We've started on the Alphabet D the past week and this week I'll revise all the alphabets from A to D with Tim... I haven't been drilling him hard to make him rote learn the alphabets thus far... my aim is to just expose him to the alphabets and the things/objects that begins with the various alphabets...not to force him to remember and/or recognize them all at this time.
Have been reading the Three Rs by Ruth Beechick
, she advocates that there's no necessity to burden the child at the beginning with learning the names of 26 letters...instead we should start by teaching the forms of the letters and their sounds; for we don't need to know the names of letters in order to read... to read cat or dog, we must know the sound of each letter but we do not need to know its name by teaching the forms and sounds of the letters we would have bypass learning the alphabet and learning the letter names and move directly to the skill needed in sounding out words... makes a lot of sense huh?So what have we done for alphabet D? I've change the format of presentation to Tim this time... to help keep him and myself interested... *grin*... We didn't do lapbook but instead, I did a mini tag book... flashcard style. Listing the words and the pictures that correspond with the words and allowing him to flip through it as and when he likes.
We even brought this little tag book whenever we are out of the house... I like it that it's small and handy and Tim's little hands could handle it with ease. We could look at the pictures & words whenever we come across items that he could associate with in real...eg. when we see a dustbin at the void deck, I'll whip out the tag book and describe to him between the real dustbin and that which is in the tag book.
The tag book is the size of a regular name card. I have the individual name/picture laminated so that it doesn't wear out fast due to rough handling by a toddler. Tim likes the tag book a lot... so I plan to do up a few other tag books for alphabet A-C.
The pictures of the tag book were all downloaded from the internet, just do a google search of the picture of the item you want, you'll get loads of different pictures to choose from.
I have also found a great mini book from here on the alphabet D. It's great to print it out and read it to the little one as the rhythm and rhyme of the words give emphasis on the alphabet D in a fun way that will captivate the little one's attention.The crafts I did with Tim, was rather simple, knowing that he is interested in pasting I replicated one of the crafts in which I've used in the alphabet B ie. pasting of dots onto a huge letter D. Another craft I did with Tim was simply to match the names of the animals to the picture and paste them accordingly (of course I pointed out to him which was the correct place to paste the pictures *smile*) There are two parts to this craft, it's a combination of Part 1 and Part 2. I've maintained the learning of how to write the alphabet D using the felt letter.
In addition, I read to him various books and have pointed out to him as and when we come across a picture or a word that begins with the alphabet D to reinforce what we have been learning this week.
Alrighty, that's all for this week. Till the next update, have fun!
