Letter Recognition - Carrollton,TX

I used bathtime. Every night when he took a bath, I had the foam letters (they sell them in the grocery store) on the wall. He would hold the little animals that would squirt water out of them or squirt gun. I would ask him to squirt the particular letter. We did letters and numbers this way. He loved it and got his bath in at the same time.

Get the book and the video "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". It is very fun and catchy. Try flashcards. An alphabet puzzle. The Sesame Street website has some fun alphabet games to play.
As Victoria mentioned, Dr. Seuss's Alphabet book is great!

Read Dr. Seuss's Amazing Alphabet book. Both my kiddos loved reading and hearing Dr. Seuss when they were tots. They can learn a lot from this one--you may even remember it from your own childhood? Big A, Little a, what begins with "A"? Aunt Annie's alligater, A a A. :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679882812/ref=pd_lpo_k2...

Anybody know what a "Fiffer Feffer Feff" is? How about a "Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz" ? Those kinds of things stick with kiddos.

I think you have gotten some really great suggestions below, and will add just a couple things that helped us:

using foam or wooden letters (from a tray puzzle) to play 'alphabet cookies' with

making letters from playdough

having him write his name, starting with just the first letter of his name.

My best tip, though, would be to give it time. My son's caregiver was concerned that my son (at four) couldn't recognize any letters. I decided not to sweat it, but to continue to introduce them at playtimes and at times when they were relevant. At the beginning of kinder, he recognized about 12. Less than three months in, he could recognize and write all of the letters, upper and lower case. All that to say, preK teachers do sweat this stuff sometimes when I don't really think it's necessary. It's ideal for them to know those letters, but they are sometimes more open to learning this information at 5 and it can be taught in class. As a preschool teacher myself, my most important tasks to help the kids with at this age are learning to be together, play in groups and manage themselves and their self-care throughout the day. Not knowing the alphabet walking into kindergarten is not nearly as hard to accommodate (or teach) as a child who has self-regulation or self-help/care challenges. Just wanted to give you another 'big picture' perspective!

Make it part of his every day activities....

As you read to him, point out the letters..... then gradually start asking him what letter that is as you point to it.

Maybe make each day a "letter" day.... search for that letter around the house, both in print, and for objects that start with that letter. Each day choose a different letter.

As you are in stores, ask him to find the letter of the day.....

Don't make it a "school" .... make it a game.... tell him you are going to play a new game!

Make him pancakes in that letter shape occasionally... or cut his toast in that letter, or arrange his food (carrot sticks, cheese sticks, etc.) in the shape of that letter.

Incorporate that in daily play, or daily driving around.... ask him to look for things that start with that letter, or see if he can see them on signs and such.

www.starfall.com

Love this website! My daughters Kindergarten teacher told us about it. It's fun for kids, all educational & totally free. Mine love it...they are 6 & 4. My 4 year old son has learned a lot from it.

We used Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Bad Kitty books. But mostly we made a game out of it in the car. "find me an A" and they would point to signs with a's in it (we had lots of car time).

Keep going with the letters in his name, these are more important to him than other letters. These have meaning. Then go on to sister's name (or brother or best friend) starts with, Mom starts with M, Dad starts with D. Again this will attach meaning to the learning. Sure he can watch videos with letters, games and puzzles, etc. but go slow one or two letters at a time. make them with play dough, write them in shaving cream, etc She only wants to see that he can learn ... in a month she doesn't expect him to learn 18 more letters. If he learns two or three more in one month he has doubled his letter recognition and shown he is ready to learn. Dont stress, 2 or 3 a month for the next nine months will have him ready for Kindergarten!

You can work on this at home and have him recognizing them in no time...my two year old knows all her letters, both upper and lower case. I am almost ashamed to say (because I actually TAUGHT my first child) but she's learned them through a combination of LeapFrog videos off Netflix (they teach ABC's and numbers), the show SuperWhy, and alphabet books I've read to her.

You got let him check out the LeapFrog alphabet shows...you can get the DVD's really cheap if you don't have Netflix. Also, go check out a few ABC books from the library and just start reading them...at least once or twice a day. It's beneficial to use the same book for awhile.

He'll pick it up in no time!

Our son is *super* active, and one of the ways he learned his letters was through an alphabet rug. He had a foam letter puzzle and he would take one of the letters and place it on the matching shape on the rug. Then he'd run back to the table, pick another foam letter, and find the matching shape on the floor.

He didn't need to know the "name" of the letter -- it was more about recognizing shapes. Not saying you should go out and buy a rug, but you could maybe write letters out and place them around the room.

Sandy -- love the bathtub idea!

The Letter Factory video (a leap frog product) really helped my kiddos with not only recognition, but sounds.

For my daughter we used flash cards and we played games where I would ask her what letter a certain object started with. For example I would ask her what letter does table start with. She would say T and I would have her find the letter T in her flash cards. I also had her to write the letters. This helped with writing and learning the alphabet. When she would mention her friends from school I would ask her what letter does their name start with and find the flash card letter that matches their name. Just try to make learning his letters fun and he will get it. Good luck!!

We also used Starfall.com.

YES, to the Letter Factory DVD. My daughter really liked it. There is also starfall.com, which we used to do together before bed most evenings. Both of my kids have foam bath letters and numbers, and alphabet and numbered blocks. I think all of these things help :) Oh, I just printed out alphabet flashcards from a website this past weekend for my son. I just found the website,
http://www.mrprintables.com/printable-flash-cards.html

Use starfall.com. It is a fun interactive website for kids to learn their letters. I used their kindergarten homeschool curriculum and I love it. Good luck.

My son learned his letters pretty quickly from playing on starfall.com with me. It's a great website! Before going on that, he knew about 10-12 letters. Within a couple of weeks of playing for maybe 10 minutes a day on Starfall, he knew them all.

Alphabet magnets for the fridge are great too. Look at the leapfrog one where you put one letter at a time into the little holder and it says the letter and the sound it makes.

For something fun and hands on, check out Tub Stick-Ups Letter Catch, a really fun bathtub (or water table) toy where your son can fish for letters and stick them to the wall of the tub. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...

I know it sounds less academic than the others, but we used Super Why and Word World. My dd learned hers in about 2 weeks from watching these shows. I know she learns faster than most kids, but it should make a difference.

With both of my boys, I used a MagnaDoodle. I picked 5 or 6 letters and shapes each night and drew them one at a time on the MagnaDoodle. For each one I'd tell them what it was, and then erase it. Then I'd show them something they knew. Then erase it. Then back to the new letter/number/shape. Ask them. Repeat.

The next night I'd add a new letter, but go through all of the letters we'd worked on.

It took about a month to learn all of the uppercase letters. Then I started adding lowercase letters. I'd draw them next to their uppercase counterparts to start "This is a BIG P and this is a little p." Then once they started recognizing them, I'd serparate them.

Both of my boys loved this. And you can do it anytime because it doesn't require their full attention (dinnertime, while playing, etc).

For colors, I put hand drawn pictures of things on their walls. A yellow banana, blue ball, green balloon, etc. They always laughed when I told them that the banana was purple. :-)

Make it fun.

What helped DD, honestly, was a V-tech laptop with ABC games. They teach the kid upper and lower case. I also got DD one of those phonic fridge magnet things that sings "F, F, the F says ffff" - it only does uppercase, but that's a start, right?

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a great letter book. We have also used Starfall. There's enough free content to get you going.

We also do the alphabet on the road game, or play other letter games. Same way we did with colors, numbers, objects.

A walk can be a great learning moment. "Son, what is THAT?" "A stop sign, Mommy." "Are you sure? What shape is a stop sign?" "An octagon" "What color is a stop sign?" "Red" "What does a stop sign SAY?" "Stop!" "S-T-O-P, stop. You're right. How very smart of you. Do you see any more?"

I will also say that DD was tested for various things in Sept. She is also an August baby and they just wanted her to know how to write 2 letters from her name. If time goes on and you feel he's not progressing, then talk to your school district about further testing to see if there's another issue like dyslexia.

Leapster game "Letters on the Loose" was amazing for my kids to learn the letters and their sounds. Each letter has its own little game to play, then they write it and learn the sound. I only let them play it in the car, and it held their attention for a very, very long time, even after they knew all their letters and sounds.

I work with Kindergarteners and not all of them can recognize all the letters or sounds yet, so don't panic, you still have time, Starfall is great but so are old fashion flash cards!