As your toddler starts speaking her first words, you start thinking about teaching her all kinds of things. Alphabet is one of the first things that parents want to teach their toddlers. Let us discuss some creative and fun ways to teach alphabet to children.

 

 

Before you introduce and teach alphabet, start reading to your child as early as possible. There is no minimum age to start reading to babies. I started reading to my daughter when she was 5-6 months old. Reading helps them to understand language naturally and they start noticing the print on the book. Use big print books with just a word or two for babies.  

Turn up the music to teach alphabet

Children love music and what better way than the Alphabet song to introduce them to ABCD. You could put it on every day during her playtime and she will be humming along in no time. This is how my daughter knew her ABC before she could recognise the letters. For her it was just another rhyme just like “Ba ba black sheep” or “Rolly polly”.  

   Get large colorful books

There are plenty of  books available in market to teach alphabet or you could also make your own. Choose one which has only one letter on each page with one large picture to avoid confusion and help comprehension. Teach Capital letters first and introduce small letters only later. Dr. Seuss was our favourite. Here are a few recommendations of good board books:    

Play the alphabet game

Make a game out of learning alphabet. So you speak a letter say “A” and she has to tell the next, i.e. “B”. Then she says “P” and you say “Q”. You may also make mistakes at times and let her correct you. Whoever gets most letters correct gets a sticker or a star or any treat that your kid enjoys.      

Letters letters everywhere

When you go out, look out for letters and let your child read it for you. A car’s number plate, hoarding on a shop, on a menu card in the hotel, your child will love pointing them out for you. Idea is to let her know that alphabet is everywhere and not to make it tedious to learn and teach alphabet.

Yummy alphabet

 Make her favorite treats in shapes of letters. Cookies are great for these. Bake a batch of alphabet cookies and let her tell which ones she wants. Similarly, you also make Indian savouries like chakli or sev for them. There are pasta available in the shapes of alphabet which you could put in a soup and let her tell you what letter she is eating. If you get alphabet cereal, you use that too. But, don’t let her play with her food too much or you will soon be struggling to feed her because she want to make “A” with her rice or bread and not eat it.

 

 

 

Get an alphabet puzzle

You could buy an alphabet puzzle where in kids have to put the alphabet in correct cavity. It also improves their hand-eye-coordination other than introducing them to alphabet. We used this knobbed puzzle for my daughter and she enjoyed it till she was 3 years.    

Alphabet Blocks

Alphabet blocks can also help in getting your child become familiar to letters. You will soon hear her recognizing alphabet while she makes a tower with them.We have these wooden alphabet blocks at home and my daughter still uses them to make towers and do her maths as the size sides of cubes also show numbers and symbols like +, – etc. 

 

Hope you like these ideas. We would love to hear your ideas on how to teach alphabet to toddlers.