6 Easy Activities to Teach Your Child the Alphabet

How to teach easily your child the alphabet?

Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels

Teaching your child the alphabet is one of the first things you’ll want your child to learn when they reach preschool. Learning the alphabet takes time; how much time varies for each child. Your goal is to make sure your child has fun while learning, so tries some easy activities to teach your child the alphabet. 

Never make learning the alphabet a chore. It should be a time to come together with your child a few times a week and have fun. Keep the activities short – 15 to 20 minutes is the perfect time frame for a three to four-year-old child. 

After teaching three of my kids the alphabet, I found a few activities they all seemed to love. Best of all, they’re easy for you to put together.

Read alphabet books

It starts with reading. You must read alphabet books to your children, starting at a young age. The great thing is that reading can be done at any time, even if you don’t feel the best. When I spent time recovering from my four c-sections and had a burning incision, I read to my toddlers and preschoolers for hours. 

Play Go fish

Go Fish is easy to adapt to learning the alphabet. You’ll need two packs of alphabet flashcards – uppercase and lowercase. Start playing this game when your child knows six or more letters. Remove those from the packs and shuffle them together.

Your child must use the correct letter when asking if you have it. “Do you have a B?” It’s okay to prompt your child at first. Soon, they’ll be an expert. 

Use sandpaper letters

If you enter a Montessori classroom, sandpaper letters are always present. They’re the perfect pre-writing activity that uses sensory and kinesthetics to help your child learn letters. 

When you introduce a letter to your child, bring out the sandpaper letter and show your child the proper way to trace it with his finger. Keep them in a place that is easy to access for your child. He should see them daily. 

You can also have fun with sandpaper letters and show your child how to crayon rub over the letters’ top. They’ll form on paper. All kids think that’s fun!

Play with alphabet puzzles

Puzzles are great tools for teaching the alphabet. I prefer wooden puzzles with pictures under the letter to represent each one. The images encourage and build vocabulary skills while teaching your child the alphabet. 

Play I-Spy for phonetic awareness

Phonetic awareness is often a forgotten part of learning the alphabet, but it’s a crucial step that shouldn’t be overlooked. With phonemic awareness, you’re helping your child hear the letters and sounds they make, and it encourages rhyming skills later.

Here’s how you play I-Spy for phonetic awareness based on the Montessori method. 

Fill a small basket or bowl with small objects that start with different sounds. Place a mat in front of you and sit down with the basket behind you and your child sitting across from you. 

Pull out an object from the basket in front of you; an example is a marble. Say to your child, “I spy with my little eye something that starts with the mmmmm sound.” Then, your child will say marble, and he’s free to take the object and put it in his pile.

Continue working with one object until he has the activity down pat. This takes weeks sometimes. Kids truly find this fun!

Then, move to two objects that start with different sounds. Your child has to decide which item begins with the sound you indicate. Over time, you might add three items. 

Write in salt or sand

As your child learns his alphabet, writing in salt or sand with his finger or paintbrush is a fun (and messy) way to teach proper letter formation while having fun. If you want to add phonetic awareness to this activity, have your child say the letter’s name and what it says. 

Here’s an example.

As your child writes a B in salt, he should say, “ B says buh.” Then, he underlines the letter. Doing this helps your child connect the letter with the sound and formation of the letter. 

All children have to learn the alphabet, but it doesn’t need to feel like a chore for either of you. You want your child to have a strong love for learning, so make the activities fun, simple, and educational. Use multiple senses to help your child learn faster, and you’ll be on your way to success.

Author BIO

 

Linda Portis’ biggest accomplishment in life is being a mother of four children. Their current ages range from almost ten years old down to 20 months old. From breastfeeding woes to budgeting problems and behavior problems, along with everything in between, chances are she has faced it over the last ten years.