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The most frustrating and wonderful constant about teaching is the vast inconsistency in learning styles. Even within our own family homeschool, my children have polar opposite needs. Teaching the alphabet is no exception.
Squeaks took to reading like a homeschool mom to leggings. It was comfortable and easy for her. Not without it’s challenges, but she has thus far overcome her reading hurdles through earnest practice. Her curiosity is a driving factor. She finds great joy in cracking the next word like a hidden code and will even read signs as we’re driving (the excitement over reading FedEx on the side of a truck was palpable). It was this way from the beginning. The alphabet song was her jam.
Little Dude was built for numbers. An engineer in the making, he has never met a Lego kit he couldn’t build and loves to disassemble anything and everything he can get his hands on just to see how it works (we’re working on the reassembling part). But when it comes to the alphabet, you’d swear he was allergic. Practically ran from the room when I asked “What sound does A make?”.
Teaching the alphabet was an up-hill battle.
Even so, we gently and slowly started working our way through my Preschool Journal last September after he turned five. I saw a little more interest after he started to gain confidence, and adding activities here and there from our Busy Binders also helped. There were still quite a few days though where it was obvious that he couldn’t care less what sound went with what letter. If he isn’t in the mood, it just ain’t happenin’ (five years old- need I say more?). But a few months ago, he leveled up in his ABC game.
I had seen a few homeschoolers in my Instagram community share a curriculum called ABC See, Hear, Do. I filed it away in my mind as yet another option, but as we all know the options can sometimes feel endless. Then I started to see it more consistently, and when I looked into it, the astonishingly low price got me. What could we lose? Less than $15 for the first book and there were no worksheets involved (since we were continuing with my Preschool Journal I didn’t want to add more bookwork). Add to cart!
ABC See Hear Do has made such a difference!
We’re about three months in and the difference in his interest and confidence is so fun to watch! We sit down with our Preschool Journal (a page-a-day gentle introduction to basic Preschool principles), then we find the corresponding letter, stand up, and MOVE along with the hand motions in ABC See, Hear, Do. I can’t tell you what a difference that bit of movement has made in cementing the letters and their sounds for my sweet boy.
The book is fully open and go, no prep. So convenient! It’s colorful but not in a distracting way. Each letter in accompanied by a cute animal, sound, and hand motion. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic; it checks so many boxes for different learning styles. It’s been the perfect companion to our preschool routine.
The letters don’t go in alphabetical order through the book, and instead are arranged in a way that makes sounding out a full word possible after learning just a few letters. Such a huge confidence boost! Each page is laid out simply with the letter at the top and an animal to represent the letter (ant for a, bear for b, and so on). The hand motion seems to be where the magic is for Little Dude though. Connecting movement to the letter sound has been so helpful. In fact he recognizes most letters by their sounds first now. A skill that has made blending sounds together a much smoother process.
The combination of my Preschool Journal with these books has made teaching the alphabet so much fun! Little Dude’s learning style is not like mine, so finally finding a tool that both of us enjoy has taken so much weight off. In the end, we all logically know our children won’t head off into adulthood not knowing their ABCs, but this doesn’t stop us from wondering how long it might take to click. I am so thankful for the peace these books have brought to our learning journey.
Get your Preschool Journal Printable here!
Get your Kindergarten Printable Busy Binder Starter Kit here!
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