ABC's.

August 22, 2008

It's a hard job to try to educate your child and hope that you are giving them all the time and attention they need to learn and grow. I definitely don't claim to be an expert teacher or even think that my own son is a genius. I just want him to have some basic knowledge about things before he enters school (I know I have a while....). Anyway, something that my son has shown a lot of interest in lately has been numbers and letters. So I have tried to do a few craft projects with him to just introduce letters.

Here are a few of my ideas:

Bumpy Letters
Kids can learn from touch as well as sight and sound when it comes to letters. So reaching back into the recesses of my mind (when I used to tutor a little boy). I remembered this activity. We made letters out puffy paint on little index cards. We would trace the letters with our fingers and say what the sounds that the letters made. I have also played memory with the letters. Matching the Uppercase Letters with the Lowercase Letters.


More Texture Letters:
Shape letters out of as many textures and objects you can think of...

-Play-dough

-Glue Salt/sprinkles (Use glue to shape the letter and then sprinkle salt onto the glue, shake off the excess salt. Let dry and then feel them.)

-Glue macaroni/Penni noodles to a page to shape letters

-Cookie Dough and Letter Cookie Cutters (or just shape the letter yourself) and bake them.

-Alpha-bits Cereal



-Ice Cube Trays



I am in love with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree... A fun way to have your child find the letters and place them on the tree as you read or just play with



-Make letters on paper for your child to color or decorate how ever they like

My son seems to love Puzzles so we have also opted to buy him a letter and number puzzle...just one more way to see the Alphabet. I am a big fan of Melissa and Doug Puzzles.

My son also loves the Letter Magnates made by Leap Frog. I have to say that I am also a big fan of them, considering they make the say the letter and then makes all the sounds that the letter makes in a cute little song. I am not a personal believer in the A is for Apple method. I like to say A says and then list all the sounds that A makes.

I know this post in only partial a project or craft, but I did also say ideas right?! Well, I hope so because I like to get ideas from people too. Maybe one of the days should be designated just to teaching ideas...what do you think?

If you have more ideas for teaching the Alphabet share them!