A while back I shared my fears of my youngest going to kindy without a knowledge of his ABCs. And yes, like thumb sucking or diapers, I know it will eventually come, but recently we decided to work a bit more aggressively with him...
A couple of days a week he rolls some dice, counts the number on the dice and then the corresponding letter in the alphabet becomes the letter of the day. Our chosen letter of the day reaches superstar status through double stamps on the hands as well as search and find games through-out the day. Some games involve hole punches, some stickers and others lentils.
We play as many different games with the "alphabet soup" as I can possibly create. My sweet boy will dig and dig until all the superstar letters are found and then meticulously hide all the letters again ready for another game. So far we have come up with the following:
"superstar find" - find all the letters of the day
"dig and tell" - dig out a letter and say which letter it is
"seek and say" - dig out a letter and tell the sounds it makes
"name game" - find all the letters in your name
We haven't gotten them all down just yet, but we aren't giving up. We have decided "no Wii until we know our alphabet." For now all his video games are found on ABC mouse. It's still a bit rough going, as R is sometimes B and H is sometimes I. I wonder if there could be any learning disability. I don't know what age is appropriate for testing, but for now we are trying to have fun with it.
Do you have a favorite letter in the alphabet? Liam's is W. Today anyway. xo
When I was teaching my daughter letters, one of the best teachers shared with me a wonderful way to learn for was both visual and audible - Fill a shoebox lid with sugar or sand and say the letter as your child draws the letter. There a few videos or perhaps now you can find them on-line now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite letter today is H for Home. We made it home yesterday from the Hospital.
Slept in my own bed. Our girl is on the mend.
pve
no need for testing just yet! he is fine and right on schedule! and btw. what you are doing here is homeschooling. ;)
ReplyDeletelove it.
ReplyDeleteI am a primary school teacher with young children at home and although it's great that you are working on this, please don't stress about it or push too hard. Plenty of children enter Prep (here it's 5-6) and only know the most common letters. They pick it up when they are ready and do not fall behind. Also, some sounds are very hard to say and differentiate between until they hit certain developmental milestones.
ReplyDeletepve - Yay for letter H - home is a wonderful word. xo
ReplyDeletehousehold exec - i wish you could see me sticking my tongue out at you - i am SO not a homeschooler, no matter how hard y'all try to convince me. :) thanks for the encouragement as well. xo
nicole - thanks friend. xo
vanessa - thank you SO much for your encouragement and reassurance. I can't tell you how much peace you have given me. thanks. xo