Teaching your child the alphabet should be fun for your child and you. Be creative! The more creative you are in teaching your child letters, the more fun they'll have learning them and may learn them quicker too! Remember that your child is learning a new skill so be patient and teach at a very slow pace. Here a some fun ideas to help your child learn letters....

Go through the alphabet regularly, pointing to letters and saying the sounds each letter makes. Point out individual letters within words as you read to your child. Help him begin to understand the concepts of letters and words. Young children especially like to pick out the letters in their names.

Recite the alphabet in various ways. Sing it fast, say it very slowly, add it to a song. (eg. Old MacDonald had an "A".....with an "ah", "ah" here and an "ah", "ah" there.....)

Draw silly creations that use a letter as the starting point. (e.g. turn the letter "V" into an ice cream cone, the letter "M" into mountains, the letter "T" into a tophat).

If you are waiting somewhere with your child (in line, at the doctor's office etc.), look around and try to find a sign, a poster or magazine with letters on it. Ask your child to name the letters that you point out or ask your child to find a particular letter. It's a great way to pass the time and your child is learning as well!

Make alphabet magnets for the fridge. Print the letters and let your child color them. Cut them out and laminate them. Attach magnets to the back (you can use the free advertising magnets you get from businesses, pizza companies and real estate angents)

While driving in the car you can ask your child to find a letter on a road sign, a building or a billboard.

Play "Find the "A". Tell your child to go around the house and find the letter "A", whether on or in a book, a magazine, a picture, a wall or whatever might be around with letters on it. As an incentive, you can reward your child with a sticker or a small treat.

Have a "Letter A" day. Print and color the letter "A" and hang it up somewhere easily seen throughout the day. Drink apple juice, eat apples, make apple pie. Find a story book and have your child find all the "A"'s. Make up a rhyme using the "a" sound. Make a paper airplane. Talk about ants. In the summer you can even go outside and watch the ants. Look for all things that start with an "A" throughout the day. Next time, have a "Letter B" day.

Make alphabet flashcards. If you would like to print out a set of our fun flashcards, use the link below! If you laminate your cards, they will last longer and you will be able to use them for all sorts of fun games in the future. Here are some great flashcard ideas.....

Which Letter is missing?
Lay out the alphabet cards in alphabetical order. Tell your child to close his eyes and take one card away. When you are done, have your child open his eyes and identify which letter is missing.

Alphabet Bingo
Make a simple alphabet bingo card. Give each child one card and some bingo "chips". Call out a letter of the alphabet and keep track of which letter you have called. The first child to fill their card is the winner. You can reward each child with a sticker or small treat when the game has ended.

Before or After
Shuffle your alphabet cards. Turn one over at at time and have your child identify the letter before or the letter after. If your child is older, have them identify both before and after!

Change a Letter
Choose a three letter word such as "dog". Have your child find letters to use for "swapping" one letter a time, such as the letter "t" to make the word "dot" instead of "dog". Show your child how he can change either the first letter (Hog) or the last letter (hoT) to make different words.



  ALPHABET FLASHCARDS  
To view or print the flashcards, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0. If you don't have it, please click on the logo below to download it. Click here to print out your own set of Flashcards.

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