[Stayseeliz]

What have you all found most effective for teaching a child to recognize letters? DS can recogize about 12 letters now and we're working on the rest to get started with phonics. Thanks!

 

[AllyRae]

LOL...I know it's completely dumb, but he learned with the Leap Frog fridge phonics toy. Totally not my first choice, but he really liked it and learned to recognize every letter by the time he was 2. The way it works is that you put a letter in, and then it sings a little song--say you put B in, it says "B. B says bah, B says bah, every letter has a sound, B says bah". So, maybe chosing a letter and then making up a goofy song about it would help your son remember?

ETA: He doesn't have a lot of battery toys, but that's one of like 2 of them. I kept it in the kitchen for him to play with when I was making dinner and he loves it--but I bet you can get the same effect with regular fridge magnets and singing a song about the letters...

 

[saphire]

While reading books I point out a letter and say the sound. Foam letters for the bathtub sound nice, but I have never bought any. We have the fridge phonics too.

 

[lillake]

We started with just letter magnets in the kitchen. While I cooked or cleaned he would ask me what every single one of them was, several times, until my head exploded from repeating myself.

Right now he's absolutely in love with Starfall.com and asks every day to go there and see the letters. It's awesome for picking up letters and phonics.

 

[RedWine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllyRae LOL...I know it's completely dumb, but he learned with the Leap Frog fridge phonics toy. Totally not my first choice, but he really liked it and learned to recognize every letter by the time he was 2. The way it works is that you put a letter in, and then it sings a little song--say you put B in, it says "B. B says bah, B says bah, every letter has a sound, B says bah". So, maybe chosing a letter and then making up a goofy song about it would help your son remember? ETA: He doesn't have a lot of battery toys, but that's one of like 2 of them. I kept it in the kitchen for him to play with when I was making dinner and he loves it--but I bet you can get the same effect with regular fridge magnets and singing a song about the letters...

We're not big on electronics, but I also recommend the Fridge phonics LeapFrog toy. Dd1 loved it, and knew her letters and phonics well before she turned two.

 

[shaywyn]

With my older dd, I had this wonderful wooden letter abacus-type toy. It was about 14 inches tall by 12 inches wide and had squares with each letter represented on one side, the typical pictures on the other (like A for Apple, etc.) and also numbers 1-10. My dd loved that toy.

She learned to recognize her letters by sight before she ever learned the "Alphabet" song or learned to say them in order. All of her own choosing. We found the toy in my mom's house when she was 2 and she claimed it for her own. We would play with it together almost every night, at times.

"I" loved that toy!

And, so did she. She ended up breaking it into pieces when she was about 5, so I no longer have it for younger dd

But, it was a hand me down when we got it, and she certainly played with it a ton, so it's okay.

It was something like this only think vintage 80's and hand me down:

http://www.toys2wish4.com/learnalphabet.html

 

[LeBoof]

With my son what we've been doing is playing a game with letter tiles we picked up for about $2. It's a matching game like "Guess Who" that we made up just using the tiles.

Another thing we do is to work with a letter a week or a day (for the ones he knows better). Kind of like Sesame Street. Today was brought to you by the letter...Spend the day looking for stuff that starts with that letter. You can also do projects that have something to do with that letter and have snacks, etc all around that letter.For instance, the letter "A" may get a trip to the zoo (Animals), apple snacks, a collage done with things starting with the letter A all surrounding a big cardboard cut out of the letter (decorated however is wanted), etc. Because we're so close to NASA, for us it also may mean a trip to the Space Center while he gets dressed up in his astronaut costume.

For a child that is more active you can also try having them use their whole body to make the letter. My son isn't very good at the balance needed for that yet, but does like to try it sometimes.

LeBoof

 

[nakagain]

We did a frog game..found a coloring page of a frog printed out a frog for every letter of the alphabet. I colored and then laminated the frogs and made a hopping game. My dd would say the letter and hop onto the frog and she had to say the letter of the next frog she jumped on.

Once she mastered the letters we would play the same thing except use the letter sounds.
It was a great way to learn letters and sounds and once she mastered the sounds, reading naturally came.

 

[sweetpeas]

Depending on how you feel about tv, my girls LOVE the Leapfrog letter factory video. I think that was the main thing that taught them letter recognition (& sounds). The other thing they liked, that I never would've guessed. MIL got them a book that was nothing more than each letter of the alphabet w/ a picture of something that starts with the letter. Seems like SUCH a waste of a book to read, but they asked for it a LOT for awhile there. Now they can go through most of it & tell me the letter & the picture & enjoy doing it as a kind of "drill" (I point to the letters/pictures, they tell me what they are). Not something I'd have thought would be "fun" but they ask to do it, shrug.

 

[Ravin]

My DD has started learning her letters by playing Starfall. She for sure knows O and Q, and the numbers 4 and 3 (and without watching sesame street--I HATE elmo).

 

[Catherine12]

We made an "aphabet train" by cutting out and painting "cars" using empty cracker and cereal boxes. The train is now hanging on the living room wall. We can sing the alphabet song while pointing to the letters or take individual letters down to talk about or play with. When dd (27 mos) asks to play with the letters (which she does all the time since they're in plain view) I try to get her to identify each letter before I take it down (in a non-pushy way - she stills gets to play with the letter even if she can't name it). She has been learning them really fast since we started doing this!

We also have some ABC books we read occasionally. My favorite is Dr. Seuss's ABC since it has upper and lower cae letters and gives several words that begin with each letter.

One thing to be aware of is the issue of upper and lower case letters - many books, puzzles, etc only have upper case. Because of this dd learned her upper cae letters first, and was then confused about her lowers - I guess it's a difficult concept that two letters that look dissimilar can both have the same name. She finally gets it thanks to the train, but if I were to do it over I would have made sure to expose her to upper and lower cases equally when she was younger.

 

[Seeking Refuge]

We have been using the Handwriting without Tears blocks and slate to teach him to learn to recognize them and write them at the same time. We also have two sets of the Melissa and Doug magnetic letters and a magnetic board hanging in his room. We have a set of alphabet cookie cutters and a number set. I am eyeing A Dr. Suess alphabet game. You can also play a game with sidewalk chalk where you write all the letters in your driveway and call out something like "jump to the letter "T".

I generally just have all of this stuff sitting out and sooner or later he will ask me about the letters. I absolutely refuse to use flashcards.

The other day when we were at a new park I saw the neatest board in which the uppercase letters had been routed out and the kids could trace them with their fingers. I am thinking about something like that for our playstructure if I can find it.

 

[MamaRabbit]

Lil' leap frog in her bed in the middle of the night. We'd wake up at 3am and hear the stupid thing. She would climb to get it after we'd put it out of reach at bedtime. We also have the fridge letters. AND, we really love using Starfall.com.

 

[Seeking Refuge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catherine12 , but if I were to do it over I would have made sure to expose her to upper and lower cases equally when she was younger.

That is very good advice and one of the biggest reasons that I like the Melissa and Doug magnets. They have small letters and big letters. When I am spelling words with him, I have always talked to him about which words need capital letters and which don't.

It doesn't make any sense to me to have to track back to do that.