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“Come on, I know you know this one!!” I say super frustrated as I am holding up a flash card.
“NO!”, she screams at me and runs away.
Sigh….this is just not going as easily as it did for my older 2 kids. They loved learning. Being able to say the right answer made them motivated to learn and to learn quickly. This just isn’t the case for my daughter. It is like she doesn’t care which frustrates me to no end.
As you can see by this picture of our craft closet (here is my before and after of organizing it), my boys loved flash cards. They would even have contests on who could name all the letters the fastest. Now if I even grab one of these boxes of cards my daughter runs and hides.
I am slowly learning that she functions differently than I do. I am competitive and so are my 2 boys, so learning and knowing the correct answer is like winning to us. My daughter works a bit differently so I am having to find a new way to motivate her.
Here are 3 ways I am mixing things up.
- Alphabet Soup Sorters – My daughter loves to put items into little boxes and jam lots of toys in bags. She will love this toy because putting the items inside and closing the lid makes it a game.
- LeapFrog Letter Factory – My daughter loves to sing and the songs on this DVD are catchy. I have started having her watch this video instead of her regular 30 minute show.
- Teach Her to Write Words – The one thing that makes her excited about letters is copying her name. I write her name on a piece of paper and she will copy it below. I am going to start having her write cards for her dolls. It can say Happy Birthday or Get Well Soon, etc. I will tell her each letter as she copies it. This makes the learning activity into a craft which is more her speed. Sorta like hiding the veggies in the muffins, I am hiding the learning into the craft. So sneaky!! 😉
So far writing cards is working really well. As long as I make it all about the dolls she stays interested. We have also watched the Letter Factory and she liked it a lot. I’ll keep you updated on our results. I know we aren’t majorly behind but I like seeing a little excitement from her when it comes to learning her letters.
Do you have any suggestions for me? I am all ears when it comes to teaching her a love of learning!
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I absolutely loved flash cards when I was younger! Is it too early to do those activities where you trace a letter? I hope I am making sense lol Your kids are adorbs by the way 😀
Love,
Ivelisse | CarnationDreams.com
Thank you. You are right, tracing would probably be good too. She seems to need more tactile learning.
We love the Leap Frog series in our house. The songs are so cute, and they really help my boys learn. They actually like flash cards too, but also writing their names is very popular.
Four is still pretty young to be able to write them all. I am sure she will catch on eventually 🙂
It warms my heart to see how you were able to adjust to her learning style. I’m a former elementary teacher and principal. This is exactly how learning should look. Fantastic mom AND teacher!
I think you’re doing a great job with mixing it up. Anything done the same over and over will not be appealing to anyone, right? Your dedication is fab, lady! And your kids are adorable!
Karen | GlamKaren.com
Thank you so much. 🙂
I love the effort you’re putting in. Awesome parenting. We really take these things for granted but they are so important. I better remember this when I’m a parent hihi!
It’s great that you are so actively involved. My daughter didn’t have much of an interest for a long time, but loves reading now at 6.
Guess what? My 4yr old doesn’t know her letters either and I’m not too worried about it. She has a year before she starts school and she’ll get it eventually. Don’t push it. Each child learn at their own pace.
So glad to know there is someone else out there. If you have any favorite games with letters she likes please share. 🙂
Reading this warms my heart. My 4 year old son knows selective letters (those in his name) and a few others. I’ve started to panic as kindergarten is just one year away. By 4 my daughter was already reading…I just expected the same from him. Thanks so much for sharing.
You’re welcome. I feel the same way, a little embarrassed that she isn’t as fast as a learner as some but I am not figuring out that I need to change my ways of teaching her so maybe she will catch up. 🙂 I am sure your son will too. Let me know if you figure something out that works.
Still plenty of time to learn them! Learning is easier when it’s fun! My kids could recognize their letters early because we did the ABC flash cards during potty training. It was the repetition. Now they love letters and point them out wherever we go.
Signing Time had all of my kids knowing their letters pretty early, so you might want to give that a try too! I wouldn’t sweat it! One of mine was a super-early reader, but you know what? Now that he’s 10 it wouldn’t have mattered if he had read much, much later. Kids will do things when they are ready -especially if they have involved parents like you.
I have Signing Time DVDs. I’ll have to go find them. Great idea.
My kids love the LeapFrog letters! My kids learned a lot when they watched SuperWhy on PBS Kids – it may not be for everyone, but I definitely think there is something to be said for technology helping out!
I definitely think she is a technology girl. She loves music too so need to incorporate different things.
Have you tried the endless alphabet app? Endless alphabet and endless numbers were the two apps that taught my daughter her letters and numbers. Now she’s moved on to endless reader because she mastered letters and numbers!
I just downloaded the app and will try it tomorrow. Thanks!!
Hi love I don’t have children yet but I understand what you are going through because of my nieces and nephew. My niece learned her numbers and ABC’s when she was two years old and she talked so much sometimes I wish I had ear plugs lol.. not trying to be mean lol…My nephew didn’t speak at all util he was about 3 or 4 with the help of therapy because I told my sister he needed therapy because that wasn’t normal. The therapist told him it was trauma from the loss of his sister he was one year old when she died but he remembers because she was home and it was a sad moment for everyone. Something that helped a lot was games with letters and numbers he liked to play them and started leaning. Just find something she likes and make it educational that will help I hope.
Give us an update 🙂
Leslie xoxo
OMG…I am so sorry for the loss of your neice. Yes, kids can be so different. My boys both needed speech therapy but my daughter did not at all. 🙂 There is so much that I am finding that doesn’t work quite the same for her that it did for the boys in both good ways and bad.
Ahhh…the power of the dolls…that’s cool that you’ve found something that works. It is interesting how siblings have their own learning styles. My brother and I were night and day in the education department.
It took awhile for my young one to learn too, but every kid learns at their own pace. Be patient!
I think it is so great that you aren’t giving up. Finding other activities for her to do that are still educational is great. The Alphabet Soup Sorters look really neat!
It’s crazy how some things can work with some children and then totally frustrate another. It’s great that you are mixing things up to see what works and doesn’t for her.
My best friend’s daughter is the same way. She seems to know alot more than she will say but we think she may be afraid of getting something wrong. It takes a lot of patience to teach little kids the basics!
Hi! Sounds like you are doing everything right! Honestly, I don’t think you need to be worried at all! My kiddo struggled with this right up to and on into Kindergarten. And by the end of the school year he was reading ahead of grade level & received an award for academic improvement. She will already be ahead of many of the kids in her class since you are already working on this with her. Just keep it up, my experience is that parental involvement makes all the difference! Also, we really like the Mr.Pencil tracing tool & app.
I’ll try out the tracing tool and app. Thanks for the suggestion.
She’s four! Plenty of kids come to school not knowing letters and do fine! My son is one of them. He started kindergarten recognizing 12-15 letters. Two months in, he knew about 50 sight words and all but 4 letters. He was reading, and more importantly, he enjoyed reading.
I agree that I need to chill. It is also that I need to realize that she learns differently than my boys and finding the ways that work best for her. So glad your son loves reading.