How Do I Begin to Teach My 3 Year Old His Letters?

I don’t know what you’ve tried but with my kids I would make learning at a young age as fun as possible. My kids learned their ABC’s (as well as numbers, shapes, colors etc) outside with sidewalk chalk, finger paints, play-doh, markers on big pads of paper, etc. We used colored cotton balls to trace letters on paper with glue and used googly eyes to make it even more fun! We would even collect leaves outside, count how many we got and glued them on paper in the shape of a letter, number, circle, square….the possibilities are endless really. Pointing out letters when you’re out and about is always fun too. You can make it into a game. Plus I bought the wooden letters (upper and lower case Melissa & Doug) but pretended that the letters were people (exp. Mommy A and Baby A) so when we would play house, trains, etc the letters were the people. I know silly but it worked for me. My 4 year old now calls them Big A, Little A but for awhile just called them Mommy and baby. Have fun!!!!!!

You could do all of the previous ideas.. they are fantastic suggestions. Remember too Dr. Suess! The Alphabet Book or whatever is it called is lots of fun to read together. It has upper and lowercase letters too. (Aunt Annie's Alligator... A.. a.. a! )

Also wooden puzzles of alphabet letters are good. And the "I Spy" books are awesome! The "I SPY: School Days" one has several pages that include searching for letters. It is a lot of fun to search for them together, too.

Hi C.. I never tried to really teach my son his letters. I got him the bath letters and he played with them all the time. By the time he was 2 years old he recognized all of his letters. I never pushed it on him but we made it a game every night at bath time. Now he's 3 and he plays with them all the time throughout the day so he's now learning to spell a few words. I hope this helps you out.

Its all about repetition! And keeping it fun so he doesn't feel pressured =)
With my 3 yr old, we do alphabet puzzles ("oh that's an M, where does the M go? That's where the M goes! Good job!"), matching (I drew letters on index cards, lay out 3 pairs at a time, and have my daught match them. When she picks one up I say "that's a B, where's the other B? There's the other B! Good job!), and also I write her name any chance I get so I can point to the letters and name them for her. I also take every opportunity to point out letters. When we are waiting in the car for her sister to get out of school, I point to letters on signs or even next to the shifter in the car =) P, N, R, D. Total immersion. Kids learn better this way vs. a school type setting using workbooks or whatever. I know of one game that teaches letters, I think its a Dora or Diego game? Any kind of game is a good way to learn (playing board games is how my daughter learned to recognize numbers 1-5). I hope these ideas help you out, and remem ber it takes a lot of time! Most kids won't be able to recognize all the letters until 4 or 5 yrs old. I've been working with my daughter for about a year and she can recognize maybe 10 letters =)

My 21 mo old LOVES her magnet letters. I bought a small magnetic board that stands on a small table. She can play letters all the time (or fridge is non magnetic .. go figure!)

I agree with one other poster here .. repetition is KEY! I am always pointing out letters everywhere. On t-shirts, signs, books, TV. We have a Melissa & Doug puzzle that says the letters when you place them back on.

Encourage spelling and point out letters everywhere. My daughter also learned letters from Sesame Street. They are great at repeatition!

Good luck!

I started a game at my house called, "You want it, then spell it!" For my daughter who just turned 5, I have her sound out the word & spell it phonetically. I help her & if I have time, then I have her write it. We have those little tablets everywhere that u can write on & erase. My son who is 3 about to be 4, I write the word and have him call out the letters. I have found that they learn quicker when it is about things they are interested in. Today I called & asked my mom if she wanted to go to the P-A-R-K with us later. I wasn't sure if I could fit it into my schedule & so I spelled it so kids wouldn't know & expect it. Without missing a beat, my daughter screams out to her brother, "We are going to the park!" I just laughed & I now know that my method is working better than I anticipated. :) A really good website is www.starfall.com both my kids enjoy their 15 minutes a day. They feel like big stuff being on the computer. Biggest thing is reading to them. I check out 7 new books from library a week! The variety keeps me from getting bored & them, plus they get exposed to lots of words & ideas. Best of luck.

Get a nice alphabet book. You know the kind "A is for Apple" etc. He'll most likely listen to YOU read it at first, but he'll be chiming in soon enough!

Our 2 1/2 yr old daughter learned hers with foam letters in the bath. Another thing she likes to do is "write" words with letter stickers (they have a ton at Target). We also use alphabet stamps we got at Hobby Lobby. Whatever you do, keep it fun and no pressure!

Our three year old loves learning his letters - I honestly think it started with them choosing a "Letter of the Week" at Daycare. He would come home and tell us that "F is for firetruck"

Here are a few other suggestions:
1. Foam bath letters (I believe Sassy is one of the companies that makes them). Pick a few letters and memorize them with fun games, etc.
2. Go to an education supply store and get some posters with the alphabet. Our 22 month old loves the ones that have corresponding pictures. She doesn't yet know the letters, but she loves telling us what the pictures are, and we reinforce by saying, "A is for apple".
3. Put the letters for their name in their room (popular wooden fixtures) - our son started with his name and went from there.
4. When you're at home, in the car, in public, find an object and see if he can tell you what letter it starts with - or start the repetition of "T is for Tree"

Both our kids love the book, SuperHero ABC. It's really, really clever and associates letters with comic book super heros. It's one of their favorites, and we've given it several times as a gift to other people.

My 28 month old loves puzzles, and we got an alphabet puzzle the other day. In 3 days, she has learned, B, T, U, Y, L, and R! We also have a shape puzzle and a numbers puzzle, and she now knows some of her numbers, all of her shapes, and all of her colors. Try that and see if it helps.

Yeah, it's harder than I thought!!! With my 3 year old, it is, as the previous poster said "total immersion". Brushing his teeth, I let him brush first to get used to the idea, then he spits and it's my "turn". I sing the alphabet once for his bottom teeth, he rinses and spits, then I sing the song again for his top teeth. We sing it to the baby when putting him to sleep, we sing it all the time. But he's just now getting where he can do most of the song (seems like I have to sing along to help his confidence). Then he LOVES the DVD "The Letter Factory", so he knows most the alphabet (by song) and knows all but 2 of his phonics (by Letter Factory). But as for sight recognition, he isn't interested in writing them. I try puzzles which work sometimes. We write his name, dad, mom, and cat all the time so he likes those letters. Then as we're driving down the road, we'll point out letters on signs or trucks, etc. The hard part for me is thinking about the letters, to point them out.

I could probably get my teaching degree taken away for this, but I second the writer who mentioned the DVD Leap Frog Letter Factory. It is so intriguing for kids and I have shared it with a bunch of friends, and the kids learn the letters so quickly.
Also, keep working with more legitimate, interactive activities also, as previous posters mentioned - BOOKS, magnet letters, bthtub letters, crayons, even baking letter shaped cookies.

My kids played with refrigerator magnet letters made for children. This way I could take informal opportunities while I was preparing a meal to teach them. They were fascinated by the bright colors and the fact that we could rearrange the letters.I don't think they even knew they were learning something.Hope this idea helps .

First of all, for your next child, do not wait until he's 3 years old to start teaching letter recognition. Children are born ready to learn. Start reading to your children at a very early age. A bedtime story every night helps children understand about words and how they are used to create a story. They use their listening skills and imagination to understand the story. Ask questions about the story as you are reading.

I work full- time in the early childhood field and part-time in a pre-k classroom. On our wall is the alphabet lined up with the upper and lower case letter and a colorful picture of an item that starts with the letter.

Another great idea is to take him to the library. Find alphabet books and let him look at the pictures ask him if he recogizes the item and point out the letter. Our library has a pre-school story time which we take our young eager-to-learn students to every week. There's also a small room with small bookshelves and small chairs. The kids love to go in there and pick books out for us to read or just to look at.

I hope these ideas help. Good luck:)!

Start with the vowels singing "A E I O U" to the tune of the song BINGO. "A E I O U, A E I O U, A E I O U, I know my vowels and so do you"! Then have them sing the song with the vowel sounds "Ah, Eh, Ih, Oh, Uh" This will help them learn what sounds these letters make. Since all words have a vowel sound in it, this will help them when they begin to form words.

After they have the vowels down, introduce the remaining letters to them as an animal. B - Bubba Bear, C - Cathy Cat, D - Donald Dinosaur, and so on.

My oldest son learned this way and was reading at age four. My twin boys just turned for and are well on their way.

Bar none the best way I found with my kids was the Leagfrog Letter Factory movie. My three year old son who had no interest in learning his letters watched this show over and over and knew all his letters and sounds in month.

When out and about, I bet your child already knows letters and does not even recognize it.. When he sees the Golden Arches, does he say McDonalds?
Let him know it is actually a giant M..

HEB Grocery store is anther one he probably knows.. Let him know that those are letters and what has the H sound.s like. The E sound the B sound.. ? Inside the store have him point out things that start with the H, E, and B...

Letters are all around, praise him for knowing them and then ask him to tell you words that start with those letters..

each of my kids learned the letters in their name first. They learned so spell and recognize their own names then we moved on to other letters. As I was reading a story to them we would pick a letter "k" first letter in all 3 kids names and look for all the letter K's on that page of the story. This was a really great activity with my youngest while we sat in the car waiting for her older sister to get out of kindergarten. Once they have mastered that letter, by pointing it out on their own regularly then we move on to another letter. Or you could go in ABC order. There are series of books that are about alphabet related like allie the alligator and benny the bear. (Not sure those are the exact names, we used to have them but I think i donated them cause can't find them to tell you who they are by- but I think it was alphaPets or something like that.) I also had an alphabet strip of Capital and lower case letters in abc order hanging on the wall. They can say the abcs and point to each letter which helps them realize what letters are and that is not just another song.
There are tons of really fun preshool games for PC or even online. Hooked on phonics is one, reader rabbit is another. School zone has one that is letter sounds and thinking skills. That one is fun but maybe alittle advanced until he recognizes his letters. Also the fisher-price cool school is a great learning and fun tool. It hooks to the computer there are like 6 different "character" games you can get for it and it teaches TONS of stuff (letters, numbers, colors, math, reading & writting skills, science, observation, art, music,etc) and is super fun too. My girls (even the one in 1st grade) loves to play on it. Flash cards are fun and good too- play matching games, or "if you know this letter you keep the card" games, there is a go fish letter card game. You could start by asking for the letter and showing him what it looks like- he searches his own cards and answers if he has it or not. He can show you the card he is asking for and you can tell him what it is, then he has to ask for it. Make sure you teach capital and lower case together. I learned from mistakes with my oldest that is it difficult to teach just capitals then try to go back and explain lower case letters too!
Don't try to go too fast or over do it so that he is not interested or forgets the letters he learned. At preschool they do one letter a week and try to associate everything with that letter, colors, words, snacks.... some of the letters are tough to come up with a snack for. But you could go that route at home. Some letters are much easier to remember than others too! Freekidscoloring.com has letter pages that you can print that have animals, plants, food,etc that all start with that letter inside the shape of the letter. My kids colored one for every letter in there name, learned some of the animals and plants too and then we turned them into awesome works of art for our home by framing them.
Make it fun and games- if you are having fun doing it- he will too. Hope this helps :)

Get the DVD called "The Letter Factory" by Leapfrog, my almost three year old loves this DVD and he is really learning to recognized his letters. Another good one from Leapfrog is called "Lets Go To School", it teaches numbers, letters seasons etc.

I agree with the previous posters who said "The Letter Factory" is a great tool for learning letters. If you push it, your son will probably resist. Kid's will do things in their own time. He is so young and most "almost" 3 year olds do not have 100% letter recognition. My son started getting excited when he realized R is for "Richie" (his name). He points to every R he sees!
Trust me, do not worry and do not pressure.

My girls (4.5 yrs and 2.5 yrs) have letters that are for the bathtub and stick to the side of the tub when wet. My oldest daughter spells words with them constantly and is starting to experiment with spelling them herself and not just asking how to spell, and my little one is learning from this. She is not yet three, true, but she doesn't have 100% sight recognition of letters yet either. I remember from my oldest that as age three progresses the recognition gets better and stronger. Hope this helps!

I taught my 2nd cousins the ABC's and how to read when I was a teenager. We played school. I used a chalk board...it totally rocked!

"The letter factory" is a cute movie...there are a tons of movies about ABC's... that would be a good start?

I'm using lettersoftheweek.com for teaching my 3 year old and 2 year old niece and they like it and are doing very well.

My son loves "Starfall.com" ABCs

I used to teach Kindergarten and there is a video that you can find at Sam's, Wal-mart, etc. called "Letter Factory." It teachers sounds and shows the letters at the same time. It's been a hit with TONS of families! Give it a try.

We used bath letters, ABC books, ABC puzzles, a big connecting ABC mat, Refrigerator ABC magnets, and anything that had letters in it. I talked about different letters and incorporated it into his daily play.

I would say the biggest thing that has helped him and has given him an appreciation for wanting to learn letters and sounds is reading to him. He has a huge ABC/123 Sesame Street book that has the alphabet in it with big colorful pictures. This is still one of his favorite books.

If you are telling him about letters and reading to him, honestly I would not be too concerned. He will eventually pick it up in his own time.

Good luck to you and your son.

My two-year-old's favorite alphabet toy is the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, which comes with capital letters but you can buy an additional set of lower-case letters. It sings a little song to learn not just the name of the letter but what sound(s) it makes. She recognizes all the letters and some of the sounds at this point. All three of my kids have played with this toy and have loved it. My daughter's favorite alphabet book is the Baby Einstein ABCs of Art, which I also love because it exposes her to some great pieces of art as well as the alphabet! Lots of people talked about flash cards on here, but I don't think they're really necessary. Teaching your young child letters and sounds should feel less like work and more like play--reading books together, talking to him about letters you see while you're around town, playing with sounds ( 't-r' says 'tr'; can you think of words that start with 'tr'? that's right, train, track, truck, etc.). Those things are more important and probably more effective than drills with flash cards.

Like so many have said.... Leap Frog Letter Factory. Your 3 year old will not just learn the letter name but the sound of the letter which is much more important for reading! Both my sons learned the sounds of the letters from this dvd. Worth it's weight in gold!

Put up an ABC banner in a room he is most in and go through it a few times a day. Even if this means your living room. Once we have children, our homes our not our own. Ha Ha Ha!

first get him interested in something that bhe likes, what i did with my 15month old daughter i made big letters starting from a to d because d is for daddy i put it up on the wall made a song about it until we reach d and from d we went m for mummy then to r for her brothers name then to s for her name what i am telling you make the letters fun either with stuff toys name or games or people that he likes try it if that dont work let me know i have something els

I have not read anyone else's posts but as an educator getting my doctorate as a Reading Specialist I can tell you that it is not developmentally appropriate to be trying to teach your two year old or three year old the letters of the alphabet.
It is your job to let them have a fun and wonderful childhood but talking to them and developing their vocabulary, reading to them so that they learn to love books and stories and just enjoying them. It is not good to be forcing children to do school work. Boys especially need time and alot of play.
If you do all of the above then when they are ready around 5 or maybe later they will easily pick up all they need to know.
It is a parent ego thing to say that their child is reading. It does not benefit the child. When they get to second or third grade it all levels out. Plus you could make them have an aversion to school work if you start that early and make them burned out.
Chill out and enjoy your child.

Try the Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD. My nephew was 2 1/2 when he watched this all the time and he could recognize all the letters. I'm now having my two year old son watch the video and he enjoys it although he's only recognizing A right now. It's fun but educational too.

I agree with the other educator...I too have a master's in reading ed and your 3 year old does not need to know the alphabet. Lay the foundation...sing, play, read together...do not let the other "show off" parents that you know tell you differently! Reading books together is the best "pre-reading" skills you can take advantage of...children should be using the pictures as a guide at this age...kids will recall some of the word you read and fill the rest in by looking at the pictures...please remember the goal is to someday have a child who is a confident reader and a reader who reads for pleasure.

Keep in mind, you do not have to start with the letter "A". Start by teaching him one letter at a time. Not a bunch of them that will just confuse and overwhelm him. I always started with the first letter of each of my kids names. "Look James, here's a "J" just like in your name.". He loved looking for J's after that. Then we went on to the next letter of his name. Before long he wanted to find the first letters of each of the family members (mommy, daddy, etc). This worked great for when they want to start writing their names too, because they already know all or most of the letters of their names. It was also great for labeling things for the kids. J for James, N for Nicole, M for Michele. They always knew whose cup was whose.

Sesame Street, Sesame Street, Sesame Street!!!!!
I also use flash cards. The cheapy Walgreens ones. My DD knew all her letters at 2 and at 3 can count and spell her own name. I truly believe that making Sesame Street and flash cards a "game" is why she excells. I think all kids have a yearning to learn. Its just a matter of finding your childs favorite avenue. Do what is fun for them!!!

Good Luck!!
M:)

Two words: Sesame Street.

I'm serious. My son was watching Sesame Street from the time he was about a year old, maybe a bit sooner. Where we lived then Sesame Street came on about lunchtime, so I would fix him his lunch and sit him in his high chair in front of the TV while I fixed my lunch. (I know, it's "bad" ol' TV, but I didn't figure SS would hurt him.) He just sat there and absorbed everything, and was reading simple words by the time he was three. If they don't know they're being taught, sometimes that's the best way because while they're being "entertained" they're actually learning!

Good luck -- and don't push him. He'll come along in his own time.

Like many of the other moms, I'm a fan of The Letter Factory, BUT, I prefer to teach letter recognition, before we confuse things with the sounds and lower case letters.

What REALLY worked for us, was the foam letters in the bath. My technique was to keep it simple: I started with -just- the capital letters. ONLY bring the letter 'A' in the bath, and teach him, "This is an 'A'". Stash the next few letters up with the shampoo, and the next time you get in the bath, ask him what the last letter was. If he gets it, then pull out the 'B'. Never pull out the next letter, until you're sure he's learned all the prior ones. (Once we got all the way through the alphabet, we went back to 'A' and started learning the sounds. This is when The Letter Factory really came in handy.)

This worked beautifully with my oldest. Sometimes you even have to get creative with it. My youngest had a REALLY hard time remembering 'C', so I SLAMMED it to the shower wall, and started cheering really loud, "C! C! C! C! C! C! C!...." The next time we got in the shower, she still wasn't quite sure of it. When I slammed it to the shower wall again, SHE started cheering "C! C! C!" With the 'E', I turned it sideways and held it up to my mouth, so it looked like a set of fake teeth. When we're brushing her teeth, we have her say, "EEEEEE" so we can easily reach the fronts. :-)

I knew things were starting to click, when we went to lunch at Schlotzsky's a few days ago. As she was eating, she looked up at one of the signs, and yelled, "MOMMY!!! C!!!!" I pulled out the bag that her cookie was in, and pointed out all the letters A-E, and she got them all. Then I pointed out an 'F' and told her that this was the next letter we'd be learning in the shower. The next time we got in the shower, I didn't even have to teach her. When I pulled out the 'F', she recognized it immediately.

Most important in teaching the little ones: Keep it fun, keep it short, keep it simple.

Best wishes!
M.

The Leap Frog dvd's are fabulous!!! It's a cute 30 or so minute video and they go to a different room for each letter. My daughter loved it!! It's only about $10 at Target. After he gets the letters down, they have another one for putting words together which is also great!! Good Luck!! =)

Oh, they also have some other toys that are helpful. One that goes on the fridge is great and the alphabet catapillar is also a good one.

I agree with those that said start with the song. We sing all the time. I have my son sing the abc's while he washes his hands after going potty. It is good practice and then he gets his hands washed properly. Then start pointing to the letters on a puzzle etc. while you sing. Putting the visual with the auditory. Good luck!

Ok so I was in the same boat as you...I had spent countless hours with my daughter trying to teach her letter recognition. I had the magnets on the fridge, books, pen and paper, coloring pages, window clings you name it. After about 2 weeks of doing just the first 3 letters A,B,C is asked her in a line up point to A. Nothing she had NO clue. I was so discouraged. All of the hours and time and she still could not recognize anything. So I started researching different ways and tried adding it in.....still nothing. I was seriously thinking something was wrong. So I was at Target and decided to invest in a toy that taught letters. I decided on the v-tech learning laptop it was less than 20 dollars. IN 3 days she knew all her letters!!!!!! I could not believe it! It was unreal. Within a few weeks she was able to recognize upper and lower case letters. It was unreal. She must learn this way but it worked for us, and another friend that got one also! It makes letter learning into a game! Here is a link to the item. They are 19.99 at Target and come in colors for boys and girls. Good luck!!!

http://www.vtechkids.com/product.cfm/Tote_Go_Laptop_Pink/...

My son is 2.5 and he's become really interested in letters through this website: http://www.starfall.com/ He'll ask to watch 'letters' on the 'puter'. They have stuff for older kids as well but the ABC portion of the website is really age appropriate for him and just got him interested.

Give up. Sing the alphabet song while you are making dinner. Read stories. Draw letters on his back and tickle his tummy. Play with letters. Make his name special. A three year old only has need for the alphabet if he wants to know it. If he has no interest, you can expose him as much as you want, but when he's ready will be the time he'll learn. He is three. Play don't push.

What worked for us are those foamy bath letters. I bought them at Toys R Us for $2.99. My kids play with them in the tub every single night. Stick one to his tummy and say, "There's an M on your tummy!" That night, make everything about the letter M during bath time. The next night, try a new letter. This way, it won't feel like learning but a game, rather. My oldest child has been using them recently to make "AT" words. Another thing that worked for us were the Leapfrog Letter Factory and Word Factory DVD's. Start with Letter factory. They have been great for our oldest. He learned about "AT" words from Word Factory and it was his idea to make the words with our foam letters. ....my oldest will have nothing to do with learning if it's my idea. ....has to be on his own terms.

C. I think your son might not be ready. These things come with maturity. Yes my son knew his letters by 2 1/2, knew the sounds of each. How did I achieve this? I read a lot to him and I used alphabet books (your average board book). The Leap Frog letter factory is good and helped master the sounds. Also www.starfall.com is an excellent website.

However even though he knew these things without much pressure I stepped back and just let him develop his love for books and being read to.
I think he has the necessary pre-reading skills and is ready for Kindergarten. He's reading a little bit now but over the five yrs I have hlearnt a lot about his learning style. I simply say this b/c I don't want you to be disappointed in him and to compare your child too much.

Whatever you do, make it fun for him.

If you read to him every so often stop and point out some letters in a word or two and ask him if he can see a specific letter you have chosen. My son will be three in Aug. and we do this all the time we also play the I see the color or whatever and he finds it. It's fun and sometimes comes in handy when we are waiting in a resturant and you could do it with letters as well. we were getting ice cream the other night and he was done waiting so I said can you find the letter G on the menu it kept him busy while we waited. Also the fridge magnets and writing them on index cards and placing them randomly around the house and telling him it's a letter hunt.
Good luck
SAHM to three under 3

My son learned this from an ABCs puzzle - the pieces were the letters. You can find ones like that at Target and Toys R us, and other toy stores as well. If he likes puzzles, you may be able to use that to casually teach him the letters and sounds. Good luck! OH - also, the video Letter Factory is excellent for this!

Buy Letter factory my Leap frog you can get it at walmart, toys r us or target. Its a video that teaches the letters in a very exciting way, it not only teaches letter recognition but letter sounds also.

Keep trying! My son loved to learn so ppointing and saying along with flash cards helped but I also got him the leap frog learning videos. (Letters, pre-reading, and math) He loved those!