We have all sung the alphabet song both as kids learning the alphabet and as parents teaching it to our own kids. The tune can even stick in our heads, making it easy for kids to learn the letters. Music can become a valuable teaching tool, but so can other things. We sang the song with him often, but he needed other ways to learn as well. We found some other methods of teaching our son the alphabet using ordinary objects, one that I still take pride in discovering even after nearly 10 years have passed since using it.
Reading to him nightly
We both truly believe that reading to our son every night set him up for the best academic success in school. In addition to the stories, he would hear how the letters come together to form words, how the words come together to form sentences, and how the sentences come together to form the stories. Soon after he turned two, he started asking us what the letters were and which letters formed the words to which he pointed. It naturally took a long time for him to remember them all, but he could then read off the letters from any word. During his two-year-old checkup, our son spelled out D-I-R-E-C-T-O-R-Y from a magazine’s title in the pediatrician’s office. That spelling floored the doctor, and he raved about our son’s progression.
Letter magnets on the refrigerator
Like many parents, we bought the letter magnets for the refrigerator. We bought multiple packages so we could spell out words with the same letters more than once. We began by spelling his name, MOM, and DAD. From there, we would spell out smaller words that he had learned to say and use in simple sentences. He loved learning, so he would ask us which letters would spell some of his favorite words, and he would spell them himself on the refrigerator.
Assigning letters to numbers
During this same time, he had already begun learning to count. Therefore, to help him learn the alphabet in order, we assigned the numbers 1-26 to each letter. He began by memorizing the first few letters and numbers, and as he learned them permanently, we would add a few more. Eventually, we could quiz our son by asking him “What letter is #15?” He would then proudly proclaim “O!” The final step was to put all of the letters in order by himself. That would take more time and effort.
The alphabet walkway
This is the method in which I still take pride in discovering. Our son stayed in daycare on my school’s campus, so I would drive him in each day. When our son turned three, the time had come for him to start walking in rather than my carrying him. Instead of dropping him off at his daycare room, I would drive right to my parking space, and we would walk over to his room. Since we were also practicing counting at the same time, when we would reach a particular walkway, we would count out loud the concrete squares that made it up.
After a few days, it occurred to me that the walkway had exactly 26 squares! I added in counting through the alphabet as we stepped or jumped onto each square. I would then frequently stop and ask him what letter would come next, and he would answer – sometimes right, sometimes wrong. Soon, he made up a game. We would say both the numbers and the letters in order, alternating between the two of us. Since he liked O the best, he remembered that O is 15 and would always have to go first so he could yell out his favorite letter. After a few weeks of this repetition, our son knew his ABC’s!
Letters on the building
After leaving the alphabet walkway, we would turn the corner and see big blue block letters on the wall: “Orange Park Assembly of God — Little Lambs Daycare Center.” Blue was his favorite color, so he usually wanted to stop and look at the letters. The sign used many different letters, so I would take a few minutes to quiz him. I would say, “Find a C,” and he would point it out. I would point to a letter and ask him what it was, and he would answer. We would play the same game with other signs that had many of the remaining letters. We did this until he outgrew the games.
Success in school
My wife and I truly believe that teaching our son the alphabet and other skills at such a young age has enhanced his success in school. He has made straight A’s all through elementary school, and he will begin junior high in the fall of 2012. We make sure that he works hard, but we still turn many everyday activities into lessons. We have fun teaching our son, and he loves learning. We pray that his love of learning will continue for his entire life.
More from this contributor:
Read to your kids every night: A dad’s perspective
Daily Activities Make Great Math Lessons: A Parent’s Perspective
Maintaining contact with the teacher: A dad’s perspective