How many parents of preschoolers find teaching the alphabet difficult?

Question

I'm writing a newsletter for parents, and don't know if I should include a section on "Teaching the Alphabet." Is this something parents are pretty comfortable with, or should I give some insight on ways to make learning the alphabet more meaningful and fun?

Answer 1

First of all in preschool it is all about the introduction of the alphabet. You do want to add this to your newsletter because parents want to see this. The alphabet at the age goes hand in hand with phonics. You want to say something like this to the parents:

In order to prepare your children for a successful future in reading, we will be working on phonetics and letter recognition this year. We will first work with making the children comfortable with seeing the letter by having a letter of the week. In the second semester of the year we will work with the phonetic sound for each letter.

The best way you, as the parent, can partner with us is to read to your child each evening. This will peak their interest in reading and expose them to letters. Also work with them on environmental print. If they see a McDonalds sign, point out the letters. They are already aware that the sign reads McDonalds and this will help them put a word they know with the actual letters. You can also try this for cereal boxes or vegetable cans.

In the end your child will be as successful as we encourage them to be for reading!

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

I think some parents know fun ways to teach their children the alphabet and others need some advice and support.  I think you definitely should include a section for this in your newsletter.  Even parents who are comfortable with it might get a good idea that they never tried before from your article.  Also, if you've never seen it before, check out the website starfall.com.  It's a great website for learning the alphabet  and the letters' sounds.  Even if you don't have access to computers in the preschool classroom, you could include this website in your newsletter.  Parents could hopefully get their children on the site from home or from the local library.  My preschool daughter has spent a few hours on this site over the past couple of months and she loves it.  Not only did it help her to better remember the letters, but I think it definitely helped her to learn the letters sounds.

Answer 3

WELL ITS NOT VERY HARD IF YOU FIND IT FUN MAYBE MAKE UP A GAME OR SOMETHING USING THE ALPHABETS AND CONTINUE TO PLAY THE GAME UNTIL THEY LEARN

Answer 4

I've been in the early childhood field for 12 years, and am very familiar with developmentally appropriate practices, and child and brain development.  The concept of the alphabet is not something pre-schoolers are typically ready for. I always tell their parents that these concepts are taught contextually and environmentally.This meaning in their names, book titles, and environmental print.  I also make letters part of my music and movement by having the children make letters with their bodies, hands,or drawing them in the air with their fingers.  In my experiences, children who have developed their social/emotional skills are more advanced and are usually further ahead in the academic game than those who may know their "ABC's" but who can't negotiate socially on the playground. Learning the alphabet is important, but learning how to get along socially is crucial.  Parents should be encouraged to make learning fun for their young learner.  This can include grocery store trips, rides in the cars, and bedtime. For example, "Look I have a can of Tomato sauce. TTTomato that sounds like the letter T!" and Tommy will say,"Hey! That's my name!"  Just encourage parents to keep it simple and stree-free...and no flash cards or pencil and paper activities!!

Answer 5

Why is it, that in this day and age parents feel the need to start earlier and earlier to drill their children. I have 3 children myself, that all started school on very different levels. The first one could say the ABC, but had no clue and no interest on how to write his name. My second one could not recite the ABC at 5 year's old, but could write her name. My youngest one did both and recognized most of the letters. But guess what - once they started school not one of them was smarter then the other, eventually they all caught up. If anything, my youngest was quite bored in Kindergarten, because she already knew all the ABC and there were plenty of children in her class, that didn't. Luckily she had a good teacher, that was able to engage her differently. I guess my point is, there's nothing wrong with introducing them to ABC's, wirting and such, but don't think their not going to do well in school, if they don't get it before Kindergarten!

Answer 6

I think that your parents might find it very helpful (particularly those who aren't holding a full deck).

The alphabet is not something that you learn in order, but OUT of order and that is not a commonly known thing.

Be sure to put lots of different ways to learn the alphabet in your section (tactile,sensory,songs, stories 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' is a good one).

Congrats on having a good view of teaching and being willing to take the time and help out the 'homefront'.

Answer 7

I'm a parent and I have a 31/5 yrs old son, and he knew the alphabet and can read most common 4-5 letter words. I start singing the alphabet when he was younger and learned phonics too.Go ahead and write about it, I think parents will appreciate some insights and who would say no  if it helps them and their kids.

Answer 8

I am in the process of teaching my daughter to read the alphabet and find it is quite difficult, i wrote here a few days ago regarding this subject and got some great responses. I reckon doing that section on teaching the alphabet will be great and it would be something i would be very interested in. If you do this section i would be very greatful if you could email me a copy.

Answer 9

At our preschool we use what's called Jolly Phonics which is a fun way to teach the kids and I also know that Animated Literacy is a good way too!! I find if you make it fun and don't force them to learn it they are more likely to want to learn it plus they learn on their own time and when they are ready.