Best toys/games for learning ABCs/123s?

[REV]

Hi everyone,

My middle DS will be 5 in October and having a very tough time learning to recognize his letters/numbers.

He wants to learn them, is usually happy to play games that involve letters/numbers, and is just finishing up PreK-3 where they have been exposed to all the letters and numbers up to 10(he just misses the cut-off so will be going into prek-4 in september). We play bingo, go fish, caribou, chutes and ladders, some computer games, and he is great with the few numbers/letters he has mastered, but really seems to have a block about learning any more.

We have spent a lot of time playing/working on it, and, for example, he just can not seem to learn to recognize 7,9, or 10. He also still has trouble recognizing his name.

His teacher thinks maybe he is an 'auditory' learner, and needs a different learning style than what I'm using(which I guess is visual), but how do you teach number/letter recognition if not visually?

One thing that seems to have helped is the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD, but I hate to rely on a dvd to teach my child.

FWIW my DH is dyslexic, and I am concerned that this may be DS's problem too, but feel that I need to give it more time/try more before investigating whether he is dyslexic.

Also FWIW, I have not been pushing him too hard - we only work on letters/numbers when he wants to, and I backed way off even suggesting it for a few months hoping that all he needed was a little time, but it hasn't made a difference. His teacher said that he is just a 'slow learner' but I'm having trouble accepting that.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other games/teaching methods that I could try?

TIA!

Rachel

[JamieCatheryn]

My DS loves starfall.com and literactive.com, and then there's looking at signs and reading books. I wouldn't work to get him reading if he wasn't so interested until 6-7, but he's into it and I am proud to see him learning. Oh with reading numbers, the game Sorry is great. DH is dyslexic too and played that as a kid. I suspect DH may really be a genius but the dyslexia keeps it from showing beyond just "bright" a lot of the time except in formal logic.

[sapphire_chan]

Have you done games with feeling letters? e.g. with a stick in the sand, with finger paints, writing in big letters with chalk on the sidewalk, manipulating magnetic letters

If he's not a visual learner, combining the look of the letter with his motor memory could help.

[lonegirl]

My son loves the Super Why board game. It has word and letter recognition. He learned his letters quite early (recognizing and writing) and I attribute much to his Leapster2-Letters on the Loose program. With this shortly after 2 he was able to recognize, write and know the sounds of all the letters by the time he was 2 1/2. I have lots of alphabet, Kindergarten, numbers, dot-to-dot and letter-to-letter books that he has fun with. He also loves this http://www.amazon.com/Alphabitz/dp/B001DU32UQ They are used to create letters and shapes

[lolar2]

I know some kids who learned letters early, partly from the bathtub foam letters. They are nice and tactile.

[Ornery]

I would second using tactile learning. Tracing letters in shaving cream in the bathtub, in fingerpaint, in mud, etc. has helped children I've known. If you google tactile learning I think quite a few ideas might pop up.

[Subhuti]

We didn't push much either but games for kids around 2-4 often have letter themes. So I can recommend little flash card games (if your child is into it) and puzzles with alphabet trains, etc.

What I liked best for numbers and letters is a fun wooden puzzle in which the letters (and another one has numbers) fit into letter shaped slots. The one I have speaks the letter and an example of a word that starts w/that letter. My kids loved it at this age. We'd race to see how fast we could put the letters in. Fun. I purchased it at an alternative toy store.

Starfall is good if you don't mind computers ... I'd say around age 4 or 5. Also, you can look for another home computer alphabet game. I wasn't into it but my DH got one at the thriftstore store and played w/my daughter.

Check out your local library. Most of them have literacy programs for little kids. That was the most helpful thing. Ours was called "Letter Friends" and it taught my 4 year old a letter a week for a year -- via puppets, stories and crafts. Fun !

Liz

[REV]

Thank you all so much for the recommendations! I will be on the lookout for some of these great ideas.

Rachel

[kcstar]

The We Sign Animals DVD has a song on it, the Animals of the Alphabet, DS likes that. If you can get him signing along, that would be interactive play.

We've been reading Dr. Seuss's ABC's to DS since before he was born.

DS (2.5) has the Leap Frog bus and the Leap Frog caterpillar, each of those has a button for each letter of the alphabet. At 2, he's loved pushing the buttons to hear the sounds. I don't know how much that'll work for a 4-5 year old.

DS also loves Sesame Street, I think that's probably where he recognizes most of his letters from.

Don't forget music. There's now a Sesame Street CD with a song for each letter of the alphabet.

[newbymom05]

My 4.5 y/o has gotten a lot out of his Leapster 2. Try a game like Leapster Pre-K or any of the licensed character games (Clifford, Cars, etc).

[jillmamma]

We have the Leapfrog magnetic letters and "Word Whammer" that goes on the refrigerator and if you put the letters in the slots will tell you what the letters are/sounds made and will spell out 3 letter words as well. It has been helpful to reinforce things (and just fun to play with) for both my older kids.

[mummyofan]

magnetic white board, magnetic letters and numbers and whiteboard markers.... our children love sitting on the floor playing with these....

Lakeshore learning center do them.

sounds like you have plenty of advice

[Bokonon]

These DVDs worked great for my son:
http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/p/mtl/index.php

[daytripper75]

Originally Posted by jillmamma

We have the Leapfrog magnetic letters and "Word Whammer" that goes on the refrigerator and if you put the letters in the slots will tell you what the letters are/sounds made and will spell out 3 letter words as well. It has been helpful to reinforce things (and just fun to play with) for both my older kids.

We love these too!