The Letter C

At the beginning of April I started teaching Hailey her letters.  I pick one letter and concentrate on that letter for two weeks.  I do different activities with her about that letter during those two weeks.  Last week I started concentrating on the letter C.

For each letter we use Hailey’s toys to make the letter that I am teaching her.  Then I take pictures and print out a few of them.  I am using the ones I print out to create an ABC book.  Since we’ve only done A-C that is all of the pages we have right now.  I will continue to add letters to the book as I introduce them to Hailey.

At first I was going to use contact paper on each page, but that uses up an awful lot of contact paper.  So, I’m putting the pages into page protectors instead.  I put a piece of tape across the top of the page protector so that Hailey can’t pull the pages out.  We’ll see how well that works.  Then I’m using those metal rings to hold it all together.  I’ll post pictures of the actual book later.

Tags: free toddler activity, Letter C, teaching letters

The Letter B

This week we have started focusing on the letter B and we will continue to focus on it for two weeks. 

When I work on teaching Hailey a letter I try not to actually “teach” but rather look for those teachable moments.  When she brings me a book we can look for the letter B.  When she wants to color I can have a paper ready with the letter B on it and talk about the B while she colors. 

While we are grocery shopping I can point out all of the letters that are around us and make special note of whatever our focus letter is for that week. 

I have some foam letters and we play a hiding game with them.  I hide the letter and then say, “Let’s see if you can find the letter B.” 

There are endless possibilities for teaching letters.  For me, I think the important thing for toddlers is to have fun so that they think it is all a game.  Look for those teachable moments rather than trying to teach an actual lesson.  The lesson you are ready to teach when those teachable moments occur are the ones your child will remember.

Tags: free toddler activities, Teaching the letter B to toddler

The Letter A

For the first two weeks of April I am focusing on the letter A with Hailey as we work towards recognizing letters.  Since being able to recognize letters is essential to being able to read, I think it’s important to start early with teaching letters. 

The possibilities are endless for teaching letters.  A few of the activities I’ll be doing with her include:

• Coloring a letter “A” paper
• Letter “A” games on Leapfrog toys
• While reading books point on the letter “A”
• Use Starfall Internet game
• Letter hunt
• Make the letter A using various toys- blocks, Legos, Playdough, etc.

Tags: free toddler activity, teaching the letter a