Practical Parenting Tips On Teaching ABC

You know, as much as possible I make our own ABC.. why? aside from I enjoy doing it, most ABCs that can be bought is not good for me..

Take for example alphabet chart with Ice cream on letter I.. in basic phonics, it’s the short I first, only later that the long I sound is taught.. so how can you explain an Ice cream on your alphabet chart?

Another thing, some words on most Alphabet Chart are too complicatd for the kids.. you know like Xylophone or Monkey or elephant.. there’s just too many letter on it.

I want my ABCD chart to be simple, with images/ things that my kids can easily recognize and a chart that I can use while I teach phonics to them.. and that’s why I make my own ABCD..

Actually a few years back, my only requirement for creating ABCD is that the images/ photos is simple enough or that they can easily recognize it. I made an ABCD where the V was represented by VICKS! that’s the only word/ thing I can think of that my boys would recognize.

Here’s a sample of what I did a few years back (Ondoy‘s not familiar with the alphabet yet so he took this chart hehe).

Now that I will be seriously teaching Chico and Sati.. might as well make an ABCD chart that will also be helpful not only in alphabet recognition but as well as phonics.

And so far, here’s what I got:

Ant for A.. which I still have to figure out how to draw a rally nice ant. I can’t use APPLE, though easier to draw, it will be harder for them to read when we start phonics. Ant is the best word I can think of.. if you know an A word that’s very basic in terms of phonics, let me know.

Bed for B (or bag or bus) these words are very basic.. it would be very easy to use it when we start learning the middle sound, the beginning sound and the end sound.

Car is for C, Dog is for D (duck is easier to draw but that would be harder for me to explain why there is a c and a k there), Egg is for E (I find this one a bit challenging as egg though easy to draw, hard in terms of giving life to it).

Fan for F, Gem for G (it took me an hour or two to find an easy and basic word for G, I’m not yet satisfied with Gem, so if you one, again hit the comment button). Hat for H, Ink for I (another case like A and E), Jar for J, Kit for K (here’s another one, I’m still looking for the best K 3 letter word, know one?). Log for L, Mop for M, Net for N, Oven for O, Pen for P, Quarter for Q, Run for R (I want to avoid action words but I can’t find a word for R). Sun for S, Ten for T, Up for U, Van for V, Watermelon for W (though I want to limit my words with 3-4 letter words, I just can’t find a word for W that will be easy for phonics). Xray for X, Yoyo for Y and Zip for Z.

So there.. it took me a whole day to fill it up, maybe next week I can finish making the alphabet and will show it to you.

Now for our Practical Parenting Tip on Teaching ABC or the Alphabet, here’s what I have learned so far..

• Charts do half of the job. If you can place alphabet posters/charts on your house, do so. If you can’t make a personalized alphabet chart, choose a chart where the objects are familiar.
• Start it by teaching them the objects, since they are familiar with some, it would not be that hard.
• When they are ready to learn the alphabet, they will start questioning you.. and you can teach them slowly by asking the letter of the objects that they are more familiar, like ask them where is letter A (with emphasis on LETTER) and give a hint by saying that it can be found next to Apple (if that’s the object in your chart).
• Don’t force your child. A two year old baby who knows the alphabet is cool but a 3 year old or even a 4 year who does not know the alphabet is normal. Don’t worry too much, they will be the one to say that they are ready. Of course early exposure can be helpful (you can start posting charts as early as your child starts to see, like 3  or 4 months…don’t put it up early as it can confuse your baby’s developing eyesight)
• Recite the alphabet everyday and let your child recite with you. Music is very helpful too, so if you have educational CD’s let them hear it.