For Parents of Preschoolers

DEAR PARENTS OF PRESCHOOLERS,

TEACHING PRESCHOOLERS TO WRITE THEIR NAME IN CAPITAL LETTERS, AND THEN TEACHING THEM THE ALPHABET WITH ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS, IS ACTUALLY A BAD IDEA.

I UNDERSTND THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO GIVE YOUR CHILD A GOOD HEAD START, BUT YOU ARE NOT REALLY HELPING YOUR CHILD WHEN YOU DO THIS.

DO YOU REALIZE HOW PERPLEXING IT IS TO CHILDREN WHEN THEY ENTER KINDERGARTEN OR FIRST GRADE, THINKING THEY KNOW THE ALPHABET, ONLY TO FIND OUT THEY DO NOT KNOW THEIR LETTERS?

THEY FEEL CONFUSED AND STUPID.

Besides that, it is very difficult to read in all capital letters, don’t you see?

If you want to teach them their names and the letters of the alphabet, use lower case first. Most of what we read is lower case. After they learn lower case letters very well, you can play matching games with lower case + upper case letters, a few capital letters at a time.—

After they know lower case letters, you can introduce a few capital letters at a time–then, and only then.

This will help your child learn to read faster and more easily, and his or her psyche will not be overwhelmed by feelings of insecurity.

When we know better, we do better.

Sincerely,

Reading Spotlight

For another important idea that will help your child learn to read more quickly and easily, see my previous post:

The Importance of Nursery Rhymes

You also might be interested in these FREE resources:

Parent Guide to Kindergarten Readiness

Parent Self-Evaluation Test

Also helpful is this enjoyable Bingo game for beginning and ending consonants:

Best Bingo: Beginning & Ending Consonants