A lot of people think that teaching your kids to read is really really hard, but it's not. I've gotten through one child, with a lot of false starts and back and forth, and now that I see how the "professionals" do it, I'm going to step by step walk any newbies through how to do it as well. You don't need a million dollars in fancy curriculum, and you don't have to have a kid who can sit down at a desk right away and study for an hr or two with you at a time. Where you start is as simple as, well... A B C.
Teaching the capital letters is a great place to start with your child once they hit about age 3. Both of my younger daughters started sitting on on their older sisters "lessons" when they were around 3-3 1/2. You have probably already been introducing your child to letters for a long time just by having toys or books with letters all over them. Actively teaching them the letters is a little different. Your 3 year old might recognize a capital A when they see it, but knowing the letter's name, sound, and how to write it are probably a complete mystery.
I came up with a very simple way to teach the capital letters to your child. It will cost you about as much as a single ream of paper and whatever ink you print out pages from the internet with. You can spend more and buy books with printables and such, but really there is so much online for free there should be no need to pay the $10+ for a book of letters or writing practice sheets.
Before you begin to teach, you should always get organized. I'm sure I'll eventually make a post all about organization, as it is a topic all in itself. But for now, all you need to know is make sure you have a file cabinet, a drawered organizer, expandible folders, or even just cheap pocket folders for keeping your childs schoolwork in. The way I do mine is I have organizer drawers, one for each subject each child is learning.
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These are all for my 1st grader.
The older they get, the more drawers they will need. |
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| These are all for my Pre-K and Kindergartener |
Each drawer contains whatever materials I need to teach the lessons, such as flashcards, DVD's, readers, or counting cubes. There is also a folder in each drawer. In the folder on the right I have the printouts for our upcoming lessons, on the left I have their completed work.
Take it from me, being able to go to a drawer, pull out exactly what you need for that day, sit down, and begin - will make things so much nicer when you are teaching a tiny tot. If they have to sit at a table or desk and wait for you for more than 15 seconds - you've already lost them.
Step 1: Introduce the Alphabet
Before you begin teaching your child each individual letter, you should introduce them to the concept of the alphabet as a whole. Print out or buy a copy of the alphabet. I found a site that had each capital and lowercase on a single page along with a picture that begins with that letter. I printed them up and hung them on the wall where my child could see them every day when we did school. Hanging them down low enough for your child to touch them can be helpful if you want to play games like "point to the letter ____". I hung my letters high and had my daughter point to them with a long stick/pointer, that way the younger kids didn't rip them off the walls or color on them.
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My printer doesn't print color.
I think they would be more interesting in color,
but my success rate hasn't suffered from the lack of color. |
Also, go online and find a good version of the alphabet song - youtube.com is great for finding free videos, but have them bookmarked and ready before each lesson because at age 3 you have about 15 minutes to teach whatever you can before their minds wander away on you and you don't want that 15 minutes to be you looking for materials you need. You can also find a single page printable with all the letters on it so that you can have the alphabet handy while teaching.
Once you have your video and small version of the alphabet, you are ready to go. Take a couple days to just show your child the alphabet and sing the alphabet song. Finding different versions of the song will help your child learn the letters better - especially if you find songs that enunciate "l, m, n, o, p" a little better than the traditional song. If you don't want to, or can't, find a alphabet song, you can always sing to your child yourself and have them sing along with you. Make sure you point to each letter on your single sheet alphabet as you sing it so your child will connect what you are singing to the letters themselves. After about 3 days your child should be able to at least sing along with you, if not sing some of the song by themselves.
Step 2: Teach the Individual Letters
Once you've introduced the alphabet you can move on to teaching them each letter individually. The order that you teach them is up to you. I generally teach them in alphabetical order, only because then I can ask "What letter were we learning yesterday? What letter do you think we are going to learn today, what letter comes after ____?" and reinforce the sequence of letters even more. Teaching the letters of your child's name first has benefits too - if they learn those first then you can begin having them practice writing their name. No matter what order you teach the letters in, you will probably have to teach them all at least twice for your 3 year old - 4year old to learn them completely.
I follow a 4 day schedule for teaching the letters, each day I focus on a different concept of the letter.
Day 1 - Letter Introduction:
On this day I introduce the letter itself, what it looks like, and its name.
First I show them the letter, either on the wall letters, or another picture version. I point to the letter and say "This is the letter ______, say _____." I will often trace the letter with my finger to draw attention to its shape as well. Then ask the child "What letter is this?" If you have a deck of flashcards they work great for showing off the letters, plus you can play games like laying out 4-6 letter cards and asking your child to identify the one you are currently learning.
Next, I play a video/song that shows the letter. My kids like to get up and dance to the songs and sometimes I make a game where they have to shout the name of the letter each time it appears in the music video. It turns into a fun game of "hide-n-seek." Don't be afraid to play the video 2-3 times if they really like it. Youtube.com has a lot of old Sesame Street videos and clips that are great for this.
If you have time and the deck of letter flashcards you can also play games of either memory (if you have 2 of each letter to match) or you can turn 4-6 cards face up on the table and ask them to identify the letter you are learning.
Last, I have my child color a picture of the letter. You can find lots of sites that have free printables of letters, you are best off if you find a good site, printing them all at once so you don't have to go searching for the site again. You can reinforce what they learned by asking them questions like "What letter are you coloring?"
Day 2 - Letter Sound:
On this day you will introduce the sound that the letter makes and remind them of the name of the letter.
First, I bring out the letter they colored the day before and ask "What letter are we learning?"
Next, I play the music video again and have them again shout out the name of the letter when they see it in the video.
Then, I play another video (if you can find one) that tells about the sound that the letter makes. If you can't find a video then you can just tell your child the sound. Make sure you give examples of things that begin with the sound. For example, if you are learning B you would say "/b/, /b/, /b/, bat. /b/, /b/, /b/, ball. /b/, /b/, /b/, bird." Point to the letter and ask "What letter is this? And what sound does it make?" You can also ask your child if they can think of any words that begin with the letter sound you are learning.
Last, I have them color a picture of something that begins with the letter we are learning.
Day 3 - Letter Writing
On this day you will show them how to properly write the upper case version of the letter.
First, show them the letter they colored on day 1. Ask them "What letter is this? What sound does it make? Can you think of a word that begins with the sound _____?"
Next, show them how to properly trace the capital letter. You may need to show them several times for them to understand. Some neat tricks to showing them are you can write the letter on a whiteboard and erase it each time, get them to write it with their finger in the air or on a table top, you can put a printout of the letter in a sheet protector and use dry erase markers to trace the dashed lines. The important part is to get them to emmulate the proper way to write the letter a few times before having them try to write it themselves.
Last, have a printable version of a letter trace page ready for them to trace their own letters in pencil. You can find traceable letters online fairly easily too. A good traceable page will have the capital letter only, in a traceable format, on a lined paper with a top, middle, and bottom line clearly visible. Some printables have a traceable letter, but no lines, or only a bottom and middle line, no top line. For first time writers you'll want to give them a lot of help in printing properly. If your child struggles to make letters, you can let them try writing the letter for several days after learning it, but continue to introduce the next letter as well, don't allow yourself to get stuck on one letter. Printing will not be perfect until they are at least 5-6.
Day 4 - Letter Review
On this day you will review everything you learned about the letter and see if your child can remember it all.
First, show your child all the videos you've watched and play any games you played during the first 3 days to review the letter.
Next, lay out first 3 flashcards, then 6, then 10 and see if your child can identify the correct letter each time.
Then, quiz your child and ask them what sound the letter makes, and to name 1-2 words that begin with that sound.
Last, have them print their letter. You can have them trace the letter several times, but I also have them attempt to write the letter 1-3 times on lined paper without any tracing lines.
That is about it. I come up with games to play with my kids as well, but that is the main core of teaching them their capital letters. You make it fun and they will enjoy learning it and look forward to the lesson each day. If you are going through the letters with your 3 year old and they don't seem to be remembering them from day to day, or if they remember them for a few days, but then seem to forget them as they learn new letters, don't be discouraged, that is very common. Just keep on going - don't feel the need to stop and go over what you've already taught because they seem to have forgotten it. The information is still there, and when you teach the letters through a second time, they will be a little older and will retain even more of it and be able to recall it much longer after you taught it.
Step 3: Wash, Rinse, Repeat
Once you've finished teaching all the capital letters, it's time to do it again! The natural inclination is to think, "OK, I taught them capitals, now on to lower case!" but if your child hasn't fully mastered all the capital letters yet, you really should go over them all again. If you didn't do them in alphabetical order the first time, then the second time you go over them I would highly recommend that you do.
How do you know if your child has mastered all the letters?
Have them sing the alphabet without any help. Can they say all the letters in the correct order?
Next, use your flashcards to test them on each letter of the alphabet. Place out 1/2 the letters at a time and ask your child to point to each letter one at a time by saying "Point to the letter ___." Then take the whole deck and show them one letter at a time and ask "What letter is this?"
Then use the deck and have them tell you what sound each letter makes.
Lastly, have them print the letter on lined paper without any tracing guides.
If they cannot do all of those things, then your child would benefit from going over all the lessons a second time. If there is one particular part, or certain letters they appear to be struggling with more than others, then you can emphasize that portion the next time around. For example, if they are struggling most with writing their letters you can have them practice writing their letters on all days, not just day 3 and 4. If they struggle with the sounds, you can give additional help with sounds when you aren't doing school by asking them questions during other parts of the day. Such as, "What sound does carrot start with? What letter makes the /k/ sound?" Draw their attention to the sounds in everyday life and help them to think critically about them.
Additional Activities:
Here are some other letter games you can play with your child.
I use some home-made flashcards to play letter hide-n-seek. I hide the letters low to the ground in fairly obvious places so that the game is 3 year old friendly. Remember, your 3 year old can't see everywhere that you can, so hiding them on top of a TVor bookshelf, even one that seems low to you, might be completely out of sight for them. I remember when I first realized my baby wasn't seeing them, I got down on my knees to hide them, from there I could see more from her perspective and realized why the game wasn't a big hit at first. After that, she loved it!
Letter fetch is fun too. Not the best name, but I can't think of a better one. I play a LOT of fetching games with my kids - "Go bring me this!" The way I do it with the letters is to help them with the sound and identifying words that begin with the sound you are learning. You can only realistically play it with certain letters well, like try to think of something in your house that starts with an X or Z... see? Not too easy huh? So use it only for letters that you know you have a lot of things with that letter sound - like B, ball, block, baby, book, even something blue. The goal of the game is you tell them a letter or sound, they run as fast as they can and find something that begins with that letter. If they are close - like they bring a pillow for B, remind them of how to correctly make the /b/ sound, and the sound they found was actually /p/. Use it as a learning time to point out how your mouth looks different and feels different when it makes each sound. Even though they sound similar, they don't look similar when you say them.
Read. Play a game while reading a book to your child. Have them find that day's letter in the book you are reading. I generally take a book and point to each word as I read it, if it starts with that day's letter my child will say "Hey! That's the letter ____." If you want to start off very easy, they have books in the library that are specifically meant to teach the phonetic sounds and will have oodles of words for your letter of the day. I think one series is the letter box books. They have titles like "My C Box" with lots of words that begin with C. They also tell a little story, so it isn't just words listed out.
You can play letter hunt when you are out and about running errands too. Stuck in line at the DMV with kids in tow? Start the letter hunt game. "Does anyone see the letter A?" then keep going all the way through the alphabet and see if they can find each letter somewhere. Not recommended for in the car - usually signs and such go by too fast to get a good look, but that does make it a good challenge for when they are a bit older and learn their lowercase letters.
Arts & Crafts:
Cookies - my girls love cutting out letter shaped cookies and then decorating them with icing and sprinkles. We do not do this often, but it is fun to do once and a while.
Other Letter Foods. Cheeze-it's make alphabet cheeze-its, so they make a nice snack. You can also make letters with things like carrot sticks or celery, pretzels or even lining up grapes.
You can cut out the shape of the letter of the day and decorate it with lots of types of stuff. Glitter, macaroni (colored or not), puff balls, beads, beans, colored sand, color with crayon or marker, paint, stamps, the possibilities are endless!
Make a collage picture by cutting pictures from magazines that begin with the letter and gluing them to construction paper along with the day's letter too.
Make the letter from household items. Popscicle sticks, pencils or crayons, socks, toys, blocks, beads, a necklace, there are hundreds of items you can get crazy creative with and bend or stack them to make the letter of the day.
Use your body to make the letter of the day. Your child may not be able to make the letter all by themself, but some letters are fairly easy, like a T, or making an O with your arms, or a Y.
Use clay or play doh to make the letter of the day or possibly an item that begins with the letter.
Trace the letter in something wet. You can use fog on a window/mirror, paint on paper or a piece of plastic, sand in the bottom of a shoebox, dirt outside, anything messy kids will love.
Draw letters on the sidewalk with chalk, a water bottle, or if you are really brave you can get a large squirt bottle with paint and a huge piece of paper to lay out on the ground. Somehow taking art outside makes it twice as fun before you even do anything.
