Teaching the ABC's and 1,2,3's

[AnnaL]

My nephew Quinton, 4 1/2, will be coming to live with DH and me. He currently goes to pre-school but is far behind most other kids. He knows his basic shapes and can sometimes count to 10, but that's about it. He doesn't know his alphabet or colors.

I really want to help him and I hope that coming to live in a stable and loving environment with us, will put him on the right path. But I'm clueless? How do I go about teaching all of this stuff to him. Right now he's used to doing whatever he wants. He has no structure in his life.

I thought a good routine to get into would be to set a bedtime and stick to it. And before bed to give him a bath or shower and then read to him before he falls asleep. But what else should I be doing?

Please help, any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

[TtownAnne]

What worked for Caroline was alphabet and number puzzles!!!! (Target has them for $4.99 each, I believe). The alphabet one is great because it has corresponding pictures under each letter, so you can practice the sound - b,b,b, butterfly!

A routine would be *fabulous* - mainly just a morning and evening one for now, you don't know yet if he's going to be one of those kids that needs an afternoon nap. So maybe the morning could be get up, get dressed, have breakfast, brush teeth, straighten bedroom. The evening could be dinner, quiet playtime or TV, into bed and reading stories. And you should check out parentcenter.com or with his pediatrician (if he has one? Or will you be starting him with a new one?) about how much sleep someone his age needs, and then work backwards from there.

[Jillian]

I'm not sure how it would work for a 4 year old, but Janelle learned to count by playing with water bottle caps in the bathtub, we'd count them as she put them all in a cup, or lined them all up, or stacked them, etc, and now she can count anything....though we can't get her past 10. Same general idea with abc's, she learned to sing them with her leap frog learning table, but she learned to recognize the letters (well, she can only recognize 17 letters so far) by foam letter shapes in the bathtub...if you can't tell, she takes a lot of baths.

[Nocona]

Matthew learned his ABCs by singing the song and learned his number by repeating after us (he can count to 20 now) and by counting his toes

Hopefully he'll learn quickly because he's older, but he may have some trouble if it is all a new concept to him. It sounds like some of your bigger challenges are going to be getting into a routine and dealing with discipline if he's never had structure. Would a preschool be an option? That may help prepare him for kindergarten as well.

[AnnaL]

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas ladies

Anne, I'll definately be heading Target and getting him some educational toys. I didn't even think about a pediatrician. I'm glad you brought that up. There are probably lots of other things I didn't think of yet. I hope it's not to difficult for either of us to adjust to our new life. And thanks for the tip on parentcenter.com I'll definately check that out later.

Jillian, do you like the leapfrog learning table for Janelle? I saw it last weekend when I was shopping and thought about getting it for Quinton. I thought he may be more inclined to play with it, since it seems like it makes learning fun. I know he loves video games and I though since it's interactive, it may work well for him.

Nocona (sorry I don't know your name), Quinton does go to preschool. But it's only two days a week and only two hours a time. I think I should try and make an appointment with his teacher to determine what they learn in school and what I can do to help him at home. I know discipline will definately be a problem. His mom lets him do whatever he wants. For example if he doesn't want dinner, she'll just give him a bag of chips or doritos and let him go off eatting the entire bag, so she doesn't have to deal with him whining. That will NOT be happening in our home!

Keep the ideas coming ladies, I can use all the help I can get. Thank you! :supergrin

[Dawnie]

Victoria has been learning her letters by using these flash cards she got for Christmas. They are a thick cardboard and on one side is the letter and on the other side are pictures of things that start with that letter and the names underneath. (This is also helping with her vocabulary.) There is also a set of number flash cards with is set but we've found that actually having something to count works better than counting the pictures on the flash card. So now we count the blocks as we put them away, or the number of stairs as we walk up and down them, or when she goes grocery shopping with me we'll count the bags, cans, etc.

Meeting with his pre-school teacher sounds like a great idea so you can find out just how "far behind" he is and what the teacher suggests that you can do to help.

Dawn

[AnnaL]

Thanks Dawn! Flash cards are a great idea. I remember when I was younger that's how my mom helped me to learn to spell. So maybe it'll work for Quinton, as well. I know he likes drawing and cutting so maybe we can find pictures together and make our own alphabet flash cards.

Thanks again. I'm loving all these great ideas!

[gulp!]

another suggestion- magnetic letters on the fridge. emma learned her letters this way- every time i am in the kitchen making food, we practice them. we count everything- steps, pieces of food on her tray, etc. we also have the flashcards- got them at target.

[Karri]

Aidan learned a lot of his letters with the magnetic fridge letters and also those spongy letters that go in the bathtub. We also have a chalkboard wall in his playroom with the ABC's on it and we'd use that as well. With counting, we just count everything....stairs, cracks in the sidewalk, matchbox cars, crayons..etc.

[Jillian]

Originally Posted by AnnaL

Jillian, do you like the leapfrog learning table for Janelle? I saw it last weekend when I was shopping and thought about getting it for Quinton. I thought he may be more inclined to play with it, since it seems like it makes learning fun. I know he loves video games and I though since it's interactive, it may work well for him.

Janelle loved it, but we had to take it away when she started climbing on top of it. But Janelle is also only 18 months old (I think she was about 13 months when we took it away), so a big age difference, I think the learning table would probably be "too young" for a 4 year old, the learning desk, telephonics, or a my first leap pad might be better leap frog products for a 4 year old.

[Jayne]

Anne..if he loves video games and what not..and you have a computer at home..I highly recomend the JUMP START CD's..Knowledge Adventure runs them..let me see if they have a website.. http://www.jumpstart.com/

They have wonderful learning tools. I have so many of their cd's. I have Jump start toddlers and preschool and I just looked over them. They would be great for Quinten..They go on up also. I have an 8 1/2 year old son who still loves these CD's. You can get them at great prices and they usually have them at Walmart..

Other wonderful learning things are leap frog learning pads. I would skip over the table as it is more of a toddler item and go on to the preschool pad that they offer. (it runs about the same price) You can really get learning with it and use it as night time reading material for him.

VISIT THE LIBRARY. There are great resources at the library and he can have fun there also.

I think it is wonderful that your taking him in and giving him a stable life. Sounds like you will all three be doing a lot of learning over the next year together. I am sure it will really be a lot of fun to see his little face light up as he learns new things.

Jayne

[Dawn]

I definately gotta say the magnetic fridge letters! Those helped Alexia alot. She also has the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnetic letter set too which is a wonderful toy.... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...725848-8756040

I highly rec. this Leap Frog toy! She isn't even 2 yrs. old and has been identifying every single letter of the alphabet for weeks now. And she sings about 95% of it herself as well. This toy helps with identifying the letters and what sound it makes as well (you put a letter in the box thing and it says what letter it is and pronounces it too). There's a button on the toy that when pressed you can hear the entire alphabet. Ooh, another thing that really helped her learn the alphabet was her alphabet books. She has a set of 26 little board books and it comes in this cute little box for storage....all with the letter of the alphabet on the outside of each book. Inside are a few pages of things that begin with that letter and you can also stack the books as well.

As for counting, she first learned when we would count when going up and down the stairs. She counts everything now.

Flashcards are great too!

You'll do great! That is wonderful of you to be taking him in! Good luck!

[tjham]

I have a question about this toy. Are all of the letters capitol letters?

[harmonielyn]

Originally Posted by tjham

I have a question about this toy. Are all of the letters capitol letters?

Are you talking about the toy in Dawn's post? Or in another post?

[Dawn]

Originally Posted by tjham

I have a question about this toy. Are all of the letters capitol letters?

Yes, if your talking about the Fridge Phonics one made by Leap Frog that I was posting about, they are ALL in capital letters.

[koalita]

I would get him the Leap Frog Leap Pad. My stepson had one when he was 4 and he loved it! He spends a lot of time in the car going back and forth between his parents, so he would play with his Leap Pad in the car. That's how he learned his ABC's, his numbers, and all of the state capitals (he could also point to any state on a map and tell you which state it was). And he did it all himself since it was usually him in the backseat and one or the other parent driving.

As for structure, I would introduce routines slowly since he's not used to having any structure at all. My stepson wasn't either when he moved in with us. His mother would frequently skip lunch altogether because she'd forget or they'd be out running around. It was a shock for him at first, but now he's gotten used to having structure in one house but not the other (he's 8 now).

[Mary DK]

Anna, my 3yr old LOVES his leap pad and it's great toy for the car. We also count everything we can.
One other thing we do is that we take a letter each week and we learn about it... right now we're following his little MDO curriculum... you might want to ask his teacher if they're working on a particular letter every week, working on it also at home will definitely help.
This is the website we use... http://www.letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html , we make weekly trips to the library to find books that start with or have a subject related to the letter of the week.
I think is awesome that you and your hubby are offering him this great opportunity for a better life, it might be hard at first but he will definitely be grateful for it and be able to express it one day. Best of luck!!

[Mary DK]

Here is a few more helpful links...

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/books/

Though some of the books are available for site members only I can still get some of Eliot's letter pages for the week...
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/let...ig/index.shtml

We haven't tried this one yet but I think I will soon since he's showing interest on writting letters (especially those in his name)
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/books/writing/

Okay... that's all for now :supergrin:

[LoriS]

Leap Frog also has a great DVD/Video, it called Leap Frod Letter Factory Video. It says it is for ages 2-5 pre reading. It is great, it not only teaches the letters, but what sound each one makes.