I took Lizzie to a private preschool in town for her first screening interview. She is three, will be four in June. I want to enroll her in the “Kindergarten Prep” program. After the 20 minute interview, I was told she needed to work on her alphabet, counting and clearer speech before coming back for a second “redo” interview.
So I am going to get cracking. How do you teach a preschooler their alphabet? Well you have to know how their little brain thinks and what motivates them. Lizzie loves songs and can sing the ABCs, but when it comes to pointing out the letters we have work to do.
Lizzie is a preschooler that loves her movies! Instead of letting the movies teach her, I went online with her and we picked out her favorite photos and made her own Alphabet Sheet! Now we go through it a couple times a day. She counts the letters, counts the photos. She says the photo and then the letter. She’ll have this in no time!
Feel free to print and use with your preschooler!
Another amazing resource we are going to use is 1+1+1=1. This mama has some serious talent putting activities together for homeschooling your preschooler. There are matching games, how to learn patterns, letter tracing and much more! If you are wanting to homeschool your preschooler, check out her preschool packs! Here is a screenshot of a few activities:
And of course just being mindful of everday activities and pointing out learning opportunities. But I discovered that having worksheets and ideas online really helps and being a visual learner myself, flashcards are my friend!
I use printables from starfall.com. It has really helped out a lot and I love all the different options.
Sweet, thanks Crystal! I am checking out Starfall.com now. I also like the idea of focusing on one letter each week – reading books with that letter, coloring pictures of that letter, etc….thanks!
No problem, Annie! It’s a really great resource and I love that it’s free!
I have to be honest. I had no idea that there were skills they needed to have mastered upon entering kindergarten. Wow!
I didn’t either! And this wasn’t for kindergarten, this interview was for a “kindergarten prep” program for 4 and 5 year olds. I guess my 4 year old, not knowing the entire alphabet, is just too “behind” for this private school. While I am still shocked, this can turn into a good thing. I think by using this as motivation to help me teach her more she will just benefit!
I had several blog friends who had kids going to Kindergarten last year or this year, so I was aware. Keeley knew her UC letters by 2 and most of her LC letters. I haven’t gone over the flash cards with her lately, but she can point out nearly everything. We got some number flash cards, too and she can almost count to 20. One of the people said that their kid needed to be able to count to 30 and know all their letters for Kindergarten, with the premise that they could count to 100 by the end of the year and know how to read.
Right now we are working on letter sounds and working on tracing some letters in the air with our finger (you know, like O and T– easy ones)… these printables all look great and I plan on looking over them. When we started with flash cards, I put out 5 at a time and had her point to the ones she knew already, and then told her the other ones. The next day, we’d do those and 5 more, and so on. Pretty soon, she had all the UC ones, anyway. She still flips b and d and says u for h sometimes in the lower case, but again, I haven’t tried them in a while, so I’m not sure. We just use the ‘everyday’ method for the most part, look there’s a letter O in the book, and so on.
It’s always great to get them involved in how they will learn! Cute idea.
That was a great idea, Annie! We are going to start tot school with Bryson soon, so I’ve spent hours looking at different resources this week.
annie. PHONICS… i can’t say that enough. you will NEVER fail your kids with PHONICS. I promise you. and you can make this fun. and they will never be too young for phonics. 🙂
Learning ABC’s is fun when mixed with everyday play. When coloring/painting, always write name, saying each letter. This usually gets my 2 yo asking to write other people in our family names. Say the letter as you write them.
Magnet letters on the fridge! Once again, start with child’s name.
Big letters are fun to play with. I have a set of plush letters that are fun to play with and manipulate. Say letter names, show how they go together to spell words but at kid’s pace.
While reading, sometimes ask your child I they see the letter in their name. This gets them looking at the letters, words in books and associating them with the letters, words you may write for them. Do this before or after reading the book. I wouldn’t interrupt the story to do it. You want them to enjoy their books and not think you are trying to push some learning time.
I have alway felt that kids learn better and faster when done during play and/or with purpose rather than with flash cards, etc. of course, if your child doesn’t mind flash cards and it seems to work don’t stop just mix it up a bit.
Good luck. 😉
These are EXCELLENT tips Mari! Thank you! Love the one about picking out letters in their names. This has worked so well with my kindergarten daughter.
As so?n ?s I noticed this wweb site I went on redit to share some of the love with them.