Learning/teaching help

[bliz1712]

I've come to the realization that I'm struggling in teaching Hanna letters and numbers.  To kill time in the car I tried to get her to count to 10 and she couldn't do it unless I said the number first.  So basically she's just repeating me.  I'm not kidding, she said 1 and then went to 18, then guessed 19, and then guessed 5.  So I dropped it to 5 and she wouldn't do it either.  I've already known she struggles with speech (specifically sp, ch, sh, and the letter f ) and sometimes she still mixes up her colors.  I honestly don't think she was doing it just to be a stinker, but I know she does it with colors sometimes.  I also know she doesn't know a lot of letters.  EX. she really only can recognize the letter H in her name.

So spam me with your learning activities or suggestions for what I can get to help us.  I have the magnetic leap frog letter thing for the fridge, but we don't really play with it together.  And a few other alphabet toys.  Are there specific activities or learning tools I could buy to help us?  I'm beginning to worry that she won't be ready when it's time for Kindergarten.  And this is when I wish we had daycare centers in our area so they would have structured learning/playing.  I know at DC they don't specifically teach anything.

[roo1582]

Kayleigh has learned a lot in daycare, but we also got her this workbook (link)link and another one that is capital letters. We don't push it on her, but she's looking to do it a couple times a week. While they learn to write the numbers/letters, it also tells you to repeat the number/letter each time they write it.

We also randomly ask her to tell us what a letter/number is when we are out, like on a menu, placemat, sign, etc. I know it sounds like testing, but she thinks its a game. We also have a regular wall clock that she likes to look at and count.

[somethingcleverer]

I've done a Pinterest activity for sight words that could work for letters and numbers. Basically you just write the letter on a post it and stick them to a table. Then give her a pointer (we used a clean fly swatter which Shane loved) and have her swat the letter you call out. Or you can have her call out the letters she knows before she swats them. It was a lot of fun.

[jennmm]

Our daycare does tracing worksheets for letter and numbers. You can probably print something similar online. Also, Anna loves flashcards.

[barefoot84]

Tumaini loves to press the buttons on the microwave. Instead of one minute, we'll do 58 seconds for example, so she has to find the 5 and the 8.

Also she loves to play "hide and seek", so she gets to count and hear us count.

[junkytrunk]

We have an alphabet train puzzle that he loved and really helped him perfect the alphabet. He also has one with numbers.

You could maybe try using coins, if she's into money.

[xanthepants]

Target had a lot of $1 learning books on numbers and letters in its dollar spot so I picked those up as a prize and give those to her in restaurants as busy books instead of coloring books. We do about 20 minutes on Fridays a couple times a day too. We practice counting in the car a lot on the way to places, just over and over. Cosette still has trouble once in a while with the high teens, so don't beat yourself up! Just keep at it. Michael's I noticed also has a great selection of phonics and number books too. Even walgreens had a couple of my little pony or others once in a while. I nab them when I see them. Target also has flash cards.
You could play a game, collect 5 stuffed animals in the house, now copy this 5 on a sheet of paper. Clap 5 times. Now let's do 6. Grab 6 dolls. Print the number 6 times. Jump up and down 6 times. Make it a goofy game.

[starfishy]

Tommy's daycare does sign language with the letters which he loves!
We also used to have the bath letters and numbers and he liked those too. We could "fish" for letters in the water.
Another one is getting mail- Tommy loves to get mail. You could put an envelope in the mailbox and have her read her "letter."
And Tommy loves Legos and I went on Pinterest and found a person that made letters out of Legos and you had to copy them. So it helped with colors and letters.

[summergirl1211]

Flashcards are great, or else magnetic numbers/letters for the frig? What about the foam letters and numbers that you can use in the tub? Riley also loves her tracing book (we got her a wipe clean activity book from Amazon), which helps with her penmanship and sight/sound. Hang in there girl. She'll get it. Riley still mixes up colors and doesn't recognize all of her numbers/letters by a long shot. She'll be just fine!

[trixi282]

In terms of counting I always started easy with a few toys or items, and I would say "how many are there? And she would count them, we've been doing that for a long time. We have a lot of books about counting/numbers. One thing we got for her stocking this year (could be good for easter basket) is a Go Fish game that has fish/water animals on it with the numbers written out so she could start recognizing numbers 1-4 at least... but we use regular cards sometimes to that helps her count to 10., and recognize the numbers 1-10.

she loves playing slap jack and other easy card games, so sometimes when I play slap jack with her, I'll make it a number game too. Instead of just flipping cards, I'll say, "what number is that?" and if she doesn't remember or is struggling, we'll pause and count the hearts/spades, etc. She does get frustrated sometimes and then we move on and stop doing numbers, but then I'll start again on easy ones I know she's good wih.

She and Daddy used to sit down each night after brushing teeth, before bed, and count pennies to put in her bank. He would grab a small handful from a baggie we had and they would count them. Then he'd say "If I take away X, how many are left?" and she's starting to get good with low numbers. Like 4, take away 2, and she knows there's 2 left. But they'll count a few, then more and make a game out of putting some in the bank and counting the remaining.



With letters, she just loves to trace. I can use a white board and "dot' letters all day long and she'll trace things. So I'll write her name, Mommy, daddy, Emme, Toy, Box, Dog, etc. And she LOVES to trace words. It started over the summer with just letters, one at a time, and I would dot it while she watched and I would say it, then she would trace it and We'd say it again and use it in a word and then erase it and start over. Fun her for, plus some good one on one time together.

[trixi282]

She also does worksheets at daycare now too - which she likes and gets really proud of sometimes. Especially when she remembers the letter on the sheet and tells me "This is a X - Xylophone!" (mainly because it has a picture of a xylophone on the sheet)

[lainikins]

When Emmett was first learning his letters we would play with the multi color foam letters on the ground. I would put out only a few and make a game of finding the right letter. I would pair the color and letter name or letter sound so that there was more than one attribute to help him be successful. We also read a lot of alphabet books. He loves Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Dr. Suess's ABC, and Curious George Learns the Alphabet (this one is really long, so it gets "lost" from time to time). He also spends a lot of time on his tablet playing various alphabet games.

For numbers, we count things a lot. We count together to start, then after he started getting it I would tell him he could have x number of something and he would count it. Then we worked on recognizing the numbers in much the same ways as letters. There are tons of counting books out there that show the number and the pictures to count.

When we are out and about we talk about letters and numbers that we see. Abcya.com also has a bunch of games that we play together and talk about.

From my background in early literacy and reading disabilities, I recommend making sure you focus on lowercase letters more than uppercase letters (think of how much more common lowercase letters are than uppercase). Also letter sound is more important than letter name. Focus on just the most common letter sound, the short vowels in particular. I know this goes against what is traditionally taught to kids, but it is researched based best practices.

She will pick it up. It is all about repetition.

[mommymadness]

I would agree with many others. Try and work numbers and letters into every day conversations. Like auntie is coming over! Aaaantie, hmm I wonder what letter auntie starts with? Do you know? If not give hints, it is the first letting in the alphabet. It is the same letter that Apple starts with. It makes this sound, aaaa.
I wouldn't worry about it at this point though. Kindergarten is where they learn this stuff! The first half of the year really focuses on letter names and sounds and numbers to 10.

[britbratjf]

The letters D knows have come from Endless ABCs on the iPad & the show Super Why (Netflix)....

We do a lot of counting objects together bc D struggles with correlating numbers to objects. So a lot of how many bears do you have, how many toes does the baby have, etc. I don't think she can count past 20 yet and sometimes she skips some higher numbers. Also, even though she knows her numbers she can't tell me "what's next" if I ask her that.