Friday 19 April 2013

Teaching Letter sounds- My way.

 
Since i never taught sonshine the alphabet, having to teach it to babydoll was abit of challenge for me. I really had to start from scratch with her.
 
So i did the most clever thing ever- i let her watch television program. Well, she is a poor eater so i merrily plonk her in front of the TV and let her watch Leapfrog's Letter factory.
 
 
Alot of mothers rave about it- i am no different. It has been tried and test TWICE in my house. Both sonshine and doll learnt their letter sounds just by watching this show. Doll also learnt letter recognition from here.
 
I was over the moon because it just made my job easier. She learnt her ABC AND letter sounds just by watching this. I didn't have to go through letter by letter with her- which i think is really, time consuming & tedious. However, i do think the storyline in the show is too complicated for young kids (it is meant for 3 years old and above afterall) so i usually skip straight to the letter sound episodes.
 
 
The rest, i simply gave her tray activities to help reinforce her learning.
 
 
I find matching activities work very well with her. If i want her to learn a new topic say an animal, word, etc i just get her to match it to the corresponding cards. As she work, i name the object. From there she picks up the new names/word.
 
Same for letter sounds. I get her to match the letters and we say the sounds of each letter.

 
Another matching letters to cards activity.
 
 
Of course, read, read, read!
 

4 comments:

  1. Hi, I found your blog very useful in providing ideas on teaching toddlers. Thank you so much for sharing with us your knowledge and ideas. I have a boy, 16 months old now, and i am thinking to introduce him ABC and letter sounds. May i ask you few questions on teaching ABC.
    1. Is it too early for babies under 2 to watch leapfrog dvd? I reckon that this dvd have received many good recommendation.
    2. Do you teach babydoll the name and the sound of each letters at the same time? Eg, "B says ber" or just point at the letter B and said "ber"?
    3. How do you make babydoll to recognize both upper case and lower case of the letters?

    Thank you!

    Lee Peng

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  2. Hello Lee Peng, many thanks for visiting my blog!

    1) child experts will say it's too early & I kind of agree. I let doll watch even before she turned 2, because she wasn't eating well so I thought might as well let her watch & eat. But note that under 2 year olds will not catch much of the story plot which I find too distracting for Them. So I skipped the entire intro episodes & go straight into the "lessons". I think the song is pretty catchy; most child will pick it up & the visuals. I didn't answer your qn did I? I think it really depends on your preference on what age to expose your baby to tv & whether your child will like the show AND learn from it (varies from child to child).

    2) erm, both ways. I would sing the leapfrog song "b says ber" to her, but when reading books or activities, I only say the letter sound. Till today, she would sound out the letters she see.

    3) aiyo very embarrassed to say that I didn't teach her, she learnt from tv :p. Leapfrog shows both the capital & small letters (more of the former though). I bought her another version of alphabets leapfrog show so she can learn capital & small letters. However, I think our reading time helped her alot too.

    Hope this helps! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your prompt reply. Your reply is really helpful :)
    You mentioned you bought another version of alphabets leapfrog, may i know the title of the dvd? By the way, i found your handmade materials really nice. How do you make the letters shown in the second picture? Many thanks :)

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  4. Hi, I traced the alphabets on sand paper and laboriously cut them. It was extremely tedious to make. I kinda shudder whenever I recall how I made it. :D Its not easy to cut sand paper- or maybe the one I bought was too thick. The DVD is this called 'The amazing alPhabet amusement park'. But I don't think it's as good as the leapfrog letter factory. :)

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