Teaching Capital Letters

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.

These are all for my 1st grader.
The older they get, the more drawers they will need.

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.

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.

Where Do I Start?

Now that almost everyone who knows me, and even a lot of people who really don't, know that I homeschool my girls, I get asked a lot of questions.  People ask me how I do it, what curriculum do I use, is it easy or hard, what should someone a certain age be learning, do I plan on continuing to teach my kids like this for their entire education, the list of questions goes on and on.  I'm hoping that maybe I can answer all the questions I've ever been asked at some point in this blog, but today I decided that I should address the most basic question: Where do I start? 

Where do I start? is a common question I get from anyone thinking about homeschooling, but answering it can be very daunting.  I'll do my best to answer it.  There are a lot of "starting" spots, so I'll actually answer this with the answers to a few other questions.

1.  Am I really committed to doing everything it takes for my child to learn?  

Be sure that homeschooling your child is something you want to do.  Most people think about it, but you can't just think it is a good idea, you have to have a commitment to the idea.  This can't be something that someone else suggested you do, or your spouse is telling you that they want you to do it.  I can tell you from experience that it is not easy when you start, and you may have a lot of opposition to what you are doing.  Family may not back you, friends may scoff or even degrade you, and you may even run up against people who for whatever reason want to put a stop to what you have chosen for your children.  You have to be willing and able to fight through it all and continue on without wavering in your choice.  If you don't have a strong conviction in your reasons for why you want to home school, then you will not be able to ride out the difficulties.  Wavering causes your children to suffer, because you can't teach them properly if you having doubts or reservations.  So first off you need to decide, is this what you really really want for your child?  Are you willing to devote as much of your time, energy, strength, sanity, and everything else into this as it takes to make them succeed? You cannot take your teacher role lightly any more than you would take your mothering role lightly.  None of us would sit by while our newborn baby cries and not feed them or change them, but quite a few moms will see their child struggling to read or learn to count and will do nothing to help them, leaving it up to "Well I'm sure they'll learn eventually."  The honest truth when you home school is that your child wont learn it unless you teach it, so everything rides on your willingness and desire to help them (no pressure now, right?)

Once you know that YES, unequivocally this is something I want to do, and you've answered the "Who?" and "Why?" questions, the next question to answer is...

2.  Where will you do your schooling?

At home is not a good enough answer to this question.  It is extremely important that you have a designated place in your house that you can do school work.  You don't need to have a whole room set aside just for school, although that would be ideal and my dream come true!  You can do school with as little as a small spot on your rug if your child is only doing preschool, but if they are doing any sort of pencil or crayon work then you need a solid surface, like a table or desk, to set up shop.  My school area is scattered around my house.  I have one closet that is devoted to storing all the school supplies, I have a few small kid sized desks that we use sometimes when the kids want to go off and do school alone, but the vast majority of our school is done right at our dining room table where we can all sit together.  It really doesn't matter where you designate as your school area, but you need to have it be the same place every day.  Routine is very important if you want a smooth school day, and if your child isn't even sure where you'll be sitting for school you aren't off to a very good start.  

Also make sure that your area is quiet.  My kitchen also has the washer and dryer in it, so we moved the dining table out of the kitchen/dining room area so we could close all the doors to the kitchen if I'm doing laundry.  If there is an abundance of noise or distraction, you wont have your child's full concentration, not to mention you may lose your voice trying to shout lessons over a thumpy washing machine.  

Your area should also be clean and neat.  If there is too much clutter and mess in your school area then lessons will take longer to teach as you search for what you need or try to clear an area to write on.  I have invested more money in organizers for my school area than anything else (even curriculum).  It helps me so much to be able to go to my school closet and find every item I need for a lesson in just a few minutes, rather than taking hours to dig through a mess or to misplace items because they have no "home."  Everyone organizes differently, I'll probably write a post on how my school area is set up another time, so I wont go into detail about it right now, but the basic idea here is to make things easy to find and easy to access.

Good, we're off to a good start.  Now on to what most people are really wanting me to tell them, and the most complicated question of all...

3.  What should I be teaching my child?

So you've got your game face on, you set up your school area, and you have your bright eyed student(s) in front of you... now what?  "What should I teach first?" is usually what people mean when they ask me "Where should I start?"  So here it is, start by assessing your child.  Everyone's child is at a different age, thus different things will be expected.  I'll try to add a list of subjects and the benchmarks for knowledge in each subject later for anyone who doesn't know how to test their child for what they do and don't know.  If you don't even know what your child knows, then you wont know what to teach them.  You can run out and get the best curriculum for what grade they should be at, but each curriculum teaches different things at a different time - one curriculum's Kindergarten math may be another's 1st grade math.  So testing your child to see what they know will help you a lot in determining which curriculum you should buy, or what you should teach next.  If your child is under 4 years old there is a lot you can do to teach them before they hit even preschool level.  I will be adding a whole section on fun games or activities that you can do with children under the age of 4 to get them ready for preschool and even kindergarten.

Once you've assessed your child and what they know in each subject (math and reading are the most important, but you should also ask them about any other subjects they may have been learning or that you may want to start teaching them) you should then find the right curriculum for you.  K12.com offers free curriculum and you are able to advance your child to the next grade of curriculum if they finish their work ahead of schedule.  You can advance one subject also so you don't have to worry about skipping them an entire grade in all subjects, you can skip up in just math or just science if your child has an aptitude for one thing or another.  Abeka is also a very good curriculum I've heard recommended by a lot of moms.  BJU had a very good Kindergarten math that I use for my girls and it actually was almost as advanced as the 1st grade math at K12 for WA state.  My oldest got to skip up to 2nd grade math in 1st grade because I prepped her with the BJU press math in Kindergarten.  Hooked on Phonics has an okay program for teaching just reading, but they don't really get into grammar or much spelling, I'd recommend getting something different, although the songs and games are really fun with my preschoolers.  We've really liked being on K12 and I wish we would have started sooner because the K12 language arts is more advanced than what I was using to teach Abby in Kindergarten.  Find something that will work with your family's budget and that you can understand easily.  I recommend going to a book show or somewhere that you can view the curriculum before you buy it though.  Some of the curriculum is not what you expect, and just because you like one subject from one company does not mean that all their subjects will be fantastic.

4.  When is the best time to do school?  and How do I teach my child ____?

These questions are best answered by you.  You will mostly likely have to try out different learning schedules with your child to find out when it is easiest to teach them (and it may be different times for different things).  The same goes for how you teach them a new skill.  Every child is very different.  My oldest is a sit down kind of kid.  She will sit at a table for hours with me and do school, or go over flashcards again and again.  Serenity on the other hand... if she isn't moving, she's getting into trouble real fast!  The best example I have is that when I taught Abbagail her numbers I taught her with index cards, she sat and said them and had fun getting them right.  When I tried flashcards with Serenity, she inevitably would snatch them out of my hand, chew on them, or toss them around the room if she'd sit down with me at all.  I ended up having to make up some games to help her learn her numbers.  Her favorite was when I'd hide all the numbers around the living room, then let her go find them and she'd tell me what number she'd found each time she brought me a card.  We also played a game to learn shapes and colors where I made huge shapes of different colors and laid them out on the floor, then I'd call out "Jump to a red shape," or "Quick! Get on a yellow triangle!" and she'd have to follow the directions.  Moving games that used up her energy kept her interested and she learned still.  How you teach your child should revolve around how they learn best, and it will become apparent to you very quickly if your child is NOT a sit down and do sort of kid.  

Don't ever feel like your child isn't learning as fast or as much as they ought to be.  Your child will go through learning spurts just like growth spurts.  I've had times where I can't give my girls enough to learn because they just eat it up and learn so fast!  But you can bet there have been those learning lulls too, times where I could tell their brains were over-full and needed a rest.  We have taken entire days, weeks, or even once or twice a full month off of school.  If your main goal is to make school time enjoyable, your children will always ask you to learn more when they are ready to start soaking it up again.  I've never had to poke and prod my kids to learn, because I always make lessons fun for them - whatever their style of learning is.  I adapt even the K12 lessons so that they cater to each child's learning style.

I hope this helps someone if they aren't sure where to start with teaching their child at home.  Hopefully I'll get more on here about what to teach and when soon.