How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

He knows and says all his capital letters but gets confused with little letters. Are there any tricks? I started calling them 'little letters'. (ie: E='E', but e='little e') Is this a good idea?

Are there special ways to teach him, or special toys? I think he's too young to start tracing them. Also, any tricks to teaching short words, other than by memory? Should he be sounding out letters more? I knew I should've paid more attention in English.

TIA!!!!

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Kelly, I have the big ABC book by Dr. Suess. The first page is Big A, little a, what begins with A? Aunt Annie's alligator AaA. It then proceeds through the entire alphabet. I read it to DD once a week or so. She has other books she likes better.

We also have a full set of fridge magnets that includes capital and lowercase letters, and sponge letters for the baathtub that are all upper case. I use the bathtub letters to spell words that she knows and uses like "up".

But, DD is younger than Michael, and she doesn't know the alphabet yet.

Message edited 6/11/2009 1:09:43 PM.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

We're having the same issue.

He's good with the ones that look the same in upper or lower case (o, u, w, x, etc.)

But the other ones are hard for him to get.

I've started doing the same thing - there's a big E and little e and we point them out when we see them.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

wait, seriously? how old is he? Madison is almost 2 and doesn't know any letters! I better get going...

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by johnsae

wait, seriously? how old is he? Madison is almost 2 and doesn't know any letters! I better get going...

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by johnsae

wait, seriously? how old is he? Madison is almost 2 and doesn't know any letters! I better get going...

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

We are actually working on this now. I have the Dr. Suess book and DS LOVES IT but, there is too much going on there I think to start with. I like the Melissa and Doug puzzles - they have just the capital letters and ones with both. Right now we are just focusing on the capitals so those are the ones we have. DS points out and says most of the letters and we have only been doing this for like a week - I got the puzzle when I realized he was pointing out letters on his alphabet mat and he knows the numbers 1-10.

The thing is, this is ALL memorization - I am almost positive he doesn't understand the concept of letters beyond that they are the alphabet, make up words and are part of his song he sings. Like i don't think he understands the letter "E" starts elephant although if I taught it to him he could memorize it. Like he can spell or recognize his name (out loud not writing it) but, I really don't think he "gets" it - he just memorizes it.

I guess my point is - i think our DS's are around the same age and at least for my DS it is all memorization at this point so I am not really sure how to teach the concept of really reading and not just memorizing.

HTH!

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by johnsae

wait, seriously? how old is he? Madison is almost 2 and doesn't know any letters! I better get going...

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

dd does not know the letters by recognition yet, I just started working on these with her

what is the best way to do this? Flash cards? Just pointing letters out? Do you go in alphabetical order at first?

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Message edited 6/11/2009 2:17:33 PM.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by nbc188

Posted by Mikismom

dd does not know the letters by recognition yet, I just started working on these with her

what is the best way to do this? Flash cards? Just pointing letters out? Do you go in alphabetical order at first?

We have the Fridge Phonics thing, do you have that? It's awesome, comes with all the letters (capital letters), and says the letter and the sound it makes when you put it in the little slot.

We also have the bathtub letter things (super cheap, you can get them at Wal-Mart, etc) that we used out of the bathtub, she carries them around in a bucket.

ETA: We didn't go in alphabetical order when teaching, though she does know her ABCs (the song).

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

unless I find a lower case puzzle...this kid has zero interest.

the only reason he knows letters is because of that melissa and doug puzzle..

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by Mikismom

Posted by nbc188

Posted by Mikismom

dd does not know the letters by recognition yet, I just started working on these with her

what is the best way to do this? Flash cards? Just pointing letters out? Do you go in alphabetical order at first?

We have the Fridge Phonics thing, do you have that? It's awesome, comes with all the letters (capital letters), and says the letter and the sound it makes when you put it in the little slot.

We also have the bathtub letter things (super cheap, you can get them at Wal-Mart, etc) that we used out of the bathtub, she carries them around in a bucket.

ETA: We didn't go in alphabetical order when teaching, though she does know her ABCs (the song).

ooh, yeah, we have the fridge phonics, it is on her chalkboard in her room

she presses the button to hear the ABC song but I will work with her on playing with the letters. I will also pick up those foam letters

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by waterspout4

Posted by nbc188



Honestly, I haven't really "tried" teaching her the rest of the lower case letters...I will eventually.

It's not that I am trying, but he asks what they are. He opens books and asks. He asks when he sees them on food packages. He gets lost when I say it's a 'little e' because he knows that an 'E' looks like E. Believe me, I'm not pushing him. He's pushing me. I'm not ready. If he wants to learn about weather, I can teach that. This I am lost.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

funny...my kid HATES learning! always has. Even speech therapist confirmed we have to sneak it in.

He would not know colors if it wasn't for red stop signs, green peppers, yellow school buses, blue ball....

the only way he will pay attention to numbers is with a puzzle or on people's mailboxes.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

We used the fridge letters and the LF fridge radio with Nate. He didn't start know lower vs capital letters until after he was 3yrs old.

Jay is 27 months and is just starting to recognize the letters. We haven't started working on lower vs capital yet.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

I don't verbally differentiate between capital and lowercase. I just call them both "A" (or whatever the letter is). Capitals are definitely easier to discriminate and it's totally 'normal' to know them well before lowercase letters.

FYI, I'm not even sure how DD learned all her letters (she knew them around 19 mos). I think just experiential learning and curiosity. Oh, I did give my nanny a set of flashcards to use w/ her so I'm sure that helped (I totally forgot about that till now! ) - maybe I should whip those out to work on lowercase letters!

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Ryan has known all of the letters for at least a year now, but he is just now recognizing lowercase letters. He LOVES letters and asks me how to spell things all the time.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Uhhh no. I am just trying to get him to recite his ABCs in the proper order. He does not like to sing the alphabet song. If I ask him to show me where a letter is on a page he can mostly do it, but saying them, not as much. He has a great vocabulary though.

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

Posted by Diana1215

Posted by johnsae

wait, seriously? how old is he? Madison is almost 2 and doesn't know any letters! I better get going...

I was thinking the same thing. Jack and Madison can be late bloomers in the alphabet department!

Re: How have you taught little letters, vs capital letters

wow, guess i should start doing letters too!

i found this...linky