How to Easily Teach Your Child Their Letters and Numbers

While it may seem like only yesterday your little ones were learning to take their first steps; believe it or not, it may be time for them to conquer their letters and numbers -OR- ABCs and 123s! While every child is different, many report their child either expressing interest or being able to recite the alphabet and numbers by the time they are a mere two years old. On the flip side, many other parents share their children are not ready or able to appropriately recite knowledge of this information until four years of age. Regardless of your child’s individual abilities and timeline, it is best to be prepared to help them throughout their learning process.

Feeling overwhelmed? Not sure how to go about teaching this very important information?

Don’t worry, teaching a child to both recall and recite their alphabet and numbers can not only be quite easy, but also quite fun in the process!

Our Story

Shortly after my daughter turned three she began expressing an interest in identifying more and more letters of the alphabet. In fact, she would grow quite frustrated when there was one she didn’t know and would come to me for identification of a letter time and time again. This same process repeated itself until one day I turned to Google for a brief search, “when should a child be able to identify the letters of the alphabet?”

Like a punch to the gut I was shocked to learn that many children (even a year younger than my daughter) were already identifying their letters and numbers. Having not gone through this important milestone before (she being my oldest child), I naively assumed that she would pick up on these skills in preschool, etc. and we would work on them in more detail on a later time (perhaps when she was a bit older). After all, she already knew how to sing her ABCs, did she also need to know how to identify them separately as well?… wasn’t she JUST learning to potty train?! Needless to say, I was wrong. While there is no use pushing a child to learn a skill when they are not yet ready, my daughter was clearly showing me all the signs that she wanted to learn and I needed to get on board… and QUICK!

Not sure where to best start (other than with standard flash cards), I turned to the pros (a.k.a. seasoned mamas) and asked for their advice in my “Creative Mamas! Facebook Group“. Within no time, I had a game plan full of highly recommended creative strategies to implement into our learning process.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks we implemented an “alphabet and letter learning” game plan and got to work. Within no time, a mere couple of weeks to be exact, my daughter had every last letter and number memorized and we celebrated with an “ABC-123 pizza party” at Pizza Ranch (per her request ;)).

Our Exact Strategy to Learning Letters and Numbers

While every individual learns differently, I felt it best in this particular situation to literally surround my daughter in a world of letters and numbers. My goal was to educate (in a fun way!) throughout every moment of the day so that she didn’t feel like there were set “forced” learning moments… instead it would become a fun new way of life.

* Affiliate links are included in this post. All this means, is that if you click on one of those links and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. However, you will not pay a penny more- promise!

• 1.) I decided to write one letter and one number per sticky note. I then stuck them around the entire house. On the bathroom mirror, by her bathtub, on her toy kitchen, in her room, in the hallway, on the door, on the picture frames, etc. While passing every letter we’d stop and say the letter together.

  

• 2.) I purchased bathtub letters and numbers here (per recommendation of a mama in the Creative Mamas! Facebook Group) and incorporated them into our nightly bath time routine.
• 3.) I purchased The Letter Factory DVD here (per recommendation of a mama in the Creative Mamas! Facebook Group) and let my daughter watch the 30-minute video a few times a week.
• 4.) During mealtime we incorporated speed flashcard rounds adding a few more letters every day once she mastered the others. I purchased these exact cards here and here.
• 5.) I dedicated a letter or two per day by showcasing it on a large chalkboard in our kitchen (a dry erase board in a common area could have the same effect).

That was it! After a couple weeks of surrounding ourselves in all things letters and numbers, my daughter not only easily mastered her ABCs and 123s but she had fun doing so. As a busy mom (who also found herself chasing after a 1-year-old all day long), what I loved most about this strategy is that the entire process was very stress-free and could be implemented in very short (reasonable) increments of time all day long.

Additional Learning Materials

While we didn’t use these exact products ourselves, a quick walk through local stories (i.e. Target) showed me that there are endless amazing resources just waiting to be utilized! Some of my favorites include:

1. Play-Doh Shape and Learn Letters and Language – because who doesn’t love learning with Play-Doh?!
2. Wipe Clean: Letters (Wipe Clean Learning Books) – if your kiddo learns best by being hands on and writing/drawing… then this is for them!
3. VTech Alphabet Apple – if your child loves electronics and all things games… then I’ve heard great things about this!
4. The Learning Journey Lift & Learn ABC Puzzle– is your child a puzzle lover? Then this puzzle is the one to get!
5. The Learning Journey Match It! Counting– I love that this incorporates both puzzle and flashcards into a fun activity!
6. Education.com’s amazing worksheets! – I love that there are so many to choose from!

*BONUS: Education.com has graciously offered a FREE “Letter Match-Up Preschool Spelling” activity that can be downloaded here!

 

Have additional ideas that worked great for your kiddo? I’d love to hear them! Share in the comments below!