Teach the Alphabet: 8 Fun Tips to Teach Your Child the Alphabet
Copyright 2006 Sheila Anderson
Knowing the alphabet is a vital precursor to learning how to
read. Children who know the alphabet before entering school have
a natural advantage over children who can't identify the letters
of the alphabet. Learning the alphabet doesn't have to be an
arduous task. In fact, teaching the alphabet is more effective
when you make it fun. Different children find different
activities fun, so try different teaching techniques. Here are
eight tips you can try to teach your child the alphabet.
1. The Alphabet Song
It may sound very basic, but before you actively try to teach
your child the visual representation of letters, first teach
them the letter names with the alphabet song. After having sung
this with your child several times, then you can start pointing
to letters as you sing the song to show your child that the
letter names actually match printed letters. Print out a sheet
of large letters and point to them as you sing. After doing this
a few times, hold your child's hand and point their finger to
the letters as you sing. Finally have the child point to the
letters on his/her own as you sing together.
2. Point to Letters on Everyday Objects
Every so often throughout the day point to a word you see and
tell your child the starting letter or ending letter. For
example, if you're out with your child at Walmart, as you're
walking towards the building say, "Look, Walmart starts with W."
At the breakfast table point to the cereal box at talk about the
first letter of the cereal name, or if there's a logo on your
clothes, talk about the letters of the logo. There are countless
opportunities to point out letters here and there. Encourage
your child to point out letters that he/she knows and make a big
deal about it when the child does this independently.
3. Do a Letter Hunt
Pick a letter as the theme letter for your letter hunt. Then go
around the house, or the shopping mall, or wherever you are, and
find the letter you are looking for in at least 10 places:
signs, books, products, toys, etc. If you are at home doing this
you can actually pick up the items and collect the 10 things in
a pile. Kids will enjoy collecting the items and then going
around helping you put the items away.
4. Alphabet Coloring Pages
Many children love coloring so much that they can spend several
hours every week coloring. Why not print off some coloring pages
with the letter prominently displayed and associated with a
picture of something that begins with the letter. Tell your
child what the letter is and have the child repeat it back to
you. Then discuss the picture and explain that the picture also
starts with the letter.
5. Alphabet Mazes
Some children aren't as interested in coloring but really enjoy
finding their way through a maze. While the child is working on
the maze talk to them about the letter and have them repeat the
letter name. Talk to them about words that begin with that
letter. After they finish the maze have your child try to draw
the letter at the bottom of the page.
6. Letters of their Name
Often the first letters children learn are the letters of their
name. Start by just saying aloud the spelling of their name. If
you can come up with a little song for the letters of their name
then the learning is usually much faster. For example, if your
child has a 5 letter name try replacing the letters of the song
BINGO with the letters of your child's name. With a 3 letter
name you can replace the first 3 letters of BINGO with the
letters of the name and replace GO with "spells name". For
example, with the name Pat you can sing "P-A-T spells Pat, P-A-T
spells Pat, P-A-T spells Pat, and Pat is your name."
7. Tracing Their Name
After they can say aloud the spelling of their name then make or
print out some tracing pages of their name. This creates a
direct association of the shape of the letters with the letters
of their name. This activity strongly reinforces learning to
recognize and print their own name. Not only are they learning
letters, but also early printing skills.
8. Tracing the Letters of the Alphabet
After your child can read and print their own name, then he/she
can start tracing the rest of the alphabet. This will reinforce
the oral learning of the alphabet with early printing skills.
Either create tracing pages of letters, or print out some
pre-made letter tracing pages. Repetitive tracing of each letter
will solidify their learning of the letter shapes.
The most important things to remember about teaching your child
the alphabet are to keep it fun and keep at it daily. You don't
have to work at it for long stretches at a time. That will only
frustrate a child. Teach the alphabet in little bits at various
times throughout each day and you'll be amazed at your child's
progress.