note several signs that indicate a child's readiness for learning:

  1. The child perceives well what he has read by ear and can tell what the book is about.
  2. He knows how to build phrases, pronounce all sounds.
  3. Interested in what is written in a children's magazine, book or poster.
  4. Pretends to read, imitating adults.

If all these signs appear, you can start classes. You can’t put pressure on a child, force him to study, bribe him (“learn the letters - I’ll give you a chocolate bar”) - this will not achieve anything.

In those cases where the interest in letters appeared early, there is no need to give up classes. But do not overload the baby, work with him for no longer than 7 minutes, classes do not have to be done every day, you can take breaks of 2-3 days.

How to start learning the alphabet?

The child began to show interest in letters. No need to immediately load it with knowledge, cramming the alphabet. Move a little. The easiest way for children to remember the first letter of their name. Explain to him what this letter is, what it is called. You can ask him to find this letter in the text. Gradually, he will learn to highlight it, will pay attention to it. The first step has been taken.

Parents now trust their children's education to various children's tablets, phones and other similar toys. Remember that they are teaching letters, not sounds. Toddlers need to be taught precisely sounds, so it will be easier for them to master reading.

A letter is a graphic representation of sound, each has its own name. But learning to read, knowing only the names of the letters, is very difficult. Imagine that the child will need to read the word "ball". How will he do it? Just as he was taught: "beael". And all because he pronounces letters, not sounds.

It is better to start learning with sounds, pronouncing them with the child. Parents themselves should not confuse sound and letter. Sound is what we hear. A bumblebee buzzes - this is a sound, a hammer knocks - this is also a sound. But far from all sounds we can get words. If we clap our hands, the sound will appear, but the word will not.

You can create a word from special sounds called speech sounds. Make sure that the child does not confuse the letter and sound. Explain to him that a letter is an icon that can be seen in a book or drawn on paper. Letters can be seen with the eyes and sounds can be heard.

General recommendations for teaching a child

If you decide to work with a child, remember the basic rule - he should be interested. You can't force him. At this age, the easiest and most accessible way of learning is through the game.

It is difficult for kids to concentrate, to sit in one place for a long time, so classes should be short, 5-10 minutes each. As soon as you notice that he has become bored, switch to something else. If he forgot everything that you went through, do not get annoyed, repeat again until he remembers. If you overload your child with information, he will develop an aversion to learning.

At an early age, a child develops visual-figurative thinking, and only then - abstract-logical. This means that it is useless to draw letters on paper or a board. So you can't learn them. For him, it will be just a set of dashes.

The child needs a visual association. For example, if you are learning the sound "a", you can show him a picture of a watermelon or any other item that starts with that letter. Stock up in advance with soft cubes with letters, bright cards, coloring books, beautiful colored primers.

Do not learn letters in alphabetical order. It is better to start learning with vowel sounds. The letters that are most often found in speech are studied first, then you can move on to rarer ones.

How to learn vowels?

First, explain to your child that all words are made of sounds, just as houses are made of bricks. The more sounds in a word, the longer it is. After that, you can proceed to the study of sounds.

Start with "a" . You can show the baby pictures that show objects whose names begin with this letter. Draw with him the mouth that makes this sound, note how we open it wide. Let him try to name the words that begin with this letter. Do not overload the child: 1 lesson - 1 letter.

Try to consolidate the acquired knowledge. So you go to the kindergarten, you saw a pharmacy, let the kid try to find the letter that you studied. Bought a children's magazine, see if the title has the letter "a" . You can mold a letter from plasticine or dough, cut it out of paper. You can lay it out of sticks or sand.

It will be much easier for you to captivate your baby if you always have blocks with letters, bright books, cards at hand. You can sing a song about a letter or listen to a cheerful verse.

So, study all the vowels one by one. At the end, you can explain that the sounds that you have already learned are called vowels. These are sounds that can be sung. Try to sing together "a-a-a" or "u-u-u" .

Remember that we have 6 vowels ( a , o , y , e , s , and ) and 10 vowels. The letters i , e , i , i consist of 2 sounds. It is better to postpone the study of the latter for later, because there is no sound "i" , i is a letter consisting of 2 sounds. Do not confuse the child so that later educators and teachers do not have to retrain him.

How to learn consonants?

After you have learned the basic vowels ( a , y , and , o ) you can move on to the consonants. You need to start with the simplest consonants ( b , p , m , n , t , g ). And here again we remember that we are teaching the child sounds, not letters. We know what to say0005 em ", " en ", " be ", but children don't need to know this yet. The child must learn that this is the sound " mm " or the sound " nn ". After the baby learns simple consonants, you can proceed to the study of hissing.

Just like with vowels, knowledge needs to be consolidated. Children may confuse letters. To prevent this from happening, play associations. You can ask the children to think of what this letter looks like. Look for objects on the street that resemble this letter. For example, you walked past the horizontal bar, it is shaped like the letter " p ", or look at the doorway, also resembles " p " in shape. Fold it out of pencils, look for it in store signs.

Alphabet Learning Methods

There are several popular methods for teaching children to read and memorize the letters of the alphabet. You can use them, especially since specialists worked on them. But, no matter what method you work with, it is important to remember that your classes should not resemble lessons at school.

Children at this age should play and get the information they need through games. Therefore, after a short training part, immediately proceed to an interesting, gaming one. Creative activities are also very useful, with the help of which you not only study letters, but also develop the child’s fine motor skills, improve his drawing and coloring skills, and strengthen the ability to use scissors.

Games and game exercises

There are a huge number of game exercises that will help you consolidate knowledge. We will give a few examples.

1. Find words with the right sound . You need to prepare cards that show different objects. The child must choose among them those in which there is a studied sound. First, you can simplify the task: ask him to find words that begin with this letter.

2. Catch the sound . To stretch a little, mother and child walk around the room. Mom calls different words. As soon as the child hears a word with the desired sound, he stops and claps his hands.

3. Think of the word . Ask your child to come up with as many words as possible with a certain sound. You can do this in turn, for example, first the mother calls the word, then the baby.

The task needs to be complicated, that is, the sound can be not only at the beginning of the word, ask him to come up with a word in which this sound will be at the end or in the middle. For example, you are learning the sound "a". First, you select words that begin with this letter - apricot, orange, then those that end in "a" - Moscow, jellyfish or contain the sound "a" in the middle - mosaic, eye.

4. Determine where the sound is hidden. You need to draw a simple word scheme: three squares connected to each other. Each square denotes its own: the beginning of the word, the middle and the end. Put this word scheme in front of the child, give him a chip.

You name different words, and he must show on the diagram where the sound that you pass is located. For example, if you called the word "watermelon" (you can show a picture), the child must put the chip in 1 cell, and if the word "fox" - then in the 3rd cell.

5. Ball game . An adult throws a ball to the child and calls different words. If they have a letter being studied, he catches the ball, if not, then he does not catch it. To begin with, you can use words in which this letter is at the beginning, then complicate the task, that is, it can be in the middle or end.

Author's methods of learning the alphabet

There are several recognized methods of teaching reading, each of which can be devoted to a separate article.

Zaitsev's cubes

The basis of Zaitsev's technique is a game, that is, children just play with cubes (there are 52 cubes of different sizes in the set) and at the same time learn to read without making any effort. These games can be started from 6-12 months old, but up to 2 years old they are used like regular blocks, and children after 2 years old can start making words.

Zaitsev's main unit is a warehouse. It can consist of a consonant and a vowel, or a single letter. The basis of this method is the warehouse principle of reading. In addition to cubes, a large warehouse table is also used.

This technique has many advantages, the main of which is that any child can be taught to read. But there are also disadvantages, for example, over time, children will have to be retrained, because they remember that letters are indicated by one color, and the teacher enters his own colors, for example, red is a vowel. In addition, the child is used to the fact that words are divided into warehouses, and not into syllables. Yes, the benefits are very expensive.

Doman's cards

The neurosurgeon Glen Doman developed his technique for children with CNS disorders, but then it was also used to teach healthy kids. He recommends teaching children to read not by letter, but by words, since letters mean nothing to him, and words have real designations.

For this, whole words are written on the cards in large print (at least 7-10 cm), for example, “mother” or “dad”, which must be quickly shown to the child, voicing each word. With the help of this method, even a small child can be taught to read. Training is necessarily carried out at an early age; after 5 years, the Glenn Doman method no longer works.

Olga Soboleva's Methodology

The principle of this training is based on the "two-hemispheric" work of the brain. The teacher tries to use the dominant type of memory, that is, the material is divided into 3 groups: for kinesthetics, visuals and auditory.

Many of its techniques are also used by ordinary teachers when teaching traditional methods to make it more interesting for children to study. Well suited for creative children and parents, it is not recommended for families where logic and structure come first.

Polyakov's method

Its author came up with 7 steps of learning to read, 70 lessons in total. Each lesson is detailed. They are held in the form of a game, take no more than 10 minutes. Stages 1 and 2 are the study of letters, warehouses, reading in warehouses.

Sergei Nikolaevich Polyakov himself, unfortunately, is no longer alive, but his work was continued by his son, as well as teachers who practice this method. If you wish, you can purchase books that describe in detail how to conduct classes, as well as video files with examples of classes.

Creative exercises

To reinforce the acquired knowledge, it is useful to conduct creative activities. For example, you can make a beautiful alphabet together. We studied the letter - cut it out of cardboard. It is better to choose a dense material. If it is difficult for the baby, you can help him, and the child will decorate - attach beads, groats, sequins, beautiful fabric, etc. to it.

When you have collected the entire alphabet, you can decorate the children's room with it by connecting the letters into garlands, or hang it on the Christmas tree instead of toys. You can cut out paper blanks for letters, and the child must fold the whole letter from these parts.

Preschoolers love to draw and color. You can buy coloring books with letters, he will color them and remember what kind of letter it is. Or ask him to draw with felt-tip pens on paper, with chalk on a blackboard what you have already studied. But at this age, children should not be taught writing, this should be done by teachers in elementary school. The only thing you can teach your baby is to write in block letters.

If you are baking pies, ask your child to make familiar letters out of the dough.

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