Method of teaching ABC's?

amother

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 8:31 am

I have already taught and older kid the letters and most of reading but am having trouble with the next one. "This is an F.It makes the F sound...like feather, foot... What other things can be think of that start with F?" No answer. "This is an F. See? It has 2 arms like this? What letter is it now?" No answer.

He is 3, though my other one long since knew the letters by age 3.

I do notice he learns things through rhythm and beat.Anyone have any ideas how to teach letters that way? Or any other catchy way?

ididit

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 9:24 am

somewhere in my foggy brain I remember hearing about physically forming the letters with one's body. for those who learn best in a tactile way. perhaps a google search?

in addition, he may be too young to learn the letters now. each child is different. my older brother (who is very smart and an award-winning school teacher) refused to pay any attention to letters until he went to kindergarten. so he didn't learn anything until age 5. he came home every day and taught me what he learned, and I learned to read at age 3. everyone is different.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 10:47 am

I agree that 3 may be early to be mastering the letter shapes and sounds. Remember every kid develops at different pace.

Having said that, my DS taught himself letters and phonetics on BBC's kids programme called alphablocks. Strongly recommend it. Interstingly, I don't know if this is the same as in the States but here, schools start teaching the lower case first. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/

lost

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 2:05 pm

My DD knew the ABC's before she was 2 because we read all those ABC books for kids together, have a special rubber rug in her room where she pulls out huge letters and puts them back in, and we have ABC magnets on our fridge (now we have Aleph Beit letters which she isn't picking up as well). But I never focused on her learning them, just having fun I.e. when we read the books we do C for crab and then we act like a crab, L for lion: "and what does a lion say?"... when she pulls the rubber letters: "and what letter is that?" to which she responds by screaming the letter as loud as she can, and I respond by attacking her with hugs and kissed all over.

You can also try Word World-- it's our favorite cartoon on PBS and it's all about building words.

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 3:04 pm

I agreee that 3 may be too young.
I also disagree with teaching the name of the letter, how about just teaching him the sound without the name (which can be confusing) showing the F and just saying FFFFFF. Associating the sound without the name may be easier.

I swear by the method in the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yo.....dpt_1
You can check it out from your library
# ISBN-10: 0671631985
# ISBN-13: 978-0671631987

mazelandbracha

Wed, Aug 11 2010, 8:12 pm

I teach a class of 3 yr olds, and rather than teach ABC or alef bais I teach the sounds. We introduce a new sound each week - I fill a fancy box with toys and pictures (like blocks, books, ball, etc for b), and we look in the box at all the things and they guess the sound. Then all week is "b" week - we bake brownies, bounce balls, bingo-stamp,read Berenstain Bears,..you get the idea. If you want to look up info on Google, the official name for this kind of teaching is "phonological awareness" or "phonemic awareness." I find it works great for pre-reading. Hatzlacha!

youngbubby

Thu, Aug 12 2010, 8:54 am

I have put my grandchildren on the web site called...Starfall.com.....it is great for pre school and grade k and 1..also for the child who is having a hard time with beg. sounds and alphabet. It is really cute..when the child is pre school age u will have to d0 it with him to teach him how to use the computer. When the child is alittle older he can do it himself. I let my special ed. students go on th e computer during computer time or free time and they love starfall.

amother

Thu, Aug 12 2010, 9:36 am

Op here-
I use starfall for my older one but I dont fee lit teaches theletters for the younger kids. I need a basis where to start.

natmichal

Thu, Aug 12 2010, 10:12 am

I used Starfall with my kids. It teaches the sound/shape and I have found it vey good. ds taught himself the letters this way very fast (but then again he taught himself alef bais early too.
With dd, it was harder, but not because of the age , rather the tpe of child she is.
I'd advise to work a lot on sounds/ words :" I see a "bbbbb"- ball, bottle" etc and slowly introduce the shapes. I also started with the easy to remember shapes like S or K (kicks!) and moved on slowly .
does seem a bit young, unless your child is associating other things really well (such as naming shapes properly etc)
hatzla'ha

youngbubby

Thu, Aug 12 2010, 11:10 am

Starfall teaches letter recognition also.It goes over and over the letter then the sound. My 2 year old granddaughter learned so much from it. Even my 2 year old grandson loved it and he cant use the computer yet. So this took bubby time or mommy time to sit with the child and click the mouse ect. There is so much learning from starfall and it is fun learning.