My oldest was absolutely crazy about the alphabet song when he was little.  He used to ask me to sing him to sleep with it.

Pretty nerdy baby, right?

Of course, he knew all his letters from a very early age.

My second son, however, is another story.  At two and a half, he doesn’t even allow me to sing the whole alphabet song.  He’ll cut me off around “L” and submit other requests or just tell me not to sing at all.  Harsh.

Clearly, teaching this guy his letters is going to require a different approach.  Here are a few tweaks we’ve made to get our little wild man interested in letters and help him retain what he’s learning.

Make it active.

Our two-year-old is an extremely active little boy, dauntless and adventurous in every way.  He loves to climb and run.  This, by the way, is why so many boys suffer in traditional schools.  They just aren’t built for sitting still.

We have a lovely Melissa & Doug ABC Magnet Set.  Our older son would sit cross-legged in front of the refrigerator, point at the letters, and name them.  Little brother?  No way.  His favorite way to play with any magnets is to shove them underneath the refrigerator.  Pointing and naming is not his game.

Instead, I sit at the opposite end of the kitchen and tell him to run to the refrigerator and bring me the “A.”  Suddenly, he’s into letters.  Just the simple switch of sending him racing across the room makes it way more fun for him, which means he’s actually willing to participate and really learning the letters.  We’re now playing this game from other rooms as well, sending him tearing back and forth through the house fetching letters and then putting them back in order.  It’s been a smashing success.

Add Sensory Play

Sensory play is a great way to reinforce concepts for young children. Any time we can provide a physical object that they can explore and manipulate, we’re helping engage their attention and build meaningful connections.

Our son loves his foam bath letters, so we have invented a few different games with them. In addition to playing in the bathtub, he also loves to stick them to the picture window in the living room or play with them in a sensory bin with water and other toys. I typically limit him to a small set of letters, such as the four he needs to spell his name, so that he can focus on just those. Having a physical object to hold and feel is helping him to learn the shapes of the letters and distinguish between them.

Keep it Light

Remember the spoon full of sugar, and keep letter learning fun. We have several different alphabet books, but our kids’ favorite by far is Dr. Seuss’s ABC. Beautifully illustrated and full of Seuss’s signature lilting verse, this classic alphabet book is good for more than giggles. It teaches both the upper and lower case letters, and Seuss’s alliterative descriptions deal artfully with letters that make more than one sound. (“What begins with C? Camel on the ceiling!”) Few of our other books are so thorough, and this is by far the one our kids have found most engaging.

Be Patient

As with teaching your children anything, remember that they all learn at their own pace and that earlier is not always better.  Academic outcomes are no different in the long run for kids who learn to read at three versus kids who learn to read at eight.  Far more important is that kids learn to enjoy reading, so keep spending that precious bonding time reading aloud with your kids and building a love of language and stories.

Big A, little a: Learning Letters for Toddlers
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