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Teaching your toddler the alphabet can be achieved at a very early age – much before he starts school. It’s pretty simple. All that you need to do is make learning fun with magical tales. Here are few activities you can adopt to have your child gain an edge:
1. Ketchup Letters
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Every time you serve your little one some ketchup, draw out a letter. Ask her to guess what it reads. Get your child to squirt out the sauce jar to make the same pattern on a plate. She might start writing short words as you go about teaching this way.
2. Alphabet Mat
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It quite works like a jigsaw puzzle on the floor. Shuffle out the mats. Ask your kid to segregate and arrange them in order.
3. Alphabet Jigsaw Puzzle
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It comes in as a handy tool just about anywhere. Carry the jigsaw puzzle to a study table or the porch or spend time identifying the letters on them with your little one in bed. Configuring them will be fun!
4. Alphabet Blocks
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There are loads of alphabet blocks in the market. Some also come as building blocks, so while your little one can identify the letters, he can also learn creating his bit of architecture marvel with the alphabet building blocks.
5. Letters With Pencils
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You could also use crayons for this. Join the pencil or the crayon ends to make a letter. Get your child to identify it.
6. Foam Alphabet Puzzle
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Your child will pretty much learn to fit in those shapes. She will learn to match and call them by their letter names soon!
7. Letter Crafts
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This is quite fun. Draw a letter. Apply glue. Now get your kid to paste a variety of florets, buds and leaves to make a colorful letter. So while he sticks the stuff in, he will be learning the bends and curves of the letter.
8. Letter Salad
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Every time you dish out a salad to your young one, do that in the shape of a letter. With each serving, he will be memorizing the shape and the name of a letter.
9. Pulses Alphabet
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You can use pulses, cereals, seeds, nuts, legumes or grains of all sorts to do this. Ask your child to stick in the beans (or whatever you choose) on the letter you have just written down for him. Eventually, he may arrive at word building too.
10. Alphabet Maze I
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Either look for printables or create one of your own. You might want to create a maze in a letter. This will invariably teach him how the alphabet is shaped.
11. Alphabet Maze II
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Or create a maze between letters, so your kid can arrive at the order of the letters and learn to identify them.
12. Alphabet On Sand
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Anytime you go out to the beach, make it a bit educationally fun for your child. Draw out letters on wet sand and ask to identify them before the waves can wash them off! (By the way, it’s one of the favorite activities of adults alike ;) )
13. Stencil Writing
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Alphabet stencils are pretty popular with children to generate fonts for project works. But they also serve as a brilliant tool for alphabet recognition for preschoolers.
14. Alphabet With Match Sticks
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This will make a pretty neat game if you can time a race in making up the letters with match sticks. Or you might demonstrate to them how the letters look. You may not get the curves, but consider the pointed edges ;) And keep the matchbox aside before the little once get on with any mischief.
15. Alphabet With Bills
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You could use playing cards or toy-bills to make the letters.
16. âIce Ice Baby’
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The super cool stuff might be hard to handle by your toddler. Use gloves to handle the ice cubes as you lay them out to make the letters. And ensure that you have an absorbent sheet underneath so it can absorb the melting waters.
17. Letters On The Pavement
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The sidewalks and the traffic signs can work as a great visual aid in letter recognition. So the next time you go for a walk or drive, stop by and have a little letter game with your child.
18. Play Dough Letters
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Play dough is fun to play with. This time, get them to make letters instead of making other shapes.
19. Alphabet Hopscotch
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How about alphabet hopscotch? It will be quite a fun game out there. Get your chalk pieces ready! And maybe a team of players as well.
20. Alphabet Pasta Soup
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Look out for these at your shopping aisle. They will prove out as quite a learning tool while satiating your little one’s taste buds.
21. Beads Alphabet
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You could even use Pom Poms or sparklers to stick on the letters. They will make up for a good display piece!
22. Easter Egg Alphabet
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Paint the alphabet on Easter Eggs this season and see if your child has been started recognizing them already.
23. Keyboard Racing
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Use a typewriter or a computer keyboard to identify the letters. Time a race. Whoever spots the letter first, wins!
Try out these fun activities to teach your preschooler the alphabet. Tell us how it worked for him!
