The letter E looks pretty easy being that its just a couple of straight lines but its not. The letter E sounds like B and D too much that it gets confusing for munchkin. As the weeks keep going by and we go over more letters I'm trying to figure out how to not make them a huge jumble for him. How to teach them in different ways that will stick to him and he will remember all of them and reduce the confusion between them. Here is what we did this past week:
Monday: We started off the day going to a new Play and Learn at Carver Branch Library . We then at Home worked on Letter recognition
I made alphabet eggs. I saw on pinterest how you can use Easter eggs to work on uppercase and lowercase letter connections. So I used old Easter eggs from last year and wrote on them with a permanent marker the uppercase letter on the top half and the lowercase on the bottom half. So you can separate them and have your child put them together or just use them as a letter find. You can probably think of more uses for them. They are an awesome tool because they are plastic, long lasting and fun. Plus very very easy to make.
We also played with the playdough we got from play and Learn and used cookie cutters to make letters and go over them.
Tuesday: We made handprint Elephants. Using gray paint just making a handprint then letting it dry, cutting it out and adding googly eyes and ear flaps and tusk markings with a permanent marker. I think there adorable!
We also spent some time on starfall.com going over our letters.
Wednesday: We played with our puzzle alphabet cards that are fun to mix up and have him put back together as we review the letters.
Thursday: We really just hanged out all day at home. We watched Halloween shows.
Friday: Was a special day where Munchkin got to play with his older sister for the 1st time. It was a family bonding day :) I hope to be able to feel comfortable enough to share with you one day about the situation.
Saturday: We went to Chalk It Up and got home exhausted! But oh so happy at the same time.
Sunday: We went over the letters and used playdough as a learning tool.
Overall he is getting alot better with his alphabet and he actually asks "play letters?" or "read me book". Which makes me happy because I don't want him to think of letters as stressful, instead he sees them as fun! Handwriting as always is still a top must work on subject, but we are getting there and with more practice he will be on track.
Check out our Weeks with Letters A, B, C and D:
Our Week with the Letter A
Our Week with the Letter B
Our Week with the Letter C
Our Week with the Letter D
Are you on an alphabet journey just like me? How is yours going? Any tips for me or in general things that helped you out? Any advice is much appreciated as always :)
The letter D is not an easy letter to learn. It sounds like B and is funny shaped. Munchkin still keeps saying B? This is one letter we will have to keep working on.
Here's what we did this past week...
Monday: We worked on letter recognition. For each letter I set up a board with the Letter, A picture of something that begins with that letter, A flashcard of that letter, Puzzle letter, and a foam letter. I also hang above it a collage of the letter were working on.
Tuesday: I made letter cards to work on matching. I used note cards and wrote uppercase on the front and lowercase on the back, making about 4 of each. Then used a big sheet of paper with the uppercase and lowercase letter written on it to place the note cards onto (It became a matching game). That afternoon we also went to National Night Out and had lots of fun.
Wednesday: We went to our first October Play and Learn at Central Library. We checked out some more alphabet themed books to read at home and review letters with.
Thursday: We read "Bad Kitty" By: Nick Bruel. It was the cutest book ever! We looked through the letters and he loved it!
Friday: We went to SeaWorld San Antonio Howl-O-Scream.
Saturday: We did highlighter letters and read the books. We spent alot of time outside (I was decorating the house while munchkin played).
Sunday: We colored letter D animals and we worked with flashcards I made using this free site http://www.mrprintables.com/index.html . I printed them out on regular paper and then I used a glue stick to stick them onto thick cardboard paper and then carefully cut them out. They came out great!
This week with the Letter D was not so great. He still confuses it with B and has a hard time writing it. But atleast when we review A, B and C he still has them ingrained in his mind. He can pick them out of a jumble of letter blocks, books and signs. We are going to keep working on the letters A - D (especially D and more on handwriting).
Any tips on learning the letters of the alphabet? What worked for you? Especially with handwriting skills
I didn't know what to expect with the Letter C, because A was easy but B was not. Luckily munchkin did pretty good with the letter C. Here is what we did this past week:
Monday: we worked on Letter Recognition. I made a collage of letter C's and showed him the letter C with a foam letter, flash card and puzzle. We have a magnetic board set up on the wall with the alphabet on it we use alot.
Tuesday: On Tuesday we used one of my favorite free websites for kids www.starfall.com . Its an amazing resource for learning your letters and sounds and so much more in a fun way. Give it a try!
Wednesday: We did Play and learn at Central Library and letter recognition (finding letter C's in library books and signs). We checked out these books to use at home. They are incredibly useful.
Thursday: We went to Play and Learn at Forest Hills Library and did highlighter letters.
Friday: We continued to use the alphabet books to identify letters A, B, C and words that start with the letter C. We played with playdough we made on Thursday and used cookie cutters to make letters. Then used the playdough to make letters out of straws. I cut up colorful straws and then traced the letter with them. It makes a good visual. Munchkin mainly wanted to poke holes though.
Saturday: We made some incredibly cute letter visuals. I had munchkin help me trace small circles and I cut them out in different construction paper colors. I then wrote out a big letter C on paper and had munchkin glue them onto the letter C to create a caterpillar. I then drew on eyes and legs to make it cute.
I then made a Letter C Cow with munchkin. I cut out a big letter C written freehand from white paper. I drew a face and tail and glued it on (I tried my best). Then made spots on the cow with black crayon and had munchkin color them in. Showing him how C is for Cow. He thought it was awesome!
We then played with our alphabet puzzle (great buy from Target for $1).
Overall I think our week with the Letter C went pretty well. We reviewed A, B and C and he can differentiate between them. I'm so proud of his progress! We are still in the beginning of the alphabet but I am glad to see us advancing further every week and hopefully you are joining us on our journey with your own munchkin.
We spent most of this week sick so we didn't really get to do alot of lessons with the letter B. I decided to extend the learning to Saturday and Sunday just to make up for the missed days (but still try and have some fun on the weekend).
The letter B was alot harder than I imagined. I understand though because A is just straight lines. But the B is curves and connecting them. Munchkin did not enjoy it. The Letter B is one I will have to keep practicing more with him.
On Monday/Tuesday we were sick so we really didn't get anything done but work on feeling better.
Wednesday: We worked on letter recognition, Letter B's with highlighter tracing, We colored items that start with the letter B and we read over the B section in the ABC book.
Thursday: We went to Play and Learn week 3. We brought back the book we checked out last week and checked out another book from the library. We made playdoh letter A's and B's.
Friday: We did more highlighter letters and colored some more Letter B words.
Saturday: We colored some more Letter B words and did more highlighter letters. I made highlighter sheets with "hills" so he could practice the hills on the B shape. I wanted his hand to get use to that feeling of the curves which was still hard on him sadly.
Sunday: We wrote out letter B's on the dry erase board
Overall He can recognize a letter B and sound it out really good. But as far as writing the letter B it still does not look anything like it. I am going to keep at it with the handwriting aspect. One thing I noticed this week was that munchkin did not like that we weren't doing the Letter A. He wanted to show us letter A's and write them out (they look awesome by the way) and didn't want to do Letter B's. So right from the start he didn't have a good attitude with it and I don't know how to explain that yes I love the letter A but we need to learn other letters too? The attitude you put toward what your learning has a direct impact on how you learn because no one is going to want to learn something they don't like, so i need to find a way to change his attitude.
Do you have any tips on how to transition from letter to letter?
I told myself you have to make your munchkins education a top priority! And I set a goal for myself of teaching my 3 year old his alphabet, how to say the letters correctly and to be able to identify them individually. Then work on writing each letter. I want to do a letter a week and add a new color and a number (1-10) every 2 weeks so as to not rush or do too much a week.
Sound like alot?
I think it does sound like alot to accomplish but who will it hurt to try? I don't want to put too much pressure on my son but I don't want to send him off to pre-k next year unprepared. I want him to be confident.Its hard either way because I want to enjoy the time we have left before he heads off to school.
So I started this week as Week #1: Letter A
On Monday I worked with him on recognizing the letter A. On saying the letter A and being able to see its unique look so as to recognize it mixed up with other letters. I made a collage of A's on thick paper using old magazines that I cut into and saved other big letters for future weeks (I'm doing capital letters first). I thought that by seeing A's in different colors and fonts and sizes it would give him a good visual. I got out all the A flash cards I had and the foam letter A and A magnets and we just looked at them and kept saying A...
We have read the book "ABC T-Rex" many times before but today we focused on the letter A page and looking at the different words that start with the letter A like apples. Then repeating those words so as to hear the A sound in them.
We also played with his magic screen palm pilot (Great flea market find) that says the letter and shows it on the screen and you can use the attached "pen" to trace over the letter.
Then we played with his alphabet pal caterpillar (Other great flea market find) that has legs of the alphabet in different colors and has lots of functions besides alphabet. So we were pushing the A to hear its sound and how its different from other letter sounds.
I asked him to try to make me a letter A on the dry erase board after making one myself and here's the 1st letter A made by his own hand. We will continue to work on that. But still how cute is this?
Overall i learned Its not easy teaching a child his letters and I just started (wish me luck). Trying to make it fun is fine but no 3 year old boy wants to sit still for his letters when theres toys nearby. You cant make a lesson too long because they will get tired and lose interest. Try to make it fun like a game or some sort of playing. And don't feel let down if they don't understand it and aren't ready to learn. Everything will happen in its own time and you shouldn't stress (though most parents cant help it). I kept at it this week and will update you on our progress! Any tips? ideas that worked for you?
