Hello Again Readers!
As I'm finding more and more with my own toddler, sometimes the secret to being a good parent is being a sneaky one! Whether you're folding vegetables into mac and cheese, sneaking around the corner to pounce when you think your bitty needs to use the potty, or making cleaning up toys into a game, it certainly takes tact to both interest your toddler, and to direct them to a useful activity. From the ages of 1-4, one of those useful prereading activities is working on letter recognition, or your child being able to name letters. With this age group, however, you can't just drill them with flash cards because:
1. It's not fun for them, and they lose interest.
2. It's not fun for you, because you get frustrated.
3. They're little! Flashcards shouldn't quite be busted out on the regular juuuust yet!
So, you're probably thinking, "Well Reading Specialista, how in the world am I supposed to get my kids to practice their letters?"
It's easier than you think, you just have to be a bit sneaky, and slyly tuck the activities into your child's daily routine! In this post I'll show you 10 ideas for how to include letter recognition into your bitties' routine from morning to bedtime!
**As a disclaimer, I do NOT do ALL of these activities every day, but I do get to all of them a few times within a week!**
Morning
Getting Dressed/Changing Diapers
1. Sing the ABCs
It's simple I know, but it can make a world of difference in opening the door for letter recognition. I began to realize this myself, as I started to think of all the times I changed Charlotte's diaper or her clothes during the day. Instead of looking at this as time wasted in the day, or a chore, I could use it as an opportunity to teach her the ABC song. Every time I change her diaper or her clothes, we sing the song together. When you first start, your little one will be doing a lot of listening, but then gradually, he'll start to pick it up too! To be fair, we don't limit singing this song just to diaper changing time, but we sing the ABCs in the car, during playtime, music time, and on walks, just to name a few! She's picked up the song very well, and now that she can sing her ABCs, she's more ready to apply the letter names in her letter recognition activites throughout the day.Brushing Teeth
2. Letters in the mirror
Another spot to work on letter recognition is the bathroom mirror. Simply use a dry erase marker and write 1 or 2 letters you're working on with your child. You can change them out every morning, or every few days to surprise your child with a new letter, or you can wipe the mirror clean every night and then write the letters in front of your child so they can watch you make the letters. An example of dialogue during this activity would be:
"Hmmm, I wonder which letters are going to join you today when you brush your teeth! Let's go see! Oh look! What letter is that? You're right! It's an 'M.' Look there's big 'M' and little 'M.' Oh, I'm going to add our other letter from to the mirror now, do you remember this letter? You've got it! It's a 'B.' Here's a big 'B' and a little 'B.' Can you say good morning to our letters?"
**On a side note, your toddler will not judge you for being silly, so don't worry if this exchange feels silly at first!**
Breakfast
3. Making letters with cereal/finding letters in cereal
There are so many fun ideas to practice letter recognition with breakfast food as long as you're willing to throw out the old advice of "don't play with your food!" You can make letter shaped breakfasts for your kids! One easy way to do that is use letter cookie cutters as pancake molds or to cut letters out of pancakes once you've made them. You can also arrange cereal in the shapes of letters before dumping it in the milk. You could even go one step further and buy alphabet cereal and have your little one look for certain letters. Berries, grapes, and banana slices all can be arranged into letter shapes. You can even have your little one practice making their letters with their food! It's a fun and tasty way to keep letter recognition in your morning, and maybe it will help them eat their food too!Morning Walk
4. Using Wreaths and Letter Monograms
If you're like me, you live in a beautiful neighborhood where people love to decorate their front doors and lawns with single monogram letters of their last names! I've found this to be a wonderful opportunity for Charlotte to practice her letter recognition, out of the alphabet sequence on our walks. Another reason monogram letters are good to practice on, is because they look a little different than typical Arial of Times New Roman Font, which they usually see. This helps children to learn letters when they look a bit different, and thus cements their recognition that much more. Initially, I do most of the work to point out the letters, but now, Charlotte is familiar with these letters and where they show up on our walk. For example, we'll round a bend, and I'll tell her "Oh we're going to be on the lookout for that letter 'H'! Can you find it!?!? That's right! What sound does 'H' make again? Mommy can't remember? That's right! It makes a Hhh Hhh sound!"If your neighborhood doesn't have a lot of monograms, you can always go on a letter hunt using license plates. We've done that before! For example, one walk, we spent the whole time looking for the letter 'B' which was hiding on the backs of cars and trucks and on signs! It's perfectly fine to repeat the same letter over a few walks! This gives your little one extra practice in really isolating that letter and identifying it among many letters.
Reading Time
5. Include ABC Books in your little one's library
There are honestly a plethora of possibilities when it comes to ABC books and they are SUCH a useful resource for teaching letter recognition to your little ones! The best books are ones that are engaging, bright, show both uppercase and lowercase letters, and that give examples of objects or words that start with the letter featured on the page. The books pictured below are some of my absolute favorites for all of those reasons, but if your little one likes a different ABC book, go with it! Motivation is absolute key, because you want your bitty to read these books again and again and again so they can get constant exposure to these letters and start to learn them!
If you're looking for more suggestions on great ABC books, click the following link http://childrensbooksguide.com/alphabet. It's a pretty impressive list, and it will give you a great starting point!
Lunch Time
Potty Time
6. Keep 3-5 letter flashcards by the potty for your child to practice
At my house, Charlotte is currently in the process of assimilation to the
In her bathroom, she has 3-5 letter cards at anytime. While she's sitting on the potty, she flips through the cards at her own pace, she talks about them, and every once in a while, I'll ask her to show me a certain card. When I can tell she's just about had enough of looking at her cards, I'll just casually ask her to name the letters on the cards one by one. This is in no way a drill or mindless repetition, but it's at her pace and at her comfort level. So far, it's working well for us. She may not be potty trained, but she's learning those letters! I'll call that a silver lining!
Nap Time
Afternoon Playtime
There are countless opportunities that you can use to play with letters with your child, but here are just a few games/activities that my little one loves!
7. Letter Balloons
After her second birthday, we had balloons all over the house, because she loves them so much. After the initial thrill of batting them around wore off, they would just gathered in corners and sat. As I was about to pop them one night, I realized I could use them to help her learn her letters. I then took 3 of the balloons and wrote both uppercase and lowercase letters on them as pictured.
Now we play a variety of games with them. We'll hide the balloons and then I'll say "Go find the 'A'" balloon!" or I'll get out a laundry basket and say, "Can you put the 'B' balloon in the basket? Good job! Now go get the 'A' balloon!"
Even when we're cleaning up, I refer to the different balloons by their letter name. This way she's getting used to identifying the letters on the balloons and not their locations.
**Note: Make sure to use the same color balloon so your little one isn't confusing learning colors for learning letters!**
8. Coloring Letters
A great way to have little ones interact with letters and practice their early writing skills and coordination is by doing alphabet coloring pages. There are many books you can buy on Amazon that offer great coloring pages and activities to reinforce certain letters. I have some of these that I've bought throughout the years, but I do like using Pinterest as my main source! The reason being that I can easily print multiple pages of 1 or 2 letters for free and have her work on those letters during the week. When you're on Pinterest, simply type in "letter coloring sheets," and a ton of free pins will pop up! I really like the ones that have not just the letter to color, but also trace, and then color objects that start with the targeted letter! Again, this is just another way to expose your child to letters and get them recognizing the letters and naming them!
9. Letter puzzles
There are SO many reason why I love doing letter puzzles with Charlotte!1. She gets to work on fine motor skills.
2. It demands that you work on letters out of sequence.
3. She's improving her muscles memory for the form of letters as she's fitting them in their spots.
4. We work on sounds of the letters as well as names, because her puzzle has objects associated with the letters.
My absolute FAVORITE brand for letter puzzles is Melissa and Doug, but there are lots of other great ones out there too. Pictured above, there's the classic peg puzzle in the right corner, a Disney version on the top left, a butterfly version where the lowercase pieces help you figure out where to put the uppercase pieces, and Charlotte's new favorite on the bottom left which talks to her when she puts the letters in (for example '"R' is for rose."). These are just a few of the many examples available, and your little ones will enjoy doing them again and again!
Dinner Time
Bath Time
10. Bubble Bath Letters on the Wall
If your toddler is anything like mine, baths don't happen without bubbles. It's pretty much just a house rule! With that said, there's no reason you can't have just as much fun with those bubbles as your little one and use them to reinforce letters one more time before bed! Simply scoop bubbles from the bath and write letters on the wall with them, and ask you child which letter you wrote. Then, your little one can have fun splashing that letter away, clearing the wall for you to write another letter. When they get really good, you can have them make the letters in bubbles and then you can try to guess which letter they wrote! This is an especially fun activity because it's kinesthetic and it's getting your child to make big movements while making the letters. Not to mention, as long as the splashing outside of the tub is kept to a minimum, the clean up is really not too bad!Bed Time
So there you have it, up to 10 activities you can sneak into your little ones' routines to help them work on their letter recognition! As you're starting out, so as not to make it overwhelming for you or your little one, I would suggest just picking 2 activities from the list to try a day, and focus on one letter. When both you and your little one feel more comfortable with the activities you can gradually expand to do more of them in a day! As with all things on my blog, remember to keep it fun and stress free! That's the best way your little one is going to learn and the best way to guarantee that you will keep providing those quality opportunities for your bitty to practice her letters, because you won't feel overwhelmed either!
Have fun with that ABC practice, and until next time...
Yours in Literacy,
The Reading Specialista
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