Homeschooling with littles is always more effective when it’s fun! You don’t need a curriculum for kids 6 and under. Read to your children. sing, dance and play with them! Also, get outside as much as possible! This will help their brains and bodies build the tools and skills they need for more structured learning.
I want to share with you, the Letter Sounds Scavenger Hunt! It’s my favorite way to teach and reinforce letter sounds. Did I make it up? Am I a genius? Well, I just might be! Who knows, but as far as my kiddos are concerned I totally made this up! Additionally, I will share some other tools that I have used to teach letter sounds that are super fun! I hope this is all helpful to you and your littles.
When they’re little everything should be a game, a song, or involve movement and exploration. When you’re homeschooling with littles game-schooling is truly magical! Ok, so the scavenger hunt is simple. You can use it to reinforce colors, numbers and categories of objects as well. You write a letter down, we love our easel for this type of thing, and you tell the child the beginning letter sound if they don’t know it or can’t remember. Then, you send them on a scavenger hunt around the house to find objects that start with letter sound. Mine take off at top speed and return with big, proud smiles on their little faces! Once they get comfortable with beginning letter sounds, you can use this with ending sounds too.
After a round of the game using one letter sound, write some CVC words on the board or on a piece of paper. Make sure to mix in some that do not start with the letter sound that you used in the game. Then, have your child point to or circle all the words that start with the same letter that you used for your scavenger hunt.
Be Patient! Homeschooling with littles takes time.
Don’t be surprised when you’re homeschooling with littles and working on letter sounds if it takes a really long time, like years, for them to fully sink in. There are 26 letters in the alphabet, some make multiple sounds, others when combined with different letters make totally new sounds – it’s not easy to learn! They may have it down on Monday and then by Wednesday have forgotten it all, even if you went over it on Tuesday. It’s like building up strength in a muscle, it takes time. Rest assured that your child’s brain is actively making connections all of the time. However, there are A LOT of connections for their beautiful little brains to make! Be patient, be repetitive, be fun! Help them to experience what you’re teaching with as many of their senses as possible!
If it’s fun do it. If it’s not fun for your kid don’t do it!
Again, I can’t say it enough…homeschooling with littles should be fun!
Here are some other ideas for teaching letter sounds:
- Make sensory bins! For the letter, “S,” you might include sand, sea shells, something smooth, and some sand paper. For the letter, “P,” you might include dry pasta, a pencil, some crumbled up pieces of paper, and maybe some toy food that starts with, “P,” like a pear or a slice of pizza. I think you get the idea!
- Finger paint letters! It’s fun, and it engages multiple senses which helps with retention of information.
- Games – What Letter Do I Start With?, Alphabet Mystery Box, Word Seeds, Magnetic ABC Fishing Game (All of these are so fun!)
- Preschool Prep (videos. games, and more)
- Have Fun Teaching Letter Sounds (youtube video)
- Super Why! (PBS Kids Show)
- Letter Magnets (You can do so much with these!)
- Flashcards – some kids love them, some kids can’t stand them! Remember if it’s not fun, don’t do it!
- Puzzles – Melissa and Doug (We love this one!), Wooden Puzzles (We have the train and snail from this company!), Learning Resources ABC Puzzles
- Reading Eggs
- Night Zookeeper
For more on homeschooling with littles check out my other posts in this series here!
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