A little while back I picked up Preschool Scholar. Lately Alyssa has been showing a lot more interest in writing her name (with us guiding her hand of course), so today I made a few copies (I plan on making copies of all of the page in the book, so Alyssa can do each page several times) of the first page in the book, which was about recognizing and writing the letter A.
And we have A’s (the ones on the left are mine)!
She was genuinely interested in writing out the A’s and listening and repeating my examples of things that begin with the letter A. 
Now I’m not sure how long I should focus on each page (in this case, it’s one letter per page) for. I’m thinking fifteen minutes per day, for seven to ten days? Is that too much? Too little? I’m really new to the whole “teaching” thing, so if anyone has any pointers on working with this type of book with a three and a half year old, I would greatly appreciate you sharing them with me. Thank you!
Okay, back to doing stuff. Dan and I were playing American Idol Encore, and now he’s playing GTA4. Fun times.
One important thing to remember is not to confuse her. When she is learning to write letters, let her write letters. When she is learning to say letters or sing the alphabet, let her focus on that. A lot of parents try to teach the sounds and meanings of letters while writing, but identification of letters is the first process in READING, not writing! When writing, you start with teaching about how to properly hold the pencil and then by tracing the letters. Once she’s gotten good at the tracing, she can practice writing them on her own. As for how long to practice and such, you’ll probably get a feel for how quickly she’s catching on after she’s done a few letters. Some might be harder for her and some might be easier, so just let her go at her own pace.
That’s how I’ve seen it done with kids around age 4 or 5, so I’m not really sure what level she’s at right now. Holding the pencil properly is difficult at that age (I remember in kindergarten we used to use these ENORMOUS pencils to help us), so I’m not sure at what age a child learns that. I’m sure it’s not a bad thing if she learns it early on, though. It’ll only help her when she reaches kindergarten, because that’s something teachers often have to correct, as having a good grip is obviously very important.
^ Thank you for the info! I’ll definitely remember to just focus on one thing at a time. Today it was writing the letter A (I wrote the letter in for “ant” and “hat” and she copied me, but I didn’t go over it with her, because I thought that finding the placement of a letter in a word would be way over her head right now), though later on throughout the day I would point out things that began with A. Is that too much? Should I just stick to the writing only?
That’s a really neat product! I love reading about all the things I’ll be heading for in a few years.
Are you going to be homeschooling Alyssa and Ryan?
Awww that’s so cute that Alyssa wants to learn :). You’re making me want to have kids so I can teach them how to read and write!
Homeschooling is one thing I won’t be doing. I don’t feel that I am qualified to do it. I also strongly believe that children need the socialization and people skills that being in an actual school setting provides.
Little Alyssa…learning to write? HOW CAN THAT BE? SHE’S JUST A BABY!
Okay, freak out over, let’s get to business.
1. Keep it short. I think 10-15 is a good amount to start with because she’s still a smaller kid, so the attention span to spend hours learning just isn’t there yet.
2. Keep it fun. Some ideas I’ve played with kids that are learning to read and write (I used to babysit a lot):
-Make the letter with your body (once she knows letters a little better). Basically, you say a letter, then she has to make the shape of the letter with her body
-Find things that start with… pick a letter. She then goes around the room and finds something that starts with that letter.
- Make the letters with playdo
She is doing really well though. Her A’s were so neat!
Hehe, I actually remember doing that stuff when I was super young! My aunt usually taught me little stuff like that (she use to babysit me a lot). And I remember every time I would see her, she would ask me the same questions and I would answer:
“Whats your name?” – “Leanne ___”
“Where do you live?” – “Bell Island”
“Wheres Bell Island?” – “Newfoundland”
“Wheres Newfoundland?” – “Canada”
“Whats your phone number?” – “### ####”
“Whats your home address?” “Po Box…..”
Haha yeah. I was four or five I think. It was just incase “i got lost”, rofl. Then she started making me learn french.. Well, numbers up to ten
I found it exciting, haha.
The only problem I’d have with telling all the things that start with A is that A is a dumb letter and sounds different in different words. Haha. That’s so cool that she’s interested in writing!!! SQUEE!
i remember in kindergarten we had these letter people and we would “meet” a new one ever week or so… they would play a video all about the letter, we’d have a little blow up letter person on the teacher’s desk so we could see what the letter looked like, as well as activities though the week that involved that letter.
you could try things like that to get her started on her letters. like once a week have some activites planned that involve the letter you’re teaching her. and then on the last day of that week you could give her a little test on the letter. as her to point out things starting with the letter, maybe some writing exersize where she writes the letter out in capital and lowercase, things like that.
it’s great that she’s starting out early! that’s a good indication that she’s going to be a smart little bugger by the time she gets to school. i knew the whole alphabet before i hit kindergarten (we didn’t have preschool so it was all my parents and sesame street there…)
You can get your 3.5 year old Alyssa to sit and do something for 15 minutes? Where have I gone wrong?!
Children are so intelligent these days. How they pick up things so quickly.
I reckon, every little time you get can be a big help. Even if you sit down with her for about 5-10 minutes each day can do a big thing. It’ll be good to get her well prepared for preschool in the near future. Which reminds me, when is she going to start? My cousin Samantha (who turned 4 in April) started pre school in the fall – around Alyssa’s current age at the time.
Everyones ideas above have been great and I agree with them as an early childhood educator.
If you want you can designate time though out your day for “reading and writing time.” Do the amount of time that Alyssa wants to do, do not set a time limit if she wants to work on them for a minute, or not at all, or even 15 minutes then go for it. Do not push it or force it.
Some random ideas from the top of my head regarding early literacy.
** Noticing environmental words, such as “STOP” “EXIT” “Cheerios” “McDonalds” “Burger King” Words that you find in and around your environment.
** You could also cut out letter shapes from sand paper as then she can also “feel” the letters as she says them out loud (Montessori type teaching) *You can also buy pre-made ones if you are not crafty*
** Singing the ABC Song.
These types of games can be played anywhere, grocery store, library, doctors office, at home, etc…
** Be a number and letter detective How many places can she find letters or numbers? What is the lowest place where they are hiding? Where are the biggest ones and smallest ones? How many can be found in each room or outdoors? Can your child find letters that are raised up and can be felt? How about colored letters?
** Letter scavenger hunts once she has some basic letters down pick a letter and see how many different places it is used. Hold a contest to see which letter is found most often over a few days. You can even graph this information at home to make a nice visual representation of letter frequency.
** Matching activity give a model of the letter to be found and play the scavenger hunt game. This is a good way to start if she does not yet recognize any letters on her own yet.
I have loads of other early literacy ideas, if you want to know of any more, or want more clarification on what i have said above, just send me an email.
For Christmas I bought my daughter the Leapfrog Phonics Writing Desk:
http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-38000-LeapFrog-Phonics-Writing/dp/B00000JJ7S
It’s a pretty cool product and because it’s a “toy” she finds more interest in it than staring at a book. She’s in Pre-K so they practice writing and recognizing letters at school and when she comes home this is a way that she can review sort of what she’s learned.
I’ve noticed that she can re-write what I write perfectly. Her dad lives on the other side of the world and I’ll write a letter to him and show it to her and she’ll copy it on another sheet of paper. You should try that as another exercise as well. Maybe she could write her dad a little love note or something =)
What an impressive effort! I think that’s so cute…and pretty bright! :O