Excited to Learn

Parker is so interested in letters and numbers. Most kids his age are really into dinosaurs, trucks or transformers, but given the choice, he will almost always choose letters and numbers. Yes, I was an elementary school teacher for five years, but no, I can't take credit for his learning. He is super-motivated and is always asking to read, write or play with letters and numbers.

Recently he has been writing all of the them on his Doodle-Pro, so I told him I'd get him so worksheets to practice. It keeps him busy for hours just writing away. I keep an eye on him so that he knows the basics of how to write. Getting children to change their ways was no easy task as a teacher. Don't force it, but if you can get them to hold their pencil correctly and write top to bottom and left to right, then do it. It will make writing so much easier for them in the long run.

Because I did teach elementary, I do know a few tools to help Parker in his learning. Here's a few tips and resources if you also have kids on the brink of learning to read.

1. Be sure to teach your child the lowercase letters. Most words are written that way, so help them become very familiar with it.

2. Be sure to teach the sounds of the letters. With vowels teach the short sounds. If there is both a hard and soft sound, do the hard (c = cat, not city and g = grapes, not giraffe)

3.Most schools use Zaner-Bloser font (manuscript and cursive), so if that's an option, choose it. You can easily make your own printable worksheets at ZB Online and alphabet practice worksheets at abc teach. There is actually a lot available on the web if you just search for Zaner-Bloser.

4. If you want to teach a child to sound out words, there are some great Youtube videos that demonstrate about the same way I did as a first grade teacher. Here is an example from Expert Village. Start with CVC words, or consonant-vowel-consonant, like cat.

5. Make sure to make reading and writing fun! Don't force your child to practice if they aren't interested. You can encourage them with alphabet puzzles, letter magnets or fun videos like Leapfrog Letter Factory.

Parker knowing all of his letter names and sounds at three years old is certainly the exception and not the rule. I had some first graders who were still working on that, so don't worry at all if your child isn't interested or hasn't learned it yet. They will likely get more interested as they get older and more of their peers are learning to read.