Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

We have flashcards and up until Gregory's arrival we reviewed them each night before bed. Then it was 2 or 3 times per week....now we seem to have lost our momentum...so I know we need to pick up on that.

In the meanwhile, Lucas is now in a Montessori center and while the teachers and facility is great....I am concerned about academics. Their "structure" is so far removed from the traditional public school structure. At Tutor Time Lucas had more of the public school academic structure (as much as you get at the preschool level ) and I feel like the difference is huge.

Last night we sat down to do flashcards and we asked Lucas to find the B (we put them all out in front of him). He hesitated and then found it but corrected us that it was 'ba' (the sound). He did that the entire time. He seems to now prefer the sound to identify the letter which is what they teach in Montessori.

Maybe that's okay but a part of me feels like he needs to be able to identify the letter when asked and the sound when asked...not the sound only. I'm not sure if that makes sense. What I do know is that I am concerned so I need to do something.


How have you introduced the alphabet to your child? How do you enforce what they have learned? I'd love to hear!

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

That sounds strange to me. I think it's great that they are learning the sound that the letter makes but if he will be entering the mainstream public school system, I would think he's going to need to know the alphabet and identify single letters, right?

I don't know what I'd do, other than continue to do the flashcards and reinforce to Lucas that the letter has both a "name" - B - and a "sound" - Ba. Could that work?

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

LEAP FROG LETTER FACTORY!

this was the only method that got through to josh.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

It's so funny because I think we, as parents, take things for granted.

Jack was always amazing at his numbers so I stopped doing them with him. A few weeks ago I was organizing his flashcards and started to ask him the numbers - he was getting them all wrong. Panic set in and I couldn't believe that he forgot it because I hadn't gone over them in a long time. Of course, you know me, I was obsessed with it. Ran over, got our workbooks, started doing numbers every night again, and a few days later when his speech teacher came I told her to go over numbers again with him because he is messing them up.....he did them perfectly with her.

I think we just have to keep re-introducing things to them, even if they have them perfected. I would keep doing flashcards with him and I bet by the weekend he'll have it perfected again! Also, have him say the letter a few times. I like to do "B. B is for Ball. B is for Bunny. B is for Bat." - so that they get the different sounds that come with B - if that makes any sense at all.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

What about the foam letters and numbers for the bathtub? Both kids love playing with them and while they do, we'll say "B makes the Ba sounds like as in Ball", "J is Ja like as in Jump" etc.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Posted by Diana1215

It's so funny because I think we, as parents, take things for granted.

Jack was always amazing at his numbers so I stopped doing them with him. A few weeks ago I was organizing his flashcards and started to ask him the numbers - he was getting them all wrong. Panic set in and I couldn't believe that he forgot it because I hadn't gone over them in a long time. Of course, you know me, I was obsessed with it. Ran over, got our workbooks, started doing numbers every night again, and a few days later when his speech teacher came I told her to go over numbers again with him because he is messing them up.....he did them perfectly with her.

I think we just have to keep re-introducing things to them, even if they have them perfected. I would keep doing flashcards with him and I bet by the weekend he'll have it perfected again! Also, have him say the letter a few times. I like to do "B. B is for Ball. B is for Bunny. B is for Bat." - so that they get the different sounds that come with B - if that makes any sense at all.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Vincent does the same thing (because of the Leap Frog Letter Factory though) ... 90% of the time every letter we identify, he will repeat "B say Ba ... Ba ... Ba" ...

What I do on an every day level is point out letters everywhere (food shopping, reading a book, on TV, on the side of a truck) ... we also talk about letters. What letter does Mommy's name start with and he memorized that .... Lisa "L", "lullllll" . what else starts with L? "lu lu lion" same for Gregg. Starts with "G". "guh guh guh" What else starts with G? Gorilla, Grape guh guh guh grape, etc and so on

I don't think it's a bad thing unless he cannot identify the letter at all. If he can identify the B and correlate it to the sound it makes, it will only help reinforce what the B is.

I will say, the little girl I babysit is in 4-year old PreK at Montesorri and can read already. A little boy that Vincent swims with is 3-1/2, goes to Montessori in Queens and read all the signs at Safe T Swim (except the word caution) - I was floored. He sounded out all the words on the signs. So whatever method they are using obviously works in my opinion because here you have a little 3.5 year old boy reading signs (not memorizing random words and repeating them back). That alone made me kick the Alpabet & Sounding out learning into high gear at home.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Posted by Elbee

Vincent does the same thing (because of the Leap Frog Letter Factory though) ... 90% of the time every letter we identify, he will repeat "B say Ba ... Ba ... Ba" ...

What I do on an every day level is point out letters everywhere (food shopping, reading a book, on TV, on the side of a truck) ... we also talk about letters. What letter does Mommy's name start with and he memorized that .... Lisa "L", "lullllll" . what else starts with L? "lu lu lion" same for Gregg. Starts with "G". "guh guh guh" What else starts with G? Gorilla, Grape guh guh guh grape, etc and so on

I don't think it's a bad thing unless he cannot identify the letter at all. If he can identify the B and correlate it to the sound it makes, it will only help reinforce what the B is.

I will say, the little girl I babysit is in 4-year old PreK at Montesorri and can read already. A little boy that Vincent swims with is 3-1/2, goes to Montessori in Queens and read all the signs at Safe T Swim (except the word caution) - I was floored. He sounded out all the words on the signs. So whatever method they are using obviously works in my opinion because here you have a little 3.5 year old boy reading signs (not memorizing random words and repeating them back). That alone made me kick the Alpabet & Sounding out learning into high gear at home.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

We have the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics. Dylan loves it!! It says the letter and the sound and sings the alphabet!

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

I am out now but will get the names of the workbooks when I get back :)

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Don't be hard on yourself ... the fact that he can sound out letters is amazing! :)

The only thing I would say is that if he is identifying B as Ba, I would just repeat back "yes Lucas, the letter B makes the sound Ba very good" .... I am sure eventually he will make the switch back. I have a feeling he knows it and is just prefering the sound as opposed to the the letter right now for whatever reason (because it's new to him and doing it that way is helping his brain remember?).

As a side note, my son is right this second singing in his playroom "The O says ohhh, the O say ohh, every letter makes a sound the O says ohhh" ...

It sounds to me as if Lucas is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

I get all my workbooks from The Dollar Tree.

I have them all.

Numbers, letters, reading, counting, time, change/coins, etc.

They have preschool, pre-k and kindergarten work books.


I swear by The Letter Factory.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

there is also a fun CD from they might be giants called Here Come The ABCS. . I don't know how instructional it actually is but it's fun to listen to and can't hurt to reinforce things. . def not a teaching tool on it's own but. .

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

I think what he is doing is fine.

Chris just had his 4 yr old well visit this morning and my ped said that many schools (not just Montessori) are moving away from the "academic" approach and towards the learning by playing method

For e.g. My ped said saying " A B C D" may be boring to my 4 yr old but ask him to write/say "T Rex" (since he likes dinosaurs) may be a better way to reinforce the letters

He obviously knows the letter B and now is saying the "sound"--that is awesome...

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

also I love the Leapfrog Letter Factory

The Kumon workbooks
The BrainQuest cards and books

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

I understand your concern completely, but a teacher friend of mine told me a while back that they don't really teach phonics in school anymore, not the way they did when I was a kid so from where I sit - with my DD now in TT with oodles and oodles of structure - I think it's great that he knows the sound.

I'll even go so far as to say I think that's MORE important than actually identifying "B" as the letter "B" because if you don't know what sound it makes, then you can't read it.

I also find myself trying to make sure Elizabeth knows her sounds - she can identify every letter with ease but I don't think she knows all the sounds yet.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet

Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD . (and all the Leap Frog DVD's for that matter) By the time my DD was two she knew her letters on sight and the letter sounds. The videos are AWESOME and what I like is tha the songs and sounds all follow through with their toys so she gets a lot of repetition and reinforcement. Now at 2 1/2 (thanks to Leap Frog and of course us teaching her too!!) she can count to 20, sing the ABC song perfectly, and knows ALL of her letters on sight AND her letter sounds.

Re: Questions about teaching your child the letters in the alphabet