If your child learned ABCs and 123s as a young toddler... - Page 2

[MamaMelis]

My DD was singing the entire alphabet clearly by 18 months. ONLY because she constantly heard her older brother (2.5) singing it! I never even thought to sing it to him when he was that young. She is super verbally advanced though and is fully conversant now at only 20 months. I honestly attribute a lot of that to having a sib so close in age. She hears talking/singing literally all day long and I think that it just enforced language to her at a very early age. Much earlier than my son, anyway.

With DS (my first child) he learned the alphabet through puzzles, a total obsession with Dr. Seuss' ABC book, and those foam letter and number bath toy things. We also had alphabet stacking blocks that he got a kick out of. Drawing on the easel also interested him, like a PP mentioned, one day I ran out of things to draw and started in on letters and was shocked to see how many he somehow knew without me ever working to teach him anything. I would say just follow your child's lead and whatever they are curious about, encourage!

[ann_of_loxley]

TBH - mostly from shopping!
Though we do one big weekly shop - we often go to the store to pick up something at least every other day (bread, fruit, etc).

My son was just naturally interested in all the numbers and letters he saw. Because I never sat down and taught him the 'song' or how to count to ten, he picked them up visually first from everyday things we saw! As in - he could tell you what a number or letter was in its written form before being able to count or sing. I found this unique - but most other parents I know try and get their kids counting and singing first and they are unable to recognise numbers/letters in written form because of this. I tend to follow my sons lead, but we are also home educators (unschoolers).

TbH with you - I think these things happen when they happen and there is no need to push them. All children develop differently! They get it eventually I am sure! hehe

[stlmomof2]

Both my kids were first interested in the letters of their names. We posted their names on the wall right above their beds so they got used to seeing the letters first thing in the morning. And then we have all the other alphabet toys, magnets, books, puzzles, media, etc. In the young toddler years, they both loved having me draw and write things, so that helps too, I'm sure.
DS calls W "Buddy" because he can't pronounce W and calls himself "Buddy" and knows that W is the first letter of his name (which he can't pronounce). But the other letters he can say pretty conventionally.

[fancyoats]

dr. seuss's abc -- big a little a what begins with a? aunt annie's aligator...a....a...a.....

etc. etc.

she wanted us to read that book to her about 15 times a day.

i could probably recite that whole thing

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by fancyoats

dr. seuss's abc -- big a little a what begins with a? aunt annie's aligator...a....a...a.....

etc. etc.

she wanted us to read that book to her about 15 times a day.

i could probably recite that whole thing

I can recite the whole thing... from my own childhood. We'd wait in breathless anticipation for the letter U because THEY SAY UNDERWEAR! HAHAHAHAHAHA DADDY SAID UNDERWEAR! MOM, DADDY SAID UNDERWEAR!

[Aufilia]

DD knew all the letters by age 2 (upper and lowercase). She learned the lowercase letters because for a long time the only fridge magnets we had were a set of Melissa & Doug wooden letters. She got into the magnets about 18 months. For Christmas that year I bought her the Melissa & Doug letter puzzle that had both lowercase and uppercase letters.

I'm pretty sure she learned to recognize the numbers because we had a set of foam number bath toys.. you know the kind that stick to the tub when wet? We had a whole alphabet & number set but that was too many pieces, so we only ever took out the numbers to play with.

[_betsy_]

I have no idea? She just one day exhibited knowledge of letters and we hadn't been "working" on it with her. I did sing the alphabet song as part of her nap routine, because, well, I know all the words!

With numbers, she got the concept of counting before she understood/recognized the symbols. We'd count stairs as we took a walk around our complex, or she'd count blocks or whatever.

I'd say by age 2 she recognized many letters and the basic numbers (say, 0-12). But now she's 3 and hasn't demonstrated any huge intellectual leaps with letters or numbers lately. It's not like she's reading yet. She just had an interest in those things early, but then her baby sister was born, so everything sort of fell by the wayside, since everything about the baby is immensely interesting to her.

[Paeta16]

We have a bunch of foam letters and numbers that she would play with even as a baby and that is what we used to "teach" (used loosely) her the alphabet and her numbers. We started out without naming the letters but rather telling her the sound they make. We also have the Leap Frog fridge alphabet. We sing A LOT of songs and some include the alphabet or numbers.

We count while brushing her teeth. She is 2y8mo now and we can count to 60 while brushing her teeth and she's really picking up on the higher numbers. We would work on touching things that we had counted to get used to the concept. We count using our fingers. In fact, I think the earliest thing I ever counted to her were my coffee scoops every morning! LOL I basically just count everything as we do it ...stairs, steps to the car, etc.

I have her sing the ABCs while washing her hands now too so that reinforces it.

[UrbanMamma]

We only recently (as in the last few weeks) introduced some PBS shows, so learning letters in our house is mostly from non-TV and A LOT of reading. (Well, that isn't entirely true now that I write it out; we have allowed Signing Time videos since he was 5 or 6 months old and often the signs have the word above them as it is introduced.)

We had Melissa and Doug magnet letters on the fridge from about a 12 months on. He mostly just moved them around. At about 18 months we were staying at a friends house for a week who also had the magnets. He picked up the letter "T" and said "that?" I responded with "That is the letter T" not thinking he would remember and/or distinguish. DH came home a few hours later and toddler brought him the "T" and told DH it was a "T." From then on he would add about a 2 letters a week, usually from him asking me to identify the object. It is pretty fair to say he became OBSESSED with letters, pointing out his current favorite letters on signs, etc. So don't feel bad if your 2 year old or even 3 year old isn't doing this. (People look at you strangely when you you have a 22 month old in an ergo who is almost frantic because you can't find the "S" they have identified while walking down the street.)

I started distinguishing between "big" and "little" letters about a month into this identifying stage, not realizing that I was channeling Dr. Seuss from my childhood. Once we introduced Dr. Seuss' ABC book at around 21 months, my toddler was hooked and quickly learned the few lagging letters. When he started repeating random pages from that book, we decided to sing the alphabet song with him (he had never really showed an interest in singing to us previously).

Now, at 24 months we are moving onto the concepts of sounds since he knows a dozen or so words by sight (like boat) but doesn't really understand how to read. We also have ABC blocks to help with this (but we've had them since he was 6 months). I also recently purchased an ABC puzzle, but only because he shows no interest in puzzles and it was an (successful) attempt at trying to prompt some fine motor skills. It is also helped him to distinguish keeping the fridge magnets right side up.

Numbers were learned a bit differently. We verbally learned before reading numbers. We started counting to 10 as a (gentle.. he thought it was fun) discipline/warning tool. Between that and counting steps, he learned to count somewhere around 20 months. Around 22 months he started mixing up 2 with S in signs/books, so we introduced the concepts of numbers. Now he identifies 1-10 and conceptually understands 1-5 or so.

[LeahC]

My oldest learned all of his letters by the time he was 20-21 months. Honestly, he learned them from those foam letters made for the bath. He would lift each one up out of the water and we would tell him what is was never thinking he was actually learning, but then one day he randomly would point out a letter in a sign or on some packaging and would correctly identify it. And, that was it.