alphabet

[dutchmanswife]

I want to start teaching dd3 (2.9) the alphabet but I'm not sure whether I should use phonetics or the names of the letters eg is it ay or a. Could anyone with knowledge of early years education point me in the right direction.

If you want to do anything on this, then you should use the sound that the letter makes, so more like "ah" than "aye", but keep the sound short. So "b", not "ber". And be aware that even if she's interested in the idea of letters and sounds, she will very likely not "get" the idea that they join together to make words in a consistent way for a while yet, so don't get frustrated if you think you've explained it simply and clearly and it doesn't click - they just seem to get the idea in their own time.

The sounds aye bee cee etc aren't actually any use for learning to read because they really don't match the sound the letter makes.

Stick to phonic sounds.

Perhaps have a look on something like the jolly phonics website to get an idea of the sounds.

Thanks a lot. That's a big help.

We have Leap Frog phonics letters for the fridge. It comes with every letter of the alphabet and a unit which "sings" the letter when it is put in and pushed. Goes "Ay says Ah, Ay says Ah, every letter makes a sound Ay says Ah" etc for each letter adding a "aaand blah" for letters which have more than one phonetic sound (Y for example)

My son loves it and its certainly making learning the alphabet fun....

I think this is the new version of what we've got. Ours has a frog on it and upper case letters.

found it - here

Use alphabet and words at the same time, alongside phonemes.

Letters of the name is good place to start, then other words that begin with those letters.

Is there a particular reason you want to do this? Using language is enough imo. Nursery Rhymes, silly rhymes, stories, etc.

She can recognise numbers and knows them well. She's now started pointing to letters and asking what they are. I'm not pushing her, she's leading the way. I just don't want to confuse her by telling her one thing and when she gets to pre-school being told something else.

Making letter shapes is a good thing to try - in sand, with finger paint and so on.

Stick to the sounds, avoid the names at all costs.

I recommend you get hold of the Jolly Phonics Finger Phonics board books (set of 7) www.amazon.co.uk/Finger-Phonics-Books-1-7-Jolly/dp/1870946316/ref=pd_bowtega_1/202-3622612-1314237?i e=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182955354&sr=1-1

and the addictive Jolly Songs on audio CD: A collection of songs set to popular tunes for each of the 42 letter sounds.

I would suggest also looking at the THRASS website - they have a sound board which gives the sounds of all the phonemes for all the different graphemes. (all the sounds and the different ways they can be written)

For example, the different 'cuh' sounds in cat/kitten/duck/school/queen and they ways in which this sound is written.

Lots of fun resources.

Is called the phoneme machine and it is free to download.

highly recommend it.

... unless your child is going to a school that does THRASS in which case they should be taught the letter names. (though DS was taught phonetically and seems to have swapped over ok).

Thanks everybody for you help. I have a starting point now and some reading up to do.

We teach both the sounds and the letter names (I am a y1 teacher). When teaching the sounds its the actual sounds they make in a word that we teach, not the conventional ones that people tend to use. Dont think I can explain in writing but for example the letter M is mmmmmmm a long sound not 'muh' like you would tend to say. You probably dont understand that but I dont know another way to explain!! I agree that you dont need to teach it to your child at their age, but i personally dont think there is any problem if you do, especially if they are inquisitive about it. Jess

My DD is the same age and also has started showing an interest in reading and writing. Keep it fun, don't push it too much.

I bought some bath time foam letters and numbers which she loves playing with in the bath and I use the phonetic sounds to go with them. Then we try to think of some words that start with a, b,c etc. Have a look at the East Coast Letters & Numbers for £5.99 (excluding P&P):

www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplayA_0_10751_-1__2508_10001_

My DD is 3 and she too is dragging me along cos she is so desperate to learn. I came on here a number of months ago and asked for people's opinions etc... everyone was very helpful!

From a personal point of view... yes it is very important to not push your child, you know when they have had enough etc, but at the same time I don't see why you should hold them back when they are desperate to go, go, go!
We tried Jolly Phonics (bookswww.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Readers-Complete-Set-Level/dp/184414075X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=12442 06769&sr=1-6, wall chart, actvity books www.amazon.co.uk/Jolly-Phonics-Workbooks-Books-workbook/dp/1870946502/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&s=books&qi d=1244206511&sr=8-25) and really didn't get on with the whole system. We found with our DD being so young that Letterland was much better as there is a name they can link to each letter/character easily. Which meant that to start with she was only saying 'Annie Apple'... but only a few weeks later she now is saying 'a' as well! It also means she won't have to do the exact same thing again when she starts school as they do Jolly Phonics.

Raid your local charity shops for books and alphabet toys as it can be expensive to try things out and find they don't work with your child! We managed to find VHS's, reading books, a teacher's resource book, games etc. And paying 25p to try something is fantastic!! You soon find out what they like, they keep asking for it and pick up the same thing over and over again!

We got the flashcards to go with the charity shop finds and also a PC game(although she's not had much chance to use this yet as I got it at the same time as Dora PS2 which she asks for first!!!) as she liked the Letterland system. www.amazon.co.uk/First-Reading-Flashcards-Letterland-Wendon/dp/1862092273/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books &qid=1244206430&sr=8-1 www.amazon.co.uk/ABC-Adventures-Letterland/dp/1862093962/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=124420663 9&sr=1-1

We started doing letters a couple of months ago and to my surprise yesterday she told me every characters name and the sound they make! She is also talking about the sound that words start with and sometimes the sound they end with. She is also very interested in words that rhyme, though I think this may be her brothers influence!

We've also printed off the phoneme's from www.sparklebox.co.uk to stick up in her room... although not up yet as I've been waiting to laminate them!

Some days she's not interested, other days she just wants to learn, learn, learn. So we do things as and when. Anything can be an opportunity to find letters and numbers!

Also we have upped the trips to the library, not to get books for her to read but for her to choose things she likes the look of, for us to read to her or for her to look at! And not just fiction/picture books, also basic non-fiction and kids poetry. Fave book this week www.amazon.co.uk/Penguin-DK-Watch-Me-Grow/dp/0756602637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244207368&sr =1-1.
Sorry feels like I'm selling amazon, it's just the fastest way for me to find what I'm on about and post a link! Sorry also for long post!