Learning upper case ABC's first? Then lower? Together? Does it matter?

[starling&diesel]

DD (3.75) is really into letters and spelling and reading these days.  I've written out the alphabet in capital letters on a piece of masking tape near where she likes to work on her projects.  She's aced those, and is using them to form pretend words and real words.  For those who have BTDT, did you help your kids learn both at the same time?  One after the other?  Or let them really get into the one before introducing the other?   She knows the lower case to read them.  Thoughts? 

[SweetSilver]

Dislosure: we're unschoolers, so I'm answering from that perspective because it is what I know: 

I don't think it matters which way.  

I think if you introduce lowercase letters, and she only does the capital, there is your answer--for now.  If she seems enthusiastic, then continue.  She is already learning them if she sees the words in books, and excellent books like the full-length Chicka Chicka Boom Boom introduce them in a great way.  

As long as she really loves what you are doing, and as long as the learning still looks like playing, without corrections or expectations of competency or even completion, then you can have fun with it in whatever way your daughter accepts.  

Will you confuse her by introducing lowercase letters?  Maybe.  But I think you'll notice that and be able to set it aside for awhile.

[crunchy_mommy]

I have no idea what is 'best' but we started with uppercase because DS seems to have an easier time writing them... maybe because they have straighter lines or something... We do talk about how there are "mama letters" and "baby letters" and some of the babies look like their mamas and some don't. Sometimes he asks me to write out the baby letters too but in general right now he's content with just doing uppercase.

The Melissa & Doug letter magnets have both uppercase & lowercase. You could try doing some letter-matching games (you could just write the letters on cardstock if you don't have the magnets), that might be a fun way to start to correlate the capitals & lowercase.

[moominmamma]

Being unschoolers we didn't create any sort of order of introduction. My kids naturally learned a mix, and it didn't seem to be a problem. They tended to draw upper-case letters first because the straight lines made construction easier, but they picked up upper and lower case more or less simultaneously from a recognition standpoint. 

Miranda

[pek64]

We also unschool, and didn't worry about the "correct" order to learning things. We read lots of books! Visits to our library and bookstore were frequent, sometimes daily! I couldn't have been able to afford all the books we read. We sang the alphabet song, and the state song. Writing was a different matter. Writing by hand has never been something my son did unless he had to do it.

[starling&diesel]

Thanks for the input, mamas!  Glad to hear that there is no right or wrong way.  Sounds like it's natural for the kids to gravitate towards the upper case for writing, which makes sense, what with the simpler shapes.  I consider us unschoolers too, so I don't want to push or pull her in any direction, and I have no investment in the words she puzzles out being correct or not.  She's always been passionate about books and stories and words, so I'm not surprised that she wants to express herself this way.  I'm an author, so there has always been big emphasis and value on books and words in our house.  She comes by it by osmosis, if nothing else.  

We have 63 books out from the library right now, which is telling.  The max is 50, but we have a special exemption, thanks to our friendly local librarians!

[sk8boarder15]

My son is two and knows a random assortment of upper and lower case letters, he plays the starfall letter app on my phone for a little while each day in addition to lots of reading time! I agree there is no "Right" order, though in Montessorri they hold to teach the lowercase first as its what kids will run into most often. 

[pek64]

Originally Posted by starling&diesel 

Thanks for the input, mamas!  Glad to hear that there is no right or wrong way.  Sounds like it's natural for the kids to gravitate towards the upper case for writing, which makes sense, what with the simpler shapes.  I consider us unschoolers too, so I don't want to push or pull her in any direction, and I have no investment in the words she puzzles out being correct or not.  She's always been passionate about books and stories and words, so I'm not surprised that she wants to express herself this way.  I'm an author, so there has always been big emphasis and value on books and words in our house.  She comes by it by osmosis, if nothing else.  
We have 63 books out from the library right now, which is telling.  The max is 50, but we have a special exemption, thanks to our friendly local librarians!

You are lucky to have such a high limit at your library! We have a small library, so the limit was low. We spent time reading books there to make up for it. It would have been nice to take a lot of books home, though.

[ilovemygirl]

I did both at the same time. I found that a lot of ABC books show both. We read through those very often. DD never had a problem and I want to say knew all of them both capital and lowercase by the time she was three.

I've heard somewhere that doing the capital first is preferred or easier but it never applied to us. Since your LO is so interested in letters I think it would be fine to do both. If she started to seem confused you could just go back to the capitals for a while. 

[starling&diesel]

Thanks, everyone!  She's definitely more comfortable writing the upper case, but is happy to read both.  

pek ... We *could* take out 150!  I have a card, and each of my children have a card.  Just think! 

sk8 ... Interesting about the Montessori approach.