LEARNING LETTERS WITH LITTLE ONES. GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

Babies at the age of 1.5 to 2 years, even if they cannot speak yet, are quite capable of remembering all the letters. But they need to learn correctly, or rather, they should play. Little children cannot be taught like in school; they should only play useful games. I want to offer you several very accessible ideas that will definitely help your little ones learn all the letters and never confuse them.

1. The simplest way is to write letters and show them to the child. And not just with a pencil on paper, but to get creative and do it in the most different ways to attract the child's attention. Write with chalk outside, write with a stick in the sand, with a water gun on the sidewalk, with markers and paints, pencils and pens, even with your finger in semolina, and you can also borrow shaving foam from dad "for temporary use" and beautifully decorate the table or linoleum with letters. Believe me, if you engage the child in learning letters in such funny ways, they will love them from early childhood. And a love for letters is the first step toward a love for words and books.

2. It’s no less engaging and useful to mold letters. From plasticine, clay, or even better, from salt dough. In general, modeling games greatly develop fine motor skills and the child's speech apparatus.

3. Is the child almost two? Then they will be interested in coloring letters. But not just coloring, while the little one still cannot draw only in the middle of the picture without going outside the lines. What to do? Very simple — cut out letters from paper or cardboard, and offer the child to color them, even with their fingers.

4. Collage is another form of children's creativity that simply fascinates kids from the age of two. Why not take advantage of this passion of the little ones and make collages in the shape of letters from grains, macaroni products, shells, pebbles, sand?!

5. The little one can also trace the outlines of the letters with their fingers. For this, you can purchase special alphabet books with various letter surfaces. If such an opportunity is not available, you can make such an alphabet yourself. Draw the letters and create different textures: one rough (for example, from semolina), another soft (some soft fabric), a third smooth, a fourth convex, velvety, prickly, made of foam, porous, etc. Textures can repeat, but the more variety, the more interesting it is for the child. After making all the letters, it’s best to glue them onto cardboard. When everything is ready, take the child's finger, trace the letter, and say the sound. It is very important to teach the child sounds, not just letters!!!

6. Do you have old and unnecessary magazines? Then take them out and play with cutouts. Choose together with the child the most beautiful letters, name them, and cut them out. You can also cut letters and form the word "mama", then "papa", and you can even make the child's name!!! Look at our magical letters!!!

7. There are currently a huge number of talking alphabets available. They are, of course, not quite suitable for teaching a child the alphabet; a child cannot learn it only with a poster or some other toy. The main reason is that they say letters (a, be, ve, etc.) instead of sounds. But for variety, they are quite suitable. You can name the sound, and the child will look for it on the poster and press it. And it will be very fun.

8. A not cheap option, but very effective — teaching children the alphabet, and subsequently reading using Zaitsev's method. First, you teach the vowels (these are the golden cubes). Then consonants are added, followed by syllables and reading. The set includes big and small cubes with syllables, tables, a disc with songs, and a guide for parents. If you have the opportunity, be sure to acquire his method. It costs about $100-110. It’s expensive, but it’s worth it. I bought such a set for my daughter; she happily writes her name, words like "mama", "papa", "baba", "ded", "dom", etc. And she is only 3. With these cubes, you can come up with a huge number of games. Probably, I will write a separate article about teaching children to read using Zaitsev's method since I got a little sidetracked from the topic ))

9. The computer is the most universal tool for teaching modern children. After all, clicking buttons on a computer is so interesting. Open the Word program, set the font to 60 and red color, click on a letter, and repeat it. Then let the child click by themselves, while you say what sound it is. This way, the little one will learn them very quickly.

10. Associations. Children aged 4-5 years are greatly helped by associations. The letter D looks like a house, C — like a crescent, O — round like a ring, E — looks like a ladder, Ё — with cones on its head, etc., you can find your own association for each letter.

11. Songs. Children remember songs very well. There are wonderful songs with the Russian alphabet, the same tunes from Zaitsev. Play the songs, sing along with the little one A, B, V, G, D, E, Ё, Zh, Z, I, IY, Ka, El, Em, En, O, Pe, Er, Es, Te, U, Ef, Ha, Tse, Che, Sha, Shcha, Ъ, Ы, Ь, E, Yu, Ya. Play them even just as background music. You won’t even notice how quickly the child memorizes the entire alphabet.