Alphabet exposure for little ones?

[kubiac]

This is my first thread creation, so go easy on me!

 

OK, this might a weird question, but how much do you spam your toddlers with alphabet images? Right now the kid can play with an alphabet quilt, puffy alphabet letters, alphabet magnets, alphabet blocks, alphabet puzzles and some alphabet books, but boy, I could go crazier. I really could. :)

 

Do you surround preschoolers with images of numbers and letters at every opportunity, or is there a point at which you suffer diminishing returns? What's your favorite way to play letters and numbers with your toddlers?

 

On a related note, what are your favorite "alphabet storybooks"? As the lady doing the reading aloud, there's only so much "M is for Monkey" I can stand, no matter how pretty the monkeys in question may be. (I love our Charlie Harper abecedary, for example, but only the first time, not the fifth time.)

 

Right now we have a Sesame Street ABC Storybook, G is for Gzonk and Curious George Learns the Alphabet, but I'd love to hear if you have any other recommendations for books that explore letters and numbers through storytelling.

 

Thanks, everyone.

[rjperez1]

We loved Alphabears for all of the artwork of bear personalities in interesting situations.

[Recovering Sociopath]

There are tons of those alphabet books in every theme imaginable-- monsters, tools, super heroes.

 

My favorite is Graeme Base's Animalia. The illustrations are very detailed and the alliteration is so creative. It's a nice vocabulary builder, too. :001_smile:

[Orthodox6]

We read to our children from about the age of nearly one year, in each case. The dc knew there was stuff on the pages, I suppose, in addition to the pictures. I don't remember doing anything intentional about letters until children were four, at which age they had figured out for themselves that the "squiggles" were magic, and they wanted to gain whatever power Mom and Dad got from them !

 

From our own experience, we concluded that daily reading was the key to fomenting interest. DH remarked just the other day that he remembers so clearly getting up early enough to read 4-5 books to children every single morning before work. (and repeating the performance at night)

[Farrar]

Even Chicka Chicka Boom Boom wears on one after awhile. Our library had the alphabet books in their own little section and I used to go check out different ones when my boys were really little. There are a few clever ones out there, but I think variety is really the only way to go to keep a read aloud parent sane. :D

 

No answer to the spamming. I didn't do it... But I doubt it hurts either. I think there were just so many things that were fun to discover at that age that the alphabet was only one little bit - counting, numbers, nature, etc. We were more focused on things I might call life skills than academic ones back then - expressing emotions, cleaning up, and things like that.

 

ETA: oh yeah, Animalia. That was one of my favorites.

[stripe]

Do you surround preschoolers with images of numbers and letters at every opportunity

 

 

Definitely not. I have other goals for them. Relax, they'll get it. :D

[Orthodox6]

I set the text to music, and as soon as I read your post, there it started "playing" in my head !

 

Even Chicka Chicka Boom Boom wears on one after awhile.

 

[mhaddon]

Maybe this is why it has taken my oldest so long to pick up the alphabet. I did have a fewbooks but he was more interested in tractors, construction books, and anything nature related. We have always focus more on science type learning, I figured colors, shapes, letters, and numbers would come alongside something he was interested in. So please remember to include other things to explore and be curious about!

[kubiac]

Awesome. Great suggestions all, and we'll definitely be well-rounded!

[blondeviolin]

I usually go with the flow and let them pick it up if they're interested. Abby was, Emmett was not, Ellie couldn't care less about anything close to "academics". To be honest, when they're ready, a few viewings of Leapfrog's Letter Factory should have them set. My son does a letter a week, not because he doesn't know them (knows all 26 and their sounds), but because his sister was doing reading lessons and he DEMANDED his own lesson.

[Joyoflearning]

We didn't go crazy with the number / letter stuff, but what we did do worked. When my daughter was 1 we bought the simple Melissa and Doug Alphabet, number, and shape puzzles (no sounds). My daughter wanted to do them all the time. She would say "what's that" and we would tell her and she knew the names of all of them by a year and a half. By 2 she knew all the letter sounds. I think it helped that she was introduced to each letter individually rather just in the context of a song. At 2 she was introduced gently to hooked on phonics and just "got it". My son (2) also loves doing the puzzles and has learned the names of the letters, numbers, and shapes individually that way. I tell him the names when he puts them in and I give him lots of praise. He'd probably know the rest of the sounds if I did them with him more often. We also have the fridge DJ and all of my kids have loved that since age 6 months and will sit there dancing to the alphabet song. Somehow we picked an extra up at a garage sale while the other was missing and they now play the two in unison.

[musicianmom]

The systematic exposure has dropped with each subsequent child. My youngest gets a lot of PBS and a LeapFrog fridge magnet set tossed haphazardly in his toy box, and that's pretty much it.

[meggie]

Heh, I don't know what happened exactly. I know Pigby was 2, almost 3, and when I went in to get him from his crib after nap, he asked what the letters on my shirt were. "G-A-P" and he was obsessed. Then at some point he got a little magna doodle from Walmart and he'd ask me to write letters and numbers over and over and over. It was very tedious for me, but I knew I couldn't squash his interest. I'm not exactly sure where he picked up the letters from in the first place (to ask me to write ones down), but after awhile he started noticing them on other things, the bread bag, the stop sign, etc. About that point Digby was born and Pigby got to play on Starfall a lot. And he was reading.

 

I don't know that Digby will take as much interest in it, but he loves being read to and he loves picking up books and magazines and reading them to himself. I think that's the most important thing; it will come eventually.

[woolybear]

I personally didn't see the need to add to letter exposure. Words and letters are everywhere as it is.

 

I do recommend this if you haven't seen it. http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path-1.html

[boscopup]

The systematic exposure has dropped with each subsequent child. My youngest gets a lot of PBS and a LeapFrog fridge magnet set tossed haphazardly in his toy box, and that's pretty much it.

 

:iagree: I did read some books on alphabets to my oldest (Sandra Boynton has a fun one). He started recognizing letters at the same time he started to talk at age 2. By 2.5, he had his letters and sounds down pat. He still didn't READ until 4.5 though. He played starfall.com starting somewhere around 3, and we just talked about things as they came up.

 

Kid #2 didn't learn his letters until I actively taught him. He was speech delayed though, and other things have been somewhat delayed for a bit, then they "turn on" in his brain and suddenly he knows stuff. It's been a wild ride. :tongue_smilie: He didn't like me reading alphabet books to him as a young kid. He fully resisted anything that LOOKED like it might teach him the alphabet. :lol: Leapfrog Letter Factory is my friend. He's reading CVC words now at 4.5.

 

Kid #3 just turned 2, and he's starting to recognize a couple letters, though not as many as Kid #1. He likes the Leapfrog fridge magnet set, and he'll walk around saying "A says /a/", which is quite cute. He calls all letters 'A'. We read The Cat in the Hat last night, and at the end there are 2 pages that are completely blank. He said there was "no 'A'... All gone." Too cute. We then found a page with letters, and he did actually point out a capital 'A', but I doubt he recognizes more than a few letters at this point.

 

I do not have letter blocks/toys beyond those fridge magnets, and we only have a few alphabet books. It is neat the first time you're walking through the store and your child points out a letter or number that they recognize. I still remember going into Kroger and DS1 pointing out one of the numbers on the registers. My middle son doesn't do that so much... He just notices fire exits. :glare:

[wapiti]

I agree with the PPs, it's not necessary to have numbers and letters all over the place. However, some kids really enjoy playing with letters, so I wouldn't seek to deny them of course ;). Mostly, we have books and other printed material all over the house. Reading together is tremendously helpful, of course.

 

I think we may need to differentiate between "preschoolers" and "toddlers" in this thread - they are two different stages. Preschoolers typically may be more interested in individual letters and numbers, as they naturally gear up for reading down the road.

 

At any rate, even though it's not necessary, if you're looking to spam your child, LOL, look no further than the little green frog. I have six kids, and the other day I purchased my third - yes third - copy of the Leapfrog Letter Factory video, because the other copies were played so much that the dvd itself wore out - played so much at my kids' requests, usually whoever happened to be preschool age. Now the older kids complain that they have to put up with it, LOL. I bought it again the other day because ds3 is starting preschool in the fall, and I'm not sure whether he remembered seeing it when his older brother was into it last summer. Sure enough, after I pulled it out yesterday, he wanted to see it two or three times (including in the car; our car dvd player seems to wear out dvds more quickly).

 

Also, if you don't mind a little one constantly jumping in your lap while you're trying to use the computer, www.starfall.com is not to be missed.

Edited June 24, 2011 by wapiti

[kubiac]

Wonderful recommendations. Thank you all so much.

[JudoMom]

You need to get Alphabotz cards. They are THE cutest alphabet cards I've ever seen.

[MelanieM]

I don't spam my littles with anything really, but we do like to have some of these types of things on hand simply because they're fun! There are some really cute activities in Alphabet Art.

 

Thanks to the previous posters for recommending Animalia. What a beautiful looking book!