Child Care Creation: Understanding The Fundamentals

Learning letters and the alphabet is an extremely important stepping stone in your child's learning. There are a number of ways to teach your child, but keeping it fun will help make it feel like less of a chore, and your child won't even realize he's learning while having so much fun. See below for a list of ways to teach letters to your child.

Foam Letter Toss

Take foam letters and hold them up for your child to recognize. If they get the letter correct, they can toss the letter across the room. The lightweight foam will sail across the room, but won't do any damage. Your child will have fun being able to toss the letters across the room and gathering them to play again. Help your child learn the letters by giving them a little help in the beginning. After a few times playing, your child will begin to recognize the letters. Some of the foam letter packs also have numbers, so you can teach your child some numbers as well.

Flour Writing

Using flashcards with letters on them, have your child say the letter, then write the letters into a cookie sheet with about two cups of flour in it. This can get a little on the messy side, so use a plastic tablecloth or newspaper below the pan of flour. Practice with uppercase and when those become easy, have your child practice with lowercase letters as well.

Plastic Letters

Use plastic letters or magnetic letters, along with hand written words (short 2 - 3 letter words) or your child's name. Have your child spell out the words or the name using the plastic letters. The magnetic letters can be used on a cookie sheet, or your refrigerator. 

Lego Letters

Use Lego's to help teach your child. Stick with larger Lego's to help with smaller hands. Spell out smaller 2 - 3 letter words on the larger Lego pieces. Then write letters on the single Lego pieces. Have your child take the smaller Lego pieces and spell out the words on the larger Lego pieces. They can stack the letters on top of the larger pieces, which is also a great activity for fine motor skills.

Using letter books, toys and games are all fun ways to teach letters to your child. Be sure to keep things fun when teaching your young child, and don't get upset if your child mixes letters up or has a hard time remembering some of them. It takes time, so be patient. For more information, contact companies like Kid's Country Learning Center.