Teach Your Child their ABCs

Children who learn their ABC’s before they start Kindergarten have a jumpstart in school for success throughout their educational experience. The ABC’s are the fundamental blocks of learning for children getting ready to get their feet wet in the educational pool. This simple learning process will make this much needed information go smoothly for children and their parents.

Once your children learn their ABC’s a fun way to continue their learning is to teach them their ABC’s backwards. Have you ever been asked to recite your ABC’s backwards? It’s a struggle for anyone who has never been taught how to do it. But wouldn’t it be a sight if you answered, “no, but my kids can. And when your kids step up to show off their talent they will be endowed with cheers from onlookers.

Here are some tips to help you teach your preschooler their ABC’s and your older children their ABC’s backwards. Have fun!

Preschool
Music, rhythm and rhyme are how most preschoolers learn. The repetition of lyrics and melodies are enticing to young children and this is excitement for them. Kindergarteners alone spend three hours a day learning through song or poems. This enables children to learn the concept of their ABC’s, numbers, phonics, characterization and a variety of other important conceptual strings quicker, easier and with better understanding.

Therefore, using the basic ABC song is the first step for preschoolers to learn their ABC’s. Sing the ABC’s regularly, as often as you can. In the car, while you’re waiting somewhere, while your cooking dinner, etc. There are a number of ample opportunities to sing praise to this delightful song, which they will learn in Kindergarten anyway, but you can have them a step ahead of their class.

Helping them to recognize them could pose more of a challenge. One method could be to be funny, have fun or be silly. I mention this a lot because preschoolers (or any child for that matter) is more apt to retain information if they are having fun. Parents can use flash cards for starters and while they are going over each letter make a fun sentence or word to associate with let’s say, A. “Like A is an aardvark who likes to fart. Don’t get me wrong as silly as it sounds, your children will laugh with pure delight and will retain that letter in their little mind, works every time.

You can also purchase fun ABC’s materials, such as the ABC refrigerator magnets that can be stuck on the refrigerator and played with together.

Main points to address:

• Use flash cards regularly.
• Have fun.
• Take every opportunity to sing the ABC song.
• Purchase fun materials to incorporate the ABC’s.

Grades K-3rd
Once children know their ABC’s exceptionally well, you can put a twist on this basic song by teaching your children their ABC’s backwards. This is always a fun thing to know, how many people in the world actually can recite their ABC’s backwards? It’s not that it’s needed for any particular reason, but it is a great trick to know. You’re kids will enjoy being the only one around who can do this.

Start with the basic rhythm of the ABC song, just do it backwards

ZYXWVUT…SRQPONMLK…JIH…GFE…D…C…B and A

It sounds simple enough, but when your children are masters of the ABC’s this might seem awkward and strange at first. But they will get use to this and learn just as quickly as they learned their ABC’s. Just be patient with your child’s learning process.

Main points to address:

• Use the same ABC song (the rhythm and rhyme of it), but do it backwards.
• Be patient with your child’s learning process.

Resources
Resources that can help you in your venture include:

• ABC Teach – http://www.abcteach.com
• Alphabet Flash Cards – http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/alphabet.html
• DLTK Alphabuddies – http://www.dltk-teach.com
• ESL Kidstuff – http://www.eslkidstuff.com/
• ED Helper – http://www.edhelper.com
• Jump Start – http://www.jstart.org

Posted in Education.

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