Question about AAR pre-level 1

[NatYoung17]

I have a question for those that have used AAR pre-level 1 with their kids... I was wondering how quickly your kids learned all the letter names? My ds (4) loves the lessons and wants to do more than 1 a day, but I'm afraid if we go too fast he will not remember the letter names.... some letters are easy for him, but others he doesn't remember...so Iw as just wondering if I should slow down and just practice the ones he doesn't know right away more, or does it just sink in after a while with constant review & exposure? I do point out the capital letters & their names when we read books etc...and we go over the ABC chart at the beginning of each lesson...

Thanks for your input! :001_smile:

[Heather R]

I'd keep going and just review periodically. My son likes to point to each letter on the poster as we sing the ABC song, and then after, I say "show me the D" "Show me the W", etc. Or I point to a letter and he names it.

 

Another thing we did to practice letter recognition was to play ABC go-fish. I printed 2 sets of letter cards and we'd play just like go-fish. "Do you have an A?" etc. Sometimes he would say "What does an A look like?" and I'd show him my card. It worked very well for getting his letters down pat.

[craftyerin]

Mine knew all the letter names and basic sounds from watching Leapfrog Letter Factory before we started AAR pre-1. IMO, the meat of AAR pre-1 is in the phonemic awareness games, so even though the letter names and sounds were review for mine, I still find the program very valuable. We're about 1/3 of the way though, having started off doing 1-2 lessons a week (and sporadically at that) in January and recently have picked up the pace to 3-4 lessons a week as they're showing more interest in consistent school time.

[PeterPan]

Well my ds3 learned his letters in short order during speech therapy, because they would do alphabet puzzles. He picked up on them pretty quickly, as they did it only maybe a handful of times. I would make yourself free to add some activities like that. AAR pre is really neat (we just started today!), but it's not as kinesthetic as some kids need. My ds is a dominantly kinesthetic learner (hear my tired sigh!), so it's all in the activities for him. Yes, Ziggy and the phonemic awareness stuff is the meat to me. For actual letters, just whip out a Lauri crepe foam alphabet puzzle. http://www.amazon.com/Lower-Case-Crepe-Rubber-Puzzle/dp/B000EB5YZ6/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1341863596&sr=1-3&keywords=lauri+alphabet+puzzle MFW uses them in their K5 pack and we have several. Nuts, you can even just go to the Dollar Tree and get a really fine foam alphabet puzzle. We have one we got there that actually is the same one our speech therapist uses. She likes it because each row of letters is a different color (4 rows). That way you can give them a clue using one of your other goals for the age (colors, ordinals).

 

As far as kinesthetic stuff to add, I got a copy on the cheap of http://www.amazon.com/Movement-Activities-A-Holly-Burns/dp/1420687573/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341864012&sr=8-2&keywords=movement+activities+a+to+z and it's marvelous. In addition to kinesthetic activities and crafts, it has picture cards similar to the picture cards in the MFW K5. They would fit in well with the days AAR has you looking at the pictures in Lizard Lou. I think that's the 3rd part of AAR pre. I'm rearranging it so we do all three instances of the letter (upper, lower, sound) in one week. That way we can blend it with MFW K5 and my other stuff. I guess you could say it's just an excuse for us to do fun stuff together. :lol:

 

If you buy or have some manipulatives like alphabet puzzles, remember you can use them to get more tactile in like AAR pre suggests on p. 195. I need to copy and laminate that as a bookmark so I remember all the cool ideas! Today what we did was run our finger in the empty spot for the letter in the alphabet puzzle while we said the sounds. You could trace them like stencils or even stamp if you thought it would come off. I saw in another book where you could use the picture cards and put paperclips on them and fish for them. And of course you could do a touchy-feely bag with the letters. I keep telling myself I need to get an uppercase of the Lauri puzzle and play games where we match upper and lower together. That would be challenging in a touchy-feely bag! :D

 

Personally, if he's wanting more I would probably rearrange and put the lessons for each letter together (upper, lower, sound) or add in some activities. Alphabet Art http://www.amazon.com/Alphabet-Art-Animal-Fingerplays-Williamson/dp/1885593147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341864738&sr=8-1&keywords=alphabet+art is another good one for that. It has fingerplays, crafts (for the letter shapes and for animals starting with that letter), a limerick or poem, etc. Good stuff! I used it with my dd and I'm happy to be using it again with my ds all these years later. It's a bit more cerebral, and for him it's all about the doing. That's why I have those extra activities in the movement activities book. Today he shaped himself like a stork, a snake, and a star. They were actually really good! Each one had 4 steps, all very precise, so it was interesting to read them and see if he could actually follow those directions. Neat stuff! :)