Why is it necessary to teach ABCs and 123s to toddlers before school?
These are essential skills for children to develop as it is the foundation for learning to read and write. Children who have strong letter recognition skills can identify letters quickly and easily, which helps them learn new words and increases their fluency. For creating a strong foundation of reading and writing and to develop higher-level skills learning the ABCs and 123s is very essential.
What is the Best Age to Introduce ABCs and 123s to a Toddler?
It will be best to Start as early as possible. yet By the age of 18 months, however, their ability to remember the letters had increased. And 2 is simply the age when they can recognize a letter here and there. The good thing is that at this age kids are like sponges, they adapt to things very quickly. The best thing about teaching toddlers the alphabet is that you can include simple activities throughout the day.
1. Count Out Loud and Often:
It is quite difficult to teach your toddlers at this age, they are eager to play all the time. Teaching them in a way that they will find fun is the only answer here. If you count out loud ABCs and 123s to them they are going to repeat it after you. Parallelly Doing some actions will make it more fun for them, this way they will find learning exited. My number one tip is repetition, repeat it more often throughout the day, the best part of this is that you can do this while doing some other work or while your little one is playing.
2. Read Alphabet and Number Books To Them:
Toddlers get easily attracted to those colorful and large-size images of alphabet books.
Exposing them to books helps them start to recognize letters. Here I will suggest you start with uppercase letters, As kids at this age may get confused that 'A'& a" both stand for the same thing, then they may lose their interest here and may find reading letters a bit annoying, so starting with uppercase letters will be the wise thing to do. However when your toddler is 3 years old then make sure that your child looks at both uppercase and lowercase letters when learning at the age of 3 they will easily distinguish between uppercase and lowers case letters and thereafter lowercase letters are the ones that they will see more often while reading and writing words. Reading to them is one of the best techniques to teach your toddler and eventually, as they grow up they will find reading much fun to do.
3. Sing Songs with Actions:
The song is a great way to help your toddler learn the sequence of the alphabet and Numbers. When your kid will turn 2 he will start to sing the songs after you and will love to do the actions too, which is a great activity to do for a kid for 2 year old. The song is the method that you can start even when your baby is 1 month old. At this age too this method will help to develop their concentration. I used to sing songs of ABCs, 123s, 5 little duck go..etc with actions, from the very first month of my baby's birth, I remember my baby loved it, she used to laugh with joy as if she was communicating with me. However, your toddler will start to memorize it and respond to it at the age of 18 to 24 months.
4. Print Worksheets / Coloring pages:
Printout worksheet is getting very popular nowadays, It's a very innovative, unique, and great method of learning. Toddlers love to play with colors and more than that, to make a mess with it, Even if they aren’t quite able to trace yet, exposing them to the letters is still a great idea. Also, you can teach them to hold pencils properly which is the very first step of writing.
5. Toys & Learning:
As a mom and dad, we always have a big collection of toys for our kids. But choosing some of the latest learning toys like ABC & 123 train toy or block games. Games wisely may also help to develop a foundation of learning for your child.
7. Letters and alphabet videos/ Shows:
One might think that I am crazy for recommending screen time for toddlers, But Utilizing an educational video for your workload time can be extremely helpful, workload times, like the times when you have to cook for the guests or clean up the giant mess created in the kitchen from painting. yet try to limit the amount of screen time that we have at our house.
8. Fun Activities to teach them letters:
Hide and seek:
It is one of the most fun activities to do with minimal supplies. You just need to have plastic or wooden letters which are easily available and rice. Just bury some letters in rice (beans would work too!) and have your toddler find them. Avoid using sand in place of rice as your little one may try to leak it or put it into their mouth.
Post it letter Activity:
In my opinion, it's the easiest method of teaching your kid in a fun way yet quite effective. Write down a letter on each Post-it note. Mix up the letters and ask your child to find a letter.
Do-A-Dot Painters:
Who doesn’t love paint that doesn’t cause a mess? Do-A-Dot Painters are so much fun, and the clean-up is so much easier than traditional painting. It's a great fun way of exposure of letters to your toddler again even if they aren’t quite able to trace yet,.
9. Some Important tips:
Begin With Uppercase Letters:
kids at this age may get confused that 'A'& a" both stand for the same thing, then they may lose their interest here and may find reading letters a bit annoying.
Focus On A Few Letters:
Don't start teaching with all the letters at a time, this could be very overwhelming and your little one may get not respond well next time .hence start with 4 letters at a time.
Don’t Overdo It:
Toddlers don’t have a very long attention span. There are times throughout the day that are better than others to try to teach them.
If you make them learn when they are not ready, they will not be eager to do it the next time. It’s better to wait until your kids are prepared to concentrate for a few minutes so you can get the most out of that time.
Don’t Compare Your Child To Others:
Every child is unique and has there unique learning process, they will learn when they are ready. if they don’t know their alphabet yet or taking more time for learning don't get frustrated that your child is lacking behind, If you show them that you are frustrated, they will see your frustration and maybe not be as interested in learning. Let them take their time and be positive with them.
.png)
.png)
0 Comments