teaching sounds before letter names

[mrsfrenchy]

If you believe in teaching letter sounds before letter names, what do you do when your kids start asking you 'which one is that mommy?' i.e. my two year old has a stool with her name on it. she'll point to the letters and ask about each one.

obviously, if she points to M, I could just say "oh thats /m/" and make the mmm sound. But if she point to E...which E sound do I say it is? And at what point do you introduce letter names?


I hope this question made sense. Thanks!

[jenfl]

We did sounds first. Here's the chart I used:

a as in at
b as in tub
c ... tack
d ... mud
e ... egg
f ... off
g ... peg
h ... huh!
i ... in
j ... judge
k ... tack (same as c)
l ... mill
m ... hum
n ... hen
o ... on
p ... tap
q ... quit
r ... rat
s ... fuss
t ... at
u ... up
v ... have
w ... win
x ... fox
y ... yes
z ... buzz

After she had those down pat, we talked about vowels making two sounds. And after that, we introduced names.

She did great picking them up and can alternate names and sounds quite easily.

[umsami]

All of my kids learned the sounds before the letters... mainly from the LeapFrog "Letter Factory." Even though they say, "The B says "buh"... The B says "buh""... for each of them, they seemed to associate with the sound more than the letter name. It was never an issue. If they asked me about a letter, I'd say it's name... and then say the sound it made.

[AtYourCervices]

Have you ever used "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons"? I just started this with my 3 year old.

[Savoir Faire]

Also look into the book The Three R's. It goes over this exact topic. Very insightful.