My ds (7) is in year 2 and doesn't know his alphabet

[Peaceflower]

Is this unusual and does it even matter?

He is in the top Reading group, second top writing group, and top spelling group.

He knows all the letters, but just never learned the right order of the alphabet. It seems odd to me, because it was the first thing I learned when I started school.

Anyone else's dcs the same?

DD is in yr 1. She is considered the brightest in her year and still gets STUV wrong or forgets them completely when reciting her alphabet.

Don't confuse innate intelligence with rote learning.

And don't bother getting him to recite the alphabet. It's better he knows what they do really.

I just asked my 7yo dd and she sang it to me, think its the only thing shes learned at school!

Can he not sing it, quite common song that pre-schoolers learn.

Mine only learned it by singing the alphabet song.

I bet she could learn it by bed time.

Sorry, He!

Not unusual, I think. It's nowhere near as important as knowing each letter separately - they only start to need it for looking things up in a dictionary, which they don't do at the start of school.

This is confirming my suspicion that with all the emphasis on phonics, there is no room for rote learning. My ds never sang a nursery rhyme as a toddler - but that's another story (dyslexia/dyspraxia in family).

I guess ds may have a problem later whe asked to arrange things in alphabetical order, or use a dictionary...

DS friend in Y6 last year didn't know the alphabet and couldn't tell the time - Y6 I would be worried about - Y2 I really wouldn't.

He'll get there.

Children being taught phonics in reception will also be taught to sing the alphabet. Singing nursery rhymes is quite an important stage for children

Maybe you can say it together rather than stress that he's not learning it at school.

Thanks IWTEB. I try every so often to get him to recite a chunk, and he never gets more than 5 letters without getting them out of order.

I will keep trying (when I remember to

vodpod.com/watch/2495874-elmos-alphabet-rap sorry American so you need to shout "zed" loudly to cover the "zee"

anything put to music is instantly more memorable

DS1 is 7 and in Year 2 and I don't think he knows his alphabet either. Obviously he knows his letters and what they do (he is one of the top in the class for reading), but AFAIK they have never been taught the alphabet.

They don't sing it here as they are taught it in Welsh and not English, and all of the Ch's and Ll's don't fit with the tune!

Same as my ds. Fantastic with Reading, writing, spelling but only learned the alphabet with no mistakes when he was 7.4 ish.

It appears that (correctly) reciting the alphabet is not a requirement in the early years in schools!

My dd learned when she was 2, due to an addiction to Barney the dinosaur. When I started school, we all had to sing the alphabet song every day.

I love Elmo,by the way, and will forgive him the "zee", as I did "Barney" .

In reception children are expected to know some letter names. However alphabetical order is in the National literacy framework for Y2

To the parents of non-alphabet knowing DCs:

Don't mean to be rude, genuinely baffled: did you not endlessly sing your DCs the alphabet song as part of your repertoire of early childhood/bored in the car/kill me now songs?

Thought this was part of generic little kid-hood. I've got recordings of me singing it at 3, and very fond memories of my then 2 year old niece singing 'cue-ball ess, tee you vee...'. My very able reader Y1 DS has to sing it in chunks in order to alphebetise

Then again, so do I.

shame

I didn't know mine til Juniors despite being quite bright. nobody had taught it to me and it didnt occur to me to learn it until I was kept in one playtime for talking in line and had to write it down as a punishment. I was mortified!

Devexity - my ds hated nursery rhymes in any form from the word go. He would cover his ears and stamp his feet from 12 months! Would listen endlessly to the beatles and johnny cash though and demand they were played over and over again.

I used to get horrendous looks at toddler group from other parents when ds didn't known single nursery rhyme, but hey ho, music is music and he has a real passion for it even now. I don't feel as though he missed out on a developmental milestone not knowing any.

Fwiw, part of the problem was that my ds refused to have anything at all to do with 'learning' until he was 6. Most kisnpicknupnthe alphabetbat 3 or 4, ds did not wan to know. Refused letters, numbers, would not even colour in as he associated holding a pencil with learning, would not sit on a circle at groups and sing songs etc.

At six, everything just clicked into place for him and he was reading/writing within a month.

Lolapoppins - I had to hide in Sainsbury's once when my two year old broke into 'but I shot a man in Reno/just to watch him die...' at the top of his lungs. Aces.

lolapoppins, that sounds like my ds! Never wanted to listen to/sing nursery rhymes. I took him weekly to mother and toddler which always ended with a 10 minute singing session, and he hated it. He hated it at nursery and playgroup. Whenever I try to sing nursery rhymes with him, he would tell me to stop!

He also didn't want to know anything about learning until 6, and then everything clicked. They must be TWINS!

Brilliant! We have ds on video singing ring of fire on kareoke when he was two, he loves watching it back now.

I think the Killers should release an ABC single, or an album of nursery rhymes, my ds would probably have been interrested then!

Seriously though, the amount of crappy remarks I got from parents because we listened to real music in the car/at home as opposed to kids CDs was unreal. It got ds interrested in playing guitar and piano.

You can put the alphabet and nursery rhymes to pop music it doesn't have to be the traditional tune. Whatever appeals!