How to teach children letters?

[pleasethanks]

My DD is 18 months and a bit sponge like at the moment, so going to start letters with her. But, how do I do it - do I do 'baby' letters or 'big letters, if you know what I mean. I remember being taught baby letters first, is that still the way?

I think most preschools/schools use the phonics system. We have had this since DS was about 18months and he does play with it a bit but much more interested in colours shapes stories and climbing! It's still just a noisy toy even now at 21 months but it does show you the sounds to use or each letter. Bound to be other similar things around.

We got fridge magnets at about that age and I started by spelling DCs name out with them and talking about the letters in that - I always identify a letter in relation with a sound (s for snake). No idea if that is a good thing or not! It's not something we have in no way pushed or focused on - just one of the things that we do from time to time, when he's interested etc. Have mainly talked about 'little letters' as this is the basis for phonics (main way of teaching reading). He can now (2.3) reliably name about 10 or 12 letters and for those 10 can tell you 2 or 3 words that start with that letter, e.g. a for apple, or alligator, or astronaut. We've supplemented the fridge magnets with a big jigsaw (Orchard toys I think) where each piece is a letter and various books (a lovely Alison Jay illustrated book and an Usborne alphabet touchy-feely book). The only 'big' letter he can reliably identify is his initial. He can put together the jigsaw brilliantly and you might think if you watched him that he knew - in reality he just knows which pictures go where and can of course identify everything in the pics!

you might think you you watched him that he knew the entire alphabet

I just let mine have both capital and small letters so they got used to both, they will see both types around them in books, posters etc so I did not really see the point in only letting them learn small ones then capital later, or the other way round..
Agree magnets are really good, we have the fridge phonics and just the normal magnet letters that you can get from elc. the sound on fridge phonics is not that clear imo so the normal letters are just as good really

My DD is 2.3 and she can recognise about 5 letters. I did buy the ELC tub of magnetic letters but they seem to spend most of the time on the floor. She has REALLY enjoyed bath foam letters that I bought from Tesco's direct for £4.50. I only put a few in at a time so as not to overwhelm her and then I say to her "mummy can't find a for apple does DD know where it is?" and then she will find it and stick it to the bath! She calls it " let's play letters" and I try not to push it, I take it at her pace. I do the same with numbers too. We have a ladybird alphabet book that we look at too. Hope this helps!

I would try and get away from the idea of "teaching letters" and focus more on creating experiences and opportunities to talk, explore and discover. The most capable children who are confident reader and writers, have a strong vocabulary. So focus on this before letters. Becoming literate is so much more than recognising letters and there are so many skills that need to be learnt before knowing letters is important.

Children of this age learn best through play & self led exploration. Not adult direction. So listen to your child, and look for short 'teachable' moments with what she is already doing, playing with and looking at.

For example- When reading favourite books occasionally run your finger along the bottom of the sentences, in time with your reading, and emphasising your words. For example if there is a sound effect like Woooooooooosh! Your finger would move fast as you say it. This is introducing the concept that those symbols (letters & words) have a significance. That different letters make different sounds. The same sound usually comes from the same letter ...

Play around with language and sounds. Alliteration to emphasise letter sounds. Big bouncy baby! Silly words: bubbly bibbly bubby! Making up songs, singing favourites and playing with words is one of the most powerful literacy teaching tools. You don't need to buy any special equipment or letter teaching resource. You have words and letters all around you.

The most meaningful letters a child will learn first are the ones from her own name, Mummy and Daddy (and siblings or pets if you have them) If your child's name is Sally, you might start pointing out her name on her nursery bag, maybe you have it on her door, so you might create a habit at bed time of pointing out her name and emphasising the sounds as you point to the letters and say her name. Short, meaningful teachable moments.

Pretty soon Sally will recognise her S in other places. This opens the door to further 'teachable' moments. "Yes Saaaaa for Sally, but this is Sam's name. Sam and Sally both have Saaaa"

Be a bit careful about teaching too much, unless you know how schools do it. DS's school told us in no uncertain terms that they would rather the children couldn't read/write when they started as they had certain ways they used. A friends elder son definitely struggled as his pre school taught him to write using just capitals, he couldn't get "proper" writing for ages and even at age 10 his writing is pretty indecipherable.

Essexgurl makes an excellent point- for several reasons. We can tell the 'coached' kids who have been put off anything literacy related by over zealous parents trying to 'teach' them.

There are also the children who are adamant their name can only be written all in capitals because Mum & Dad taught them to write BOB instead of Bob or other bad habits.

As a teacher I would rather parents just spend plenty of time talking, listening and playing with their kids. Having fun, following their interests. That is so much more valuable than any 'letter lesson'.

My DS is 2.3 and has picked up and can name of all the letters (both cases). I didn't teach him as such he justed picked it up through things he's played with, granny got him one of those kids laptops for his 2nd birthday, (it was only about £15 in sale at sainsburys) and we thought he'd just play the game where you had a to find various pictures but he started playing the others and picked the letters up through that, he also has the tesco bath letters and loves playing with them, only complaint i would say about them is the a looks like a capital D and he always says its a D. I don't bother correcting him. He doesn't know the phonics and if i'd been 'teaching' him the letters then i'd have taught the phonics first so hoping this isn't going to effect him learning to read in the future.

i think they tend to pic things up more quickly if its something they are interested in

oh and we also have letter magnets that he plays with. i bought him an easel for painting etc for his birthday and they came with that.

My DS got suddenly interested in letters when he was about 20 months or so (he's nearly 2 now) - I think sparked by the "letter carpark" we go to (where you park near a letter - he would always point at the letter and say what's that?).

He also has a letter frieze with pictures in his room and a poster with letters and pictures and we do lots of reading so I think it's mainly by osmosis, and he now pretty much knows all of them. He's fully fascinated though and so I bought him a box of letter and number stickers which he plays with, and I just say "oh yes, C for car or carrot".

There are loads of nice letter books as well, and we have a couple of Quentin Letts ones and a pleasant one about going for a walk in a garden which is slightly different to the "a is for apple" as it's things like "p is for praying mantis" and "O is for orchid".

I haven't made any attempt to properly differentiate between upper and lower case, I just say "big T and small t" and assume he'll figure it out.

Quentin Blake. Duh.

I think children more quickly learn the alphabets in association with songs and rhymes as well as visual aids. This is Why most of the preschool adopt this teaching habit for kids. Play the ABC game and ask your child to find the letter A on billboards, or license plates, or signs.

My DM is a CM and uses a massive floor jigsaw. She starts young with the pictures ("bring me the cat, wheres the cat?"), then introduces the letter ("wheres the c, c for cat?"), then once theyve grasped that its simply letters.