Fun and Easy Ways to Teach Young Children the Alphabet

In the current world of "No Child Left Behind" and high stakes testing, kindergarten has changed drastically and the days where the curriculum focused on social skills and self care with a few academic skills in between are gone. The expectations for kindergarten today are comparable to what the expectations for first grade were five to ten years ago. Many children entering kindergarten in school districts across the nation are now expected to be able to identify all of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet (and know some of the sounds that go with them), recognize and write their first name, rote count to 20, understand one to one correspondence when counting, identify basic colors and shapes, and even identify some basic sight words. By the end of the year, they will be reading books and completing addition and subtraction problems. Whether a child attends a preschool program or not, these increased expectations can place a great deal of pressure on parents. Fortunately, learning the alphabet does not have to be an overwhelming experience and there are a number of ways to incorporate teaching the alphabet into daily activities so that it can be fun experience for parents and children.

Take advantage of technology

There are a number of educational toys available on the market and it can be difficult to choose just a few. I have had the most success with the Leap Frog toys. From my experience, they are durable, make learning fun for children, and are reasonably priced.

For my daughter's first birthday, she got the Leap Frog Alphabet Pal Caterpillar. At that time, it was perfect for her because it is a "pull toy" that she could drag around with her as she was just starting to walk. She loved it because the antennae light up and it plays the "ABC" song. Each of the caterpillar's 26 legs has a different color and letter of the alphabet. There are different settings to promote music awareness, color identification, and then letter and sound identification. It is definitely a toy that grows with your child and almost two years later, my daughter still loves it.