thanks everyone for the great ideas. The site I was using is the brightly beaming letter a week preparatory curriculum, but I'm going to try some other books, videos, etc. and we do have the leap frog fridge phonics as well...now if I could just find all the letters Thanks again!!
I must be the odd mom here (lol). My toddler is three and we are just doing arts and crafts and reading books to him. He is learning shape and colors and early math concepts such as small, smaller, big, bigger, at his pace. I have not begun introducing letters yet.
L'il Sprouts, you're doing exactly what I would have done! I don't do academics with a little one unless THEY initiate it, or it's in "hidden" in with the other stuff.
I'm an odd one too. Maybe even more so since my little guy is 4 1/2 and I haven't worked with letter in any purposeful way. Yes, we have letters around the house and if he happens to ask I will tell him what they are. He's seen the Leap Frog DVDs and other letter videos, but we don't drill about what letters are what. He seems to be picking up letter sounds from older brother who has been struggling a bit with the learning to read process. Last night he was picking out his bedtime story and said "Book, buh, buh, book, starts with B!" Not something I have worked on at all he was trying to find the sound himself. I told him "Good job, that's right" Then he send us all into peals of laughter by adding "I'm getting really good at math!" :lol:
lil sprouts I did that too! Wiht my younger ones, I just taught 3yr olds in prescool before so I gave ideas , Personally aside from what dd did on he own I was not into teaching my kids to do more , thats why I say relax, take it easy enjoy them while they are 3 having fun making messes and let it sneak in there in play, dont try to teach them all that much as let them play and learn that way.
Ah! The alphabet! As natural to learn as talking! You will succeed. I just taught mine and she's finally 'got it'. Flash cards did it for us.
My youngest turned 3 in December. I'm another odd one because I'm not really working on letters with her. I'm still trying to get her to sing the ABC's correctly! We have the normal Leap Frog fridge thingy, and they got the phonics one for Christmas. LOVE those annoying things! My son will be 5 this summer, and he doesn't know all of his letters yet, let alone the sound they make. IMO, don't stress. She's young.
holy cow, I was happy my 2 yo would say words at all...much less recognize the alphabet. (She did say ALMOST 3...which is TWO) What in the world would she need the alphabet for? Watch Sesame street. Read to her. talk about what things (concrete things) are called. such as Chair and Floor Maybe start introducing ideas such as under and on. THIS is NOT a RACE! the first one done, doesn't always win. Enjoy your toddler exploring her environment and her abilities...don't even SAY the word school. please. (ok, I am done now.) sorry.
3 yrs. ? Well heck you have no worry to be discouraged. If she loves singing then let her just keep on doing it. At that age being able to sing them and pronounce them correctly is wonderful (my middle son always had a speech thing lol don't ever ask him to say fish lol.) But if she loves her singing and really loves to be'boop with her tunes I suggest getting a video from the library that has the alphabet along with visuals and singing. But later on in pre-school and school age I suggest sing, spell, read and write. It is a wonderful program and got all three of my kids over that grammar block that kids sometimes seem to have.
I think a 2 year old who can sing the alphabet is great! She may not be ready to learn the letters yet in a structured activity. I would just expose her to the letters through play in the next 2 years. For instance, you can get her a couple letter puzzles and a few of the Leapfrog toys. Let her get used to seeing the letters in playtime.
I agree! Why the hurry to teach her the alphabet? Why can't she just be a kid and enjoy being little and exploring her environment? She's not even 3 and you're discouraged about this? That's obviously putting too much stress on her AND you! UNNEEDED stress! By the time they're 8-10 you'll never know who knew their alphabet at 2 and read at 3, or who enjoyed their chidhood and played and explored and just naturally learned these things without being pushed into it, and started reading at 7! Honestly, if you went to a 4th or 5th grade classroom, you would NOT be able to pick which children learned when! It's not important for her to know the alphabet at 2! I had two kids who DID know it because they wanted to, not because I pushed them, and one who could have cared less about learning that stuff! HOWEVER--when this one that talked late, and learned letters and how to read late, was 7, a lightbulb suddenly went on and he was reading way past his level within 2 or 3 months! It's on video, the difference from November when we recorded him reading, to January when we recorded him again. Doesn't even seem like the same kid, but it obvously is. ANYWAY, all that to say: Do fun stuff with her, let her explore her world as a little child loves to explore. Something she's interested in may not make sense to you, but it's important to her, so don't try to stop her natural explorations to get her to learn the alphabet and read. She's going to have soooooo many years ahead of her where she will be doing school stuff! Let her be a kid and have the freedoms of being a kid! Make sure this learning is for HER, and that she wants it, not something for you to feel better about or show off how smart she is! Not saying you're doing that, just saying that it's a trap many parents fall into! I did that with my first, but then realized with my second that every child is on their own timetable, and if we follow that, they WILL learn, and without the major stress and discouragement when we force them to do things our way when they're not ready! Hope you figure this out and enjoy your little one and your new one when it gets here!
Excellent responses. I have a 4 y/o autistic with speech issues. I feel your pain. But God will probably push this least of ours to care for "momma" regardless of her aptitude. God bless!
