My two year old (almost 26 months) is really into learning her letters right now. She can recognize them out of order pretty easily.
A few weeks ago she surprised me when she started naming letters in words. Here is a short video I took of her naming most of the letters on our sock monkey jack in the box
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While I think my kids are all smart, I know they aren’t “baby geniuses”. 🙂 I just try to make letter identification part of our daily life and that seems to work for us.
Here are 5 ways I encourage my toddlers to learn their letters.
Looking for Letters Everywhere
Alphabet posters, charts, and flash cards can be useful learning tools, but they aren’t the only places to find letters.
My toddlers, especially my little girls, love to ask their daddy about the words on his T-shirts. When he names the letters on his shirts it is a great learning opportunity.
Identifying letters on boxes and cans of food, toys, and other household items that your toddler comes in contact with on a daily basis is a great way to help him or her learn the alphabet.
Magnetic Letters
We have several sets of smaller magnetic letters, but I have found that for young toddlers the LeapFrog Letter magnets
Side note: Our front door is a better spot for magnetic letters than the refrigerator since we always seemed to get letters stuck under the fridge.
If your toddler is beyond the “putting everything in my mouth” phase then you may want to try an alphabet sensory box.
Play Dough
My toddlers have all loved play dough and it can be a great way to help children learn their letters.
You can help your child roll the dough in to “snakes” and form them into various letters. An alternative is to use letter cookie cutters to cut out different letters.
Toddlers are usually tactile learners so the hands-on aspect of play dough makes it a great letter learning tool.
Shaving Cream
My little girl is obsessed with “creamy” right now and loves it when I get out the shaving cream while she is taking a bath.
I often write her name and other letters for her. She will say the letters and then try to write them.
My toddlers and preschoolers always have so much fun with shaving cream that they don’t even know they are learning.
Reading
Reading to your child is a wonderful activity for so many reasons, but it is also great for helping your child learn how to identify and name the letters of the alphabet.
When you read you can point out different letters and name them which will help your toddler learn how to identify the letters of the alphabet.
How do you help you toddlers learn their letters?
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