Teaching your Kiddo the Alphabet: #Alphabet Hunt

My sister-in-law is a stay at home mom with a three year old. She's working on teaching him is alphabet, so she came to me for guidance on what in the world to teach and how to teach it. For you moms who have NO CLUE what you're doing, here are some tips: Take is slow. Keep it simple. Be prepared for this adventure to last a loooooong time. :)

Learning the alphabet is HARD WORK! At 3 years old, you have NO concept of a little picture on paper representing a SOUND, that blended with other sounds make a WORD, which is yet another little picture that represents a THING or CONCEPT, which strung together with other words... you get the idea. It's a huge, abstract world - the English language - and it's gonna take your little one a while to catch on. So when you've mastered A, B, and C and you suddenly hit a wall and D seems impossible, don't freak out. Your kid is normal. ;)

Anyway. I suggest learning one letter at a time and practicing it until it's pretty well mastered. If you start with A, it will probably only take a day. Then when you add in B, you may be able to master that {plus differentiating between A & B} in just one more day. But once you get started with more than two letters, you'll want to have lots of review time and take it slow!

Here is on idea I suggested to Brittany:

{Letter Hunt Game}

You'll need:
- Several different "sets" of the alphabet: {Flashcards}, Magnets, Large Beads, Alphabet books, etc.
- A toy telescope or magnifying glass. You can make this out of rolled up construction paper.
- Some fun music
- A lot of cheesy energy

On day 1, you'll JUST put your As around the room. For example, magnets on the fridge, letters written in dry erase on the window, beads on the table, flash cards on the floor, etc But ONLY the letter A. You'll challenge your kiddo to find the letter A. Then you'll go on a "hunt" around the room, using your telescope, of course, and find As. When he finds them, make a HUGE SILLY DEAL out of it! YAAAY!!! Review what the letter is, and pretend that finding that letter is the most exciting thing that's happened all day. Then keep looking for more! :)

As you master the letters, you'll add more in. So maybe A-F will be out, but you'll still look for just one letter at a time: "Let's hunt the Es!"

Brittany said Eli had a BLAST with this game. :)

I hope you're little one enjoys this game! And make sure to check back for more ideas! :)