Make your Child love ABC Writing and Reading

I couldn't believe my eyes when my son who is 2 years old, called my attention and told me he wrote 'A'. and  he continued to write the whole alphabet!

Many parents struggle to teach letter sounds and writing to their child. It was no exception for me  since I didn't know much about how to present it other than the traditional way. After trying several methods, one or combination of these might work for you.

1. Wooden letter Puzzle
I took advantage of his obsession in repetition until the item is mastered.
I encouraged also his need for order, he always matches in alphabetical order A-Z.

Choose one that has a pincer grip,

it will also help them prepare for pen writing later

2. Letter books and Music

 Read, read and read, add a tune, singing makes it easier to remember.

check version sung by the author

Go to a local Market and match the fruits and vegetables

take a careful look
Find and frame letters around your city

3. Sandpaper letters and Movable letters
Trace with two fingers, say the letter sound.
Ideally, limit up to three for introduction of letters.
Read more on Montessori method of  presentation.

image from http://www.infomontessori.com/language/written-language-sandpaper-letters.htm

4. GAMES: A-Z sound
During traffic, we take turns in thinking words that start in letter A and so forth. You'll be amazed at what words kids think of.

5. Handwriting Without Tears
This has helped us build the uppercase letters with fun.

Building Mat Man

Image from Mrs, smith singing the Mat Man song

Building Letters

made our custom made pieces from foam board,

you may purchase or make wood for sturdier pieces

Leprechauns with a Pot 'o Gold

St Patrick's Day is not a big thing here in the Philippines, but since there was a unit about it and we already have the materials for it then we went for it.

1. Books: Under the Rainbow, St Patrick

2. Geography and Reading Preparation
Locate Ireland in the Map.
Make a game identifying all words that starts with sh

3. Botany & Bible: 
Talk about shamrock and its meaning.

2. Art: Color Sequence of a Rainbow
The Song Colors of the Rainbow as sung at Kindermusik class helped a lot in remembering the sequence.
We coupled it with activities and painting.

3. Language: Rainbows around the World:
Colors in English,Tagalog and how often Spanish words are used in the Philippines (a short introduction to Spanish influence to the Philippines) and Chinese

Red - Pula- 红色
Green -Luntian (berde) - Spanish Verde - 綠色

and so on

4. Music: Classifying High and Low

- Visual thru pictures (pointing and looking for objects), High and Low
- Kinesthetic thru movement and dance
-  Auditory thru singing the high note and low note, play the high low note in the piano

5. Musical Term: Glissando
-Visual thru the logo

-Kinesthetic thru waving the scarves in an arclike movement

-Auditory thru playing the slide whistle

6. Dress Up

7. Do an Irish Jig
Put a clacker (bottle cap/coin) at the bottom of our shoes and followed the dance step.

In the end we found the pot of gold, and ate them all up!

ABC Bunny Activities

1. Book:ABC Bunny

We have been reading this Five days in a Row.

2. Writing

Practice one letter a day in a pad paper, to make it fun. We did a letter tree just like in the book.

3. Science: Weather

4. Music

We sang the book, notes are included in the book. (Music played and  available in Youtube)

We identified quarter notes.

5. Pre-reading skills

Play games with letter sounds.

6. Art: Charcoal Drawing

7. Art: The Starry Night by Van Gogh

Similar strokes to Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting, we have attempted to do, crayon as our medium.

Children are Fascinating Authors

Children are witty, funny and thinks with no bounds. They have creative stories that we could record and recall later on.

Most of the days, my daughter and I pretend to be animals, like a kangaroo and a joey, which was inspired from last week's book Katy no-Pocket, but today is different. My daughter said she is an author with a pseudonym named Margaret Wise Brown.

In case you are wondering, George is a monkey,
 he is at the center, being held by two firefighters

I intended to write all her ideas and make some illustrations, but she took the initiative and drew, while referring to the cover of Curious George.

I was her secretary, she was telling her ideas, I write it down. I made some sketches in a separate paper as she renders her own version of it in her 'book'.

The monkey George is sitting in a vine up the tree

Well, the book launch was a success because my daughter assigned me as the 'buyer' of her book. She'll be making more she said --for daddy next time.

Read to your child, it inspires them in many ways. :)

The Alphabet Game: Bb

It is home shopping time, get your bayong (basket) and let us fill it up with things that starts with letter 'b' ! --or whatever letter your child wants to start with.

Roam around the house.

Get the child saying the sound of b.

Give some samples before you start.

After the shopping, go to the checkout counter.

Prepare a mat as your counter, lay it all out and talk about each item.

One sure way to get kids learning letters is to have fun!