If you’re worried your preschooler needs more letter work, first take a deep breath and try to relax. There are so many resources available to you, and you can easily help your child without spending a ton of time prepping activities or spending a lot of money. All you really need is consistency.

As our youngest approached the four and ½ year mark, I started to become worried that he didn’t know enough letters. He’s still struggling with pencil grip, so I didn’t want his letter practice to involve a lot of writing.

So… where to start? Find out what he knows.

First, I wanted to know exactly which letters he did and didn’t know. I printed out an alphabet tracking sheet, and when he was calm and focused, he told me each letter. I wrote down the date and marked the top left corner of each letter with what he said. For example, if he said, “C” for the S block, then I wrote C in the top left corner.

I checked in with him about 2 months later to see the progress he’s made. I again wrote the date and recorded the letter he said next to the one I previously wrote. This gives me a clear picture of his improvement and what he still needs to work on.

This is the tracking sheet I use.

I know this seems like an extra and unnecessary step but tracking your child’s progress is a really great tool. It lets you know which letters to work on, the progress you’ve made, and any problem areas. If you aren’t making any progress, then you know to check in with your child’s teacher or doctor. If you are making progress, you can look at the chart and have proof, which will ease your heart and encourage you to keep working!

Ok, so now you know which letters your child doesn’t know, and you need a plan of attack. There is a lot of conflicting data out there about how to teach letters. I’ve read a lot about it… and decided to look at all the letters all the time, AND focus on one per week. That sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not!

Here are some ideas we use to look at all letters and focus on one at a time:

** For all things on this list, think carefully about how clearly you write the letters and which font you chose if you print them out or buy a product. The simpler and clearer the better!

• Point out letters in everyday life: as you read, on your coffee cup, on the puzzle box, on highway signs, etc.

• Family names make it relevant: write all the first and last names of your family members on a piece of paper. Put it in a sheet protector and tape it to the table for the next few weeks. Each day, work with these names in some way-  go through each name and look for (touch) the letter of the week, spell his name, explore the letters (Danny is so close to Daddy, or Mom and Maria both start with M, or we all have an “e” in our names, or I have 3 letters in my name and you have 5… whatever direction your child wants to go, but he may need some modeling to start).

• Placement: put your letter of the week in several places: on the sink counter where your child brushes his teeth, on the wall at the top of the stairs, on the car door near the car seat, on his seat at the table, etc. Each time you see it, have your child touch the letter and say it.

• Use food: buy alphabet food such as pasta, soups, cereal, and snacks. Point out letter sounds as you eat, such as C is for carrot. Get creative… write letters on your bananas, make letter pancakes, open the Oreos and scrape out letters in the frosting, spread peanut butter on a plate in the shape of a letter and use apples to scoop it up.

• Use sensory activities as much as possible

  • Put salt in a tray (make sure he doesn’t have any paper cuts). Shaving cream, sand, or rice work, too!

  • Use dollar store bendable hair curlers to bend into letter shapes

  • Form a pile of mini chocolate chips (or cheerios) into letters. He can eat them after making 10 letters

  • Bring a tray of snow inside and form snow letter mountains

  • Write letters on his cars, or dinos, or whatever he’s into with washable markers and do a car wash in the kitchen sink

  • Bring the floating foam letters into the bathtub

  • Have him scoop letters out of a bowl of rice or corn kernels

  • Use wikki sticks

  • Write the letter (backwards!) on the non-sticky side of clear contact paper, peel off the paper, tape it to a wall or table, and have him stick pom-poms (or anything, really) on your line. Or write a whole bunch of different letters and have him cover only the Bs, then only the Ss, etc.

  • These ideas are the ones we do, but there are thousands of other ideas on pinterest! You can see my board here!

• Use kinesthetic learning:  

  • Tape the letter to a wall. Have your child stand across the room. As you yell out the letter, he should run to the letter and slap it, then run back. You can extend this activity by including 3 letters he knows well and 2 he’s working on.

  • Scatter letters around the floor and jump from one to the other as you say them together

  • Create a huge letter out of masking tape on the floor. Walk along it, hop it, drive cars on it, then have your child rip it up

  • Have your child stand on the sofa or a step. Tell him he can jump when he hears the letter of the week. Slowly say the alphabet and if he doesn’t jump at the right letter, remind him.

  • Take a walk around the neighborhood and find all the letters you can as you walk (license plates, street signs, etc.)

  • Use whatever your child is into to incorporate into a game: Hulk can smash the pillow when he hears the letter of the week; zoom your car across the table so it falls off when you hear the letter; assemble a lego minifigure piece by piece when you hear the letter; line your animals up to make the letter… again, endless possibilities.

• Use games you already have: create an alphabet flip game with a Guess Who game board, or write the letters on a Jenga game, or use post it notes on your candy land game

• Copy magnetic letters and let him match the magnets to the copied sheet of paper

• Buy an alphabet puzzle

• Invest in an alphabet construction set and practice making different letters and spelling names

• Make up stories about letters. Danny was confusing M and W, and he likes Ninjago, so we made a story where M was in the dojo while practicing spinjitsu and got turned upside into a W.  

• Grab your dotters and print out these fantastic worksheets

• Link sounds & letters: “Tonight we’re having tacos. T-T-T-Tacos. I wonder what letter Taco starts with?” 

• Use flash cards (this is my LEAST favorite way to teach a preschooler letters!)

Sound & Motion

If your child is stuck on a few letters, incorporating sound and motion could help. There are lots of resources and videos available online when you search “sounds in motion” (use an S at the end of sounds).  It seems that each teacher who uses this method makes up her own sound/motion combination, so you could make up yours as well.  Danny is stuck on the letters C and S. He is continually mixing them up, so now when we see S, we run a finger down his arm and make the “ssss” sound. When we see the C, we pretend to hold a cup up to our mouth and make the hard c sound.  This technique was first introduced to me by our oldest son’s speech therapists when he was two and attended an oral school for the deaf. It really helped him learn his letter/sound combinations, and we are even using this method today with him (age 9) because he mixes up his written lower-case d and b.

Sound and Rhythm

We also used sound and rhythm to help Danny spell his name. He was constantly saying, “D-N-N-Y”. So I started spelling his name like this: D (normal voice), AAAAA (long and loud), N (normal voice), N (normal voice), Y (normal voice). You could use this trick if your child is skipping letters in the alphabet, her name, or mixing up letters. Say O and Q are confusing, you could consistently say the O in a whisper and the Q loudly!

The best advice I can give you is to know in your heart that the letters will come. Your child (and mine!) will eventually learn all the letters and will learn to read!

The worst things you can do are compare your child to another and make your child feel dumb. He is working as fast as he can. Patience, fun and lots of positive reinforcement will make your child want to keep working at letters. Frustration, anger, comparisons, and shaming will make him want to shut down. Watch your words… my heartbreaking realization about the power of words has made me so careful about what I say. Keep it fun. Keep it positive. And keep at it!

Some products we use:

Magnetic letters – I’ve had our letters forever and don’t know where they’re from. Be careful when selecting a set. Check out the font carefully and choose something simple.

Alphabet flash cards – I bought them at Walmart, and they work, but they are double sided, and I would rather have only one letter per side.

Bathtub letters

Alphabet cut out letters (like for a bulletin board). Again, check the font and don’t choose anything too fancy. These are great for taping around the house, putting in a rice bowl, or for a matching game.

Do-A-Dot Dotters

Wikki-Stick Alphapbet cards & wikki sticks

Learning Resources Letter Construction Set

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Puzzle

Two other good resources I like:

https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/7-mistakes-avoid-teaching-alphabet-preschooler.html

https://www.themeasuredmom.com/teaching-the-alphabet-to-preschoolers-why-and-how/