how did your dc learn their abc's?

[olsmum]

my dd was 4 in december and attends a pre-school nursery at the local primary school, she has really taken an interest in letters and numbers and seems really keen to want to learn more. she loves it if i write a word and she copies it or if she writes a word and i copy it (although her words are usually something like "folobitewy" or "scef48hi"!)

how should i be saying the letters to her? i have been saying a b c (ah bih curly cih) but when i went to visit a friend who has a dd the same age her daughter was saying A B C.

i dont want to confuse dd or teach her the wrong way (i can imagine it would be hard for a teacher to change a childs way of thinking if thats what they have been taught at home)

[jennifersofia]

Teach her the sounds of the letters, rather than the names. She will pick up the letter names quite quickly through the 'abc' song, but the sounds are the most important because that is the way it is taught in school and it is also the way that will help her to sound words out when she is learning to read. Our school uses Jolly Phonics, which is a fairly good programme. You can get materials from them off the web.

[Lizzylou]

I second the sounds of the letters, as opposed to "ABC", so you are doing the right thing, imo.

[Hulababy]

You need to use letter sounds (a, b, c) not names (ay, bee, cee).

You could have a look at something like Jolly Phonics.

You teacher the letter sounds and also blends, such as sh, th, ng, etc.

Jolly Phonics teaches the letters not in alphabetical order, but common frequency order I think.

Listen to the sounds here

[olsmum]

thanks! i will go and google jolly phonics for a look.

[Milliways]

We had some great flashcards from ELC with picture on, we played snap and other matching games with them (2 of each letter per pack). DD also loved singing the Alphabet songs.

[Toothyboy]

By the time ds1 left pre-school last July, he had learnt the names of the letters through the abc song, as well as the letter sounds through phonics.

That's not meant as a brag btw, just to demonstrate that it's possible for them to learn both simultaneously!

[olsmum]

no need, you have a link! dd will love that when i show her, it will also be good as she seems to have a problem with the letter P, e.g.she says "fots" instead of "spots"

[Bodkin]

I asked my sister about this (who is a primary school teacher) and her advice was to use the letter sounds. However, she also said, but don't be in too much of a rush to teach her phonics, otherwise she will find that she knows it all before she starts reception, and will then be bored while all the other children are learning. I can see her point, although if they want to learn, they want to learn, and you can't really stop them can you!

[leapinglemur]

www.starfall.com
A bit American but fun.

[foxythesnowman]

Ummm, DS1 learnt a lot from Countdown

At school they do the Ruth Miskin Phonics, which has stood both DS1 and DS2 in good stead.

Find out what your local school does and take their lead, or you may find she is re-learning when she gets there and that could make it harder for her.

[olsmum]

thanks for your advice, i will speak to nursery staff tomorrow and see what they think

[mumeeee]

Teach her the sounds of the letters that is what they are taught first at school.

[vikingqueen]

You can listen to the letter sounds ((www.educationtakeaway.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=41&idproduct=12 HERE))

[SaveScrabulous]

Yep like Foxy's ds, mine learned letter names from Countdown - I watch it when he is around rather than forcing him to watch it by the way!

He quite likes it though.

Now though I have to show him the letter sounds at some stage as he knows the names (and indeed upper rather than lower case letters).

[serenity]

We bought DD this a while ago and although it is really annoying to listen to whilst trying to cook dinner, she picked up the letters and sounds really easily (in Nursery atm, but knows her alphabet and can name and sound out pretty much all the letters - our one only came with capitals though so atm she's learning to link the two together)