How do I get my 4 year old to learn letters?

Question

My daughter is very intelligent. She knows pretty much everything! BUT....she hates letters. I bought flashcards and tried pointing out letters in books, but she just ignores it or says "t's too hard to know all the letters". Any suggestions on fun ways to learn the alphabet?

Answer 1

Be a child like her, how about visiting this site www.starfall.com

Answer 2

you have to make it worth her time. there are alot of alphabet games out there. try going shopping with her to pick out an alphabet game. if she can pick out the game, it'll be more fun. and have a reward at the end, the reward depending on how hard she tried (definitely not based solely on how well she did, though if she does extra special well, that should count towards something. just don't penalize her for being wrong if she really did try). this system of fun and reward will make it worth her time to learn her letters.

Answer 3

My daughter associated each letter with an animal.  We made a poster with the alphabet, and a cartoon picture of an animal that started with each letter!  She loved it, and learned quickly!

Answer 4

If she is not showing an interest then any attempts will be met with an automatic negativity.

Try having fun

-lots of stories esp repetitive phrase stories as this encourages literacy.

-Have words around the home- like labels eg: placemats with everyone's names on it-then she can help tell people where they need to sit. She'll learn to recognise that D is for daddy and M is for mummy without feeling forced.

-Buy a book such as Jolly Phonics-it is meant for younger ages and has fun ways of learning through characters...alternatively try looking up Letterland books!

-Write letters-letter to grandma-doesnt matter if she cant form real letters its learning to enjoy literacy...you can always write some key letters for her to copy eg: names. Birthday lists, shopping list, xmas list...anything that involves creative writing.

-Talk to her preschool or nursery teacher as they know her better than us!

At 4 I wouldnt worry a great deal as in terms of curriculum learning to read isnt till keystage 1 and thats past 5years old.../at 4 its more recognising letter sounds that are important to her eg letters in her name not neccessarily being able to recite all the alphabet.

Answer 5

Make it fun!!!!!

Play I spy w/ letters

Make a letter treasure hunt

Make a book w/ letters and pictures

Buy magnetic letters

Do art/cooking projects w/ letters

Starfall.com

Drjean.com

Play Bingo for little prizes

Lakeshore Learning  Materials has amazing products and games

Mailbox magazine has some good books as well

Answer 6

The first thing to do to get your four year old interested in learning letters is to find a game with letters that she would like. FOR INSTANCE, my four year old learned letters by his Spiderman Laptop. There was a letter recognition game that told him find the letter "P" and he would find it on the keyboard, then it would just say it and not show the letter so the child had to remember the letter. He knows all of his letters now!

Next, after she becomes familiar with her letters, there is a fridge phonics set sold at WAL-MART it is called the WORD WHAMMER. It has a letter hunt, word builder, and word hunt. It teaches toddlers 3 letter words and comes with 2 sets of the entire alphabet. I think its like 30 or 40 dollars. My son knows how to spell Mom, Dad, Cat, etc.

Hope I was a little bit of help to you :)

Answer 7

Actually, phoenemic awareness at this age is more important than letter recognition.

Recognizing that words start and end with the same sounds is the first step to being able to read eventually.Can she recognize letter sounds?  

Play games in the car...hey, let's find something outside that starts with a "t" sound!  Look, I see a t-t-t-trash can!  Look, there's a t-t-t-tree!  

Another fun game is to have a scavenger hunt in the house...get a brown grocery bag or a box & let's find things that start with a "b" sound.  (b-b-bear!  b-b-b-book! anything b-b-b-blue!)

Research has proven that children at this age learn best through PLAY.  Flash cards and workbooks generally aren't appropriate for preschoolers.   Make it fun!!

The National Institute for Literacy has some really wonderful and helpful (& free!) publications that will give you tons of information to help your child succeed.  

Good luck!

Answer 8

Put the flash cards away :-) ...at least for a little while...I have many sets of flash cards but never use them in the typical way :-)

Back up... Stop working on it for a couple of weeks and then start in "sneakily"  :-)  Verbally noting the letter that starts her favorite cereal or fast food restaurant.  Take her grocery shopping with you and have her list to get... cutting out the pic from the ad and writing the word next to it works great.  Let her watch The Great Alphabet Race...Reader Rabbit DVD, check out some ABC books from the library, etc... and don't say once that she is learning the letters or that she has too!Work more on that phonemic awareness as already was mentioned.  Don't be too concerned about knowing ALL the letters.

Fun ways to work with them:

Go Fishing:  magnetic letters and magnetic fishing poles.  I like to use my magnetic dry erase board and do a sort.  In my name/not in my name.  We go fishing and then sort the letters.

Write her name or other letters in different sensory materials, sand, salt, shaving cream, fingerpaint, etc.

Make collages with big block letters... have her glue on items that begin with that sound.  On the same line, cut out large letters out of the newspaper adds and glue the different "fonts" onto a block letter.

Write letters on white construction paper with white crayon.  Give her water colors and the "mystery letters" will show up.  I did this on half pieces of index cards and they had their own set of letters to work with.  Lower case, of course, since that is mostly what they see around us in print.

I have multiple basic concept charts that get rotated at least once a month.

Rainbow writing:  Provide a bunch of crayon rubberband together and have her trace a letter.  Or use different markers and trace over it multiple times.  Works great for their name.

Make cookies using alphabet cookie cutters.  Spell family names.

Make pretzel letters.

Use playdough...You can get "workmats" that go with each letter of the alphabet off the internet.  

Alphabet Dig: Hide the letters of the alphabet in sand and have her dig for them and place them in alphabetical order.  Or just use the ones in her name and spell her name.

Foam alphabet letters in the bathtub or on the sliding glass door, if you have one.

Sing more than just the ABC song...there are so many alphabet songs and chants out there!  Include a visual so it's not just rote singing but incorporating letter recognition.

Make a hopscotch board on the sidewalk---I do an icecream cone with the child's name in the cone and in each scoop their letters.  They start at their name, stating their name and hop form letter to letter.  We've done this with train tracks and pretend we are a train going around the tracks... the letters are written in each space.

Play "Eraser" or something similar.  Write many letters on a board or use magnet letters on the fridge... say a letter and have them erase it (or take it off the fridge)...more fun to erase.

Leap Frog Fridge magnets are great!

Letter Hunt:  Place a magnet letter each in a plastic "easter" egg and hide them around the room.  Have her find them and place the letters in alphabetical order or at least tell you what the letter is.

Alphabet Roll:  Collect or make alphabet cards that contain letters and pictures of several letters you wish to review.  Have the children sit on the floor in a semicircle.  Start the game by rolling a ball to one of the children.  Hold up a card and have the child name the letter and the picture.  Have them roll the ball back to you.

Flashlight Letters:  Make large letter cards or put a letter on the wall with masking tape.  Turn off the lights, and let children "trace" with a flashlight. This allows large-motor practice of letter formation, and is very interesting.

Letters by Leaps and Bounds:  Each time a new letter is introduced, use colorful masking tape or plastic tape to create a giant version of that letter on your playroom floor or kitchen floor. Then instruct youngsters to "walk, hop, crawl, or otherwise move" along the lines of the letter.

Have a Ball:  Use a permanent marker to program a beach ball with alphabet letters. Gather students in a circle outside and then gently toss the ball to a child. Encourage a child who catches the ball to look under her right thumb and name the letter closest to it. For more challenge, program the ball with a mix of uppercase and lower case letters and have the child name the letter and case.

That should get you started :-)  Have fun!

Answer 9

I have some cute alphabet animal puppets - one puppet for each letter of the alphabet posted at:

http://www.quality-kids-crafts.com/puppe...

There are corresponding coloring pages at:

http://www.quality-kids-crafts.com/anima...

where the name of the animal is in dashed letters for tracing.

Other than that, all of the suggestions above are great.  Don't make an issue of working on the letters, just keep it low key, and fun!

A friend of mine told me to give my son a bowl of whipped cream and let him write the letters in it with his fingers.  That was a little too sugary for me, but my kids are always finding that they can make letters with pretzel sticks and all kinds of other foods and objects when I least expect it.  

It just has to be their idea sometimes!  Don't give up, she will learn when she's "good and ready."

Answer 10

I would pick a letter a week. You don't need to go in alphabetical order -- start with the letters we use most:

S, E, A, T, D, M, W, etc...

Pick the letter and have her identify the name (and even the sound). Then go on a scavenger hunt around the house to locate objects that have that letter printed on them. Another day, go around the house and identify objects that start with the letter sound. Make index cards with that word on it and fix it to the object (for example, on "L" week, label and identify "lamp").

Kids LOVE walking around noting objects on a clipboard, so on the third day, give her a clipboard and let her go on a hunt to record objects on her own (don't tell her how to spell it and don't correct her unless she identifies the wrong letter).

When you are out and about, point out the letters or give her a reward (like a sticker) at random intervals everytime she spots the letter of the week on her own or recognizes it's sound in speech.

I would consider even having a "Letter of the week" Lunch where you have food items that all start with that letter or have the letter on the packaging.

Good luck -- she will learn, promise!

Susie

All Day Kindergarten

Answer 11

I used to play video games with my 4 year old nephew.  One was "classic concentration".  He recognized all the letters pretty quickly.  Example, the game had luxury car "Seville".  Rocky didn't know what a Seville was, but he knew the letters, especially "S".

He didn't know he was learning the alphabet and a handful of words -- he thought he was playing a fun videogame with his "cool" uncle!

Oh, sigh.  Later on, when he learned how to read we would play the "world globe game".  I would take a globe and challenge him to find places like "France", "China", or "Brazil".  He was pretty good at that to.

I guess my point is that if your daughter thinks something is a fun game, she'll do it.  If she thinks it's boring work, she won't.

Answer 12

When you are in the car or out for walks don't focus only on the letters. Point to a stop sign and say look Stop, S-T-O-P then talk about the shape of the sign, the color, and finally come back and ask if she knows what the first letter is.  Another way is to just focus on one letter a day/week and find it in everything you do (books, signs, names, etc) I hope this helps you.

Answer 13

Post the alphabet around the room.... as she starts getting sleepy, have her call out the letters to you... since she finds letters boring...it will help her fall asleep faster and at the same time get her to look at them over and over again.