How to Teach Your Child the Alphabet
Before you send your child off to preschool, it’s important to teach him a few basic lessons yourself, to give him an advantage over the other students. The alphabet is one of the vital precursors you’ll have teach, because he will need it for writing and reading. Here are a few tips on teaching your child the alphabet.
What You’ll Need:
Chalk board or white board with the alphabet on it
Pencil and paper
Blank paper book
Old magazines
Paste
Scissors
Alphabet cookie cutter
Sing The ABC Song
It’s one of the most famous songs in the world. Before moving onto visual representations. Teach your kid the letter names using the ABC song. You two can sing it by yourselves first, learning the tune. Teach him how to pronounce each letter properly. After doing this, get a board with the letters written on it, and then hold your child’s hand. As you sing, point at the letters with his finger, to show him what each letter looks like. After a few times, let the child point the letter on his own, as you two still sing together.
Randomly Point At Letters
alpabetIf your child constantly sees and familiarizes himself with the letter, recall and learning becomes easier. Everyday, point at a word you see, and then tell your child what is the starting letter and ending letter. For example, while he’s having breakfast, point at his breakfast cereal and say “Look, Trix starts with T and ends with X,” or say “Do you know what’s that last letter?” while pointing at the word. Do this everyday, when you’re at home or even outside. There are surely many opportunities to try this.
You can make this into a fun game. While out driving, let your child look out for all the letters of the alphabet, beginning with A. If he successfully gets all, buy him a small treat.
Write Down Your Child’s Name
One of the first words your child will write down after he learns his letters is his name. Ask him to write down his name, and assist him while doing so. As you write down letter per letter, read them out loud, so he’ll remember. Not only will he be more familiar with the letters, he’ll also know how to spell his name. You can start with his nickname, then his full first name and finally, his whole name, including the middle and last.
Make An Alphabet Book
Here’s an enjoyable hobby you can do with your child. Get a blank paper book, or make one by punching three holes in plain paper and running a ribbon through them. What you should do is allot a letter for every page. Your child can either write it down and color it, or you can browse through a magazine and cut out some to paste on the page. Once the letters are all in place, let him draw different objects on the page that begin with that letter.
Bake Him Alphabet Cookies
No child will say no to a sweet treat. Bake him a batch of alphabet-shaped cookies, using cookie cutters. If you don’t have cutters, just use frosting to draw the letters on the cookie surface. When serving it to your child, let him tell you which letter he wants to gobble down. Give it to him if he gets the letter correctly.
A Few Tips
Always make it fun for your child. Maybe you can turn the lessons into a game. Play something like Alphabet Bingo or Alphabet Maze. You can even make it into a fun hobby, like making a collage of photos of things that start all with the letters of the alphabet.
Never force your child to study when he doesn’t want to. Not only is it traumatic, but he might also not feel like learning anymore.
Little rewards will boost your child’s morale. Give him little toys or treats whenever he answers your alphabet questions correctly.
Learning the ABC should be fun for you and your kid. Remember these tips, and he’ll surely memorize his letters even before he goes to school.