Here are some ideas that helped us teach our kids to learn their alphabet and read:
- Have a letter of the day and point out every time you see that letter, e.g. on licence plates, signs on shops, at the supermarket, on their breakfast cereal etc. Get your child to find examples throughout the day. You could consider rewarding them, e.g. if you’re at the supermarket, keep them busy and get them to find 5 examples of the letter of the day and you could buy them a treat – it’s a good idea to make the treat something you intended to buy anyway like a yoghurt they love or a punnet of strawberries 😉
- Read to your child each night and get your child to point out letters they know on a page. Or pick a new letter per page and get them to find examples on that page of the chosen letter. Once they know their alphabet, this is a good one to continue to help them remember common words they will be tested on at school such as: to, it, on etc
- Get your child to practice writing their letters. Teachers say this helps them to remember their letter.
- Most children know how to write their own name pretty early as they see it written so often (e.g. on artwork at kinder etc). So ask them to practice remembering the letters in their own name. Once they know that introduce other family names like ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’.
