ABCs?

NguyenNguyenSituation

Hi! I'm new. Well sort of, I've been lurking since becoming a SAHM in April. I have a question for you all: When did your child(ren) learn the alphabet? My son will be 2 in December. He can recognize certain letters, but I'm trying to figure out a fun way for him to learn them. We have some large flash cards with pictures (Aa Apple, Bb Bird etc), a cool alphabet thing my aunt made me when I was a kid (each letter has its own pocket with an item matching the letter inside), and I sing the ABCs. Do you have any other tricks? Am I silly for trying to teach him at this age? He can count to 5 in English and Vietnamese, and we're working on getting to 10, so I figured the alphabet was next.

barnwife

I don't do any formal teaching with either LO at this point. (And I am someone who plans to homeschool.)

As for when they learned, J. recognizes most of his letters, many shapes, and can count to 11 with rote memorization (up to six, I think, with one-to-one correspondence) among other things. I have no idea when he learned these skills. Partly that's because at this point I don't keep track. And partly that's due to his speech delay. 

Are you silly for wanting to teach him? No. But I don't think LO needs formal lessons at such a young age. What we do do is build learning into the day. So if I am baking, he helps me count the cups of flour. Or we count the socks in the wash. We talk about letters we see in books. We read (and read and read). We sing. We go to library storytime. 

We move. I want to highlight this one. Movement is incredibly important for brain development in young children. So I try to purposefully include a large motor and small motor activity (even if that's just spending time running around the living room and dong a silly fingerplay) every single day. Movement helps children to build connections between the two halves of their brain. Not that learning to identify letters/whatever doesn't, but movement is more effective according to my research.

So my advice is to get moving, get playing, and have fun!

bumpuser924057

Between the M&D alphabet puzzle and Super Why, he pretty much picked them up on his own. Just pointing out the letters on signs and whatnot when you're out will help too.  

Cherryblossoms07

DD could recognize some of her letters and knew the sounds that some letters made by two.  By 2 1/2 she knew most of the letters and their sounds and she definitely knew them all by 3.  Letters are something that my daughter has always been interested in.  She still cannot sing her ABCs completely, but that is mostly due to her articulation disorder and her late speech.

She loved/still loves watching Leap Frog's Letter Factory.  We have the Leap Frog Letter Factory game.  She also had a few other alphabet teaching toys that she loved when she was younger.  She also loves playing games like Alpha bug swat (like #4 on this page https://www.kidsyogastories.com/the-love-books-summer-exchange/) and other variations of this game that I create (alpha firefighter, etc.) 

NguyenNguyenSituation

2.5 and reads? That's incredible! Thanks for the advice, ladies! We read all the time (English Major, what?!).  He's interested, but definitely wouldn't sit through a lesson or anything. I'll start pointing out letters more, like on store signs and products. An alphabet puzzle sounds fun too. Thanks!

fancynewbeesly

She knew them by about 18 months--before she was talking. We didn't teach her them at all--just followed her lead. She was interested in them, and would point out letters everywhere she saw them (foam bath letters, books, signs, etc) Every day she would point to a lot--and then one day we realized she could recognize them. 

However, she wasn't really even saying "mom" or "dad" yet--she didn't really start to talk until about 21 months. 

chardonnay24

My 2.5 year old can only recognize 2 letters despite our attempts - he's just not interested. We have letter puzzles, fridge magnets, foam letters for the bath, but as soon as we try to start talking about it, he runs away. I'm not terribly concerned at this point. We read a lot, do a lot of free play and art projects, and he's starting preschool in 3 weeks, so he'll catch up eventually.

pastalady

My kid knew the alphabet by 14 months. I didn't realize at the time that was unusual. She started reading at 3. I honestly don't know what the norm is lol. DD started doing spontaneous math this summer with zero coaching from us. One day she looked at me and said 5 plus 5 plus 3 is 13. She can subtract pretty well too. We don't do any lessons etc but we have always read to her a min of 30 minutes a day and up to 2 hours isn't unusual.

peaceinnature

DS just recently started singing the whole Alphabet song, but he has been recognizing letters since he was about 18 months.  He has a few ABC books and we got him some letters for the bath and he loves them.  Other than there's a couple Sesame Street videos he likes to watch on youtube, and he has played the Endless Alphabet app on long car and plane rides.  We've never pushed anything on him, but we've read 4-6 books to him every night since he was about 2.5 months old.

For the OP: if your son is bilingual, language development will probably be a bit delayed.  I think I've seen studies showing that multi-lingual kids are slower to develop because their brains are busy integrating two languages and the differences between them.  But once they hit a certain age they take off in both languages!

bridein08

Cherryblossoms07 said:

DD could recognize some of her letters and knew the sounds that some letters made by two.  By 2 1/2 she knew most of the letters and their sounds and she definitely knew them all by 3.  Letters are something that my daughter has always been interested in.  She still cannot sing her ABCs completely, but that is mostly due to her articulation disorder and her late speech.

She loved/still loves watching Leap Frog's Letter Factory.  We have the Leap Frog Letter Factory game.  She also had a few other alphabet teaching toys that she loved when she was younger.  She also loves playing games like Alpha bug swat (like #4 on this page https://www.kidsyogastories.com/the-love-books-summer-exchange/) and other variations of this game that I create (alpha firefighter, etc.) 

I second leapfrog letter factory. amazing! Teaches the sounds of the letters, too. DS is 20 months and knows them from that. We also have a letter strip in our playroom (like in kindergarten or preschool classrooms), foam letters, puzzles, etc. He requests that I write words on his magnadoodle all.the.time and picks up a lot from that.

pitterpatter129

Between Super Why and the daily reading of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, mine knew all the names of every letter and random objects that start with each letter by 2.5. He can spell little things like STOP too.  He can't sing the song though at all.  He's in speech and one day just started identifying all the letters on something.  His SLP was like, Um, I think maybe you are focusing on the wrong thing here.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that PBS taught it to him, not me. ">

LatteLady5

DD knows them and has for a few months. I started looking for more alphabet toys and shows when she really started showing an interest. Leapfrog is awesome. We are currently doing about 30 minutes a day of letter learning.

This is also an awesome website https://www.starfall.com/. One of my good teacher friends recommended it.

IMO, just follow his lead. If he's into the alphabet, find ways to incorporate alphabet learning into your day. If he's more into numbers, or colors or shapes or whatever go with that.

nosoup4u

Yes, you are silly for trying to get your not-even-2-year-old to learn his letters. He has the rest of his life to learn them, let him be a toddler.

Angela814

DD1 learned all her letters sometime between 3 and 4 years. I don't remember exactly because honestly it's not all that important.

DD2 is 3 yo, and she may know a few letters.

NguyenNguyenSituation

Thanks everyone! He's not really "bilingual". He knows a handful of words in Vietnamese, but we don't really speak to him in it. My husband isn't totally fluent, and I pronounce words like a white chick. I'll look into Super Why and the Leap Frog stuff. We're doing a long drive for Thanksgiving, so maybe I'll download some educational stuff to keep him entertained.

@Kimbus22 I think you were talking about my screen name? If so, thanks! I thought it was clever.