It’s so easy for us to say we want our kids to learn the ABC’s and 123’s before kids hit Kindergarten, but how do we actually do it?
Is there an ideal time to start teaching these all-too-important basics?
What if your kiddo is just not interested in such things? How do you make learning the ABC’s fun?
It’s a lot easier than you may think, and honestly, in my opinion, there’s no time like the present to get rockin’ and rollin’ on helping your kids learn the ABC’s. So whether your child is 6 or 6 months, I’d say get going. Now. And have fun with it.
Start singing, stickering, hunting, painting, and spraying your way to either an alphabet-filled summer.
Here’s the skinny. . .
10 Fun Ways of Helping Kids Learn the ABC’s:
1. Play ABC Games — Play alphabet board games, play alphabet clothespin games, play alphabet wordo!
2. Point Out ABC’s Everwhere —Go on Alphabet Hunts, hide the ABC’s around your house (then do it again). Then go on Backyard Alphabet Hunts— so fun, it’s nuts.
3. Celebrate the Letters of Kids’ Names — For the little guys, start with their letter–the first letter of his or her name–and go from there. Find the letter on the cereal box, on signs, in books. Play Family Name Letter Connect. Once they master that, move onto the other letters of the name and then introduce family names.
4. Read ABC Books — There are tons of them out there, believe me, but a super-fun fave of ours is Superhero ABC. Visit my pal, Allie’s awesome post, 50 Fantastic ABC Books for more.
5. Sort the ABC’s — Separate letters and numbers. Sort tricky fonts. Play with those magnetic letters on the fridge and sort the ABC’s on lids.
6. Spray the ABC’s — You heard me. Spray the ABC’s.
7. Play ABC Bingo — Play Alphabet Bingo with uppercase letters. Play it with the letters of your child’s name. Play it with lowercase letters. Stamp it or write it. Just play it.
8. Sing the ABC Song — Sing that song–c’mon, you know it–same tune as Twinkle, Twinkle and Baa Baa Blacksheep. Sing it all the time. Sing it at bath time, bed time, breakfast time. Sing other songs of course, but make ABC top of the charts. It will help.
9. Crazy Write the ABC’s — Write the ABC’s with sticky stuff, with paint, with water, or with wiggly wigglies. Make it different. Write on windows. Write in the sky.
10. Move and Groove the ABC’s — Get up and move to the ABC’s with ABC Exercise Cards or get leafy with an Outdoor Alphabet Hunt.
Want more? After checking out the links above, visit our Read Aloud Learning Series for some super-easy tips, then check the right sidebar for other topics you need.
Want a few more alphabet activities? Check out:
- backyard alphabet hunt
- homemade alphabet book
- leafy letter learning
- ABC hunt
- on the road ABC hunt
- lowercase ABC hunt
- build your own bingo: uppercase and lowercase match
- ABC cards and clothespin match
- alphabet letter splash
- alphabingo (play with lowercase letters)
- alphabet letter lids
- leafy outdoor alphabet hunt
- build your own board game
- clothespin letter match
- 10 fun ways to learn the alphabet
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creative writing for kids: photo conversations
Love this post. Kiddo #1 has the ABCs down pat but crazily, kiddo #2 is just starting to learn them too! I can’t believe he’s not a baby anymore and is actually old enough to learn letters. He is soooooo different from #1 that it will be good to have a ton of different resources to think about when teaching him letters. I’m sure what worked with #1 won’t work with 2, they are so different. I’ll be back to check these out in more detail!
thanks so much, Jackie!! Let me know how it goes for you!!
I’m a nanny for two special needs boys. The 7 year old is in first grade and has spelling words he is suppose to know how to read and write every week. But he doesn’t know how to read. And although he can say the alphabet he doesn’t actually know the letters when placed in front of him. It is very frustrating for his grandma and myself when trying to help him with his homework. We are realizing the private school he was attending before transferring to the public school didn’t really teach him as much as we thought and he is now struggling in school. I have been trying very hard to help him learn his letters. But he forgets in the matter of minutes what letter we just said it was. Do you think your activities above would be helpful for him to learn his ABC’s or are there other tactics his grandma and I should try? Any advice is welcome. I know he is a smart boy, and I know he doesn’t have a problem memorizing things as he can memorize movies line for line. Just trying to find some options for us to help him learn.
Yes, yes, yes! Elizabeth, I’m sure your struggles are exhausting you, but my only advice (and though I am an educator, my expertise is not in special needs) is to incorporate fun learning into all the games and daily activities that you can. The more the kiddos play with letters and numbers in a variety of multi-sensory ways, the better.
I’ll keep my eyes open for some more resources that may help you, and if you find anything, please do share. Best to you!
Pinned! Love informational DYI posts that are really wonderful ideas, such as this. Thanks!
thank you, Carolyn!! you are the BEST!!!
I have a 6year old who knows his abc. How CN I make it fun for him to where he understands he’s good with everything else it’s jus his abc. Can u help me find away to help.
Hi, Pamela! Can you just take a minute and let me know: does he know his ABCs? What exactly does he need help with?
I’m a nanny for 3 children ages 2, 4, &6. We INVENTED a game. I took 3×5 cards cut them in 1/2 and put a letter on each card. With another set of cards i wrote a word like can, sand, jet, and etc.
I placed the letter cards on the floor scattered. I said the word out loud, the 6 y/o picked up the letters and spelled the word. For the 4 yr old i showed her the word and she found the letters but had them mixed up, but she understood it. The 2 yr old blew me away. I showed him the word and he jumped from one letter to the next to spell it.
We also did this with numbers, i gave an equation like 5 +15 =? The 6yr old really enjoyed this game. He wanted 100 numbers. Don’t forget the plus, minus and equal cards.
Holly! What an awesome game! THANK YOU so much for sharing, my friend! Hopefully others can play now, too!!
Fantastic, The kids had a lot of fun creating their ABC books.
So much so I have used the concept for my 5-6 Y/O’s learning phonics.
They seem to retain the information much quicker through activities rather than
the abc song.
Thanks again!
Jay