You have Toddlers at home, and you might have noticed that they are very interested in colors, shapes and their name, for the most part. Toddler-hood is indeed the age at which they learn more than any time thereafter, in preparation for their later life. Most kids are visual learners, but it is also imperative to teach hand-eye coordination, as well as phonetics.

Make learning fun with little effort in and outside of the home

There are some great toys available in toy stores, that teach all of these skills and children love to learn and play at the same time. I remember my kids using alphabet cubes, blocks, magnetic letters and stickers to spell out their favorite things. And then there was that noisy but useful battery powered phonetics keyboard they used to play with. It can be quite funny to listen to that stuff!

You will find some wonderful learning tools online, as well, that help young kids to become more familiar with letters. I especially like Tinyme.com.au’s personalized wooden name puzzles. You submit your order, including your child’s name, and Tinyme sends a pretty cool wooden puzzle with removable, colorful letters, spelling out your little one’s name. Their chalkboard wall stickers are another favorite of mine, because they allow your kid to write and spell in chalk onto the easily removable sticker, then erase and start over as often as they like – resulting in “no mess” learning and lasting fun.

I also always used to buy activity books that let your kids trace letters, and coloring books that feature us a lot of letters or the whole alphabet to be colored. My kids are now in Kindergarten and 4th grade, but they still like their activity books. Alternatively you can print out coloring pages from diverse kid-friendly web pages.

Alphabet flash cards with pictures of things that start with certain letters being practiced are a great idea, too, that help your child to become Kindergarten-ready.

And if your budget is tight, you can always resort to plain paper and washable markers. Show your pre-schooler how it is done and let them copy your writing in their favorite color marker or create incomplete traceable letters for them. It’s all good!

Tinyme.com.au’s alphabet stickers are also a good investment from 0 years old to elementary school age, as they work both as kid’s room decoration, as well as a learning instrument when spelling and sounding out words. You just can’t go wrong!

Choose letter fridge magnets for everyday learning! After all, the fridge is used multiple times by each family member during the day, and that makes for a good learning tool. So when you take out the juice, say:

Let’s drink some juice…! – And what letter does ‘juice’ start with…? – It starts with a ‘J’!

I like to point out letters and words to my children when going grocery shopping, as well. As a matter of fact, I will dictate my grocery list to my kids sometimes, before we go to the store, spelling out the words with them… that way they get to help me, and it helps their grades in school!

Teaching them in the store works best when you show them grocery items they like, such as cereal, cookies and milk, and if the packages have big colorful capital and lower cap letters. It always has to be fun!

Always praise your kids for getting the letters right! Little rewards are in order, too. How about offering the kids a healthy little snack packet of raisins, for instance? Tell them you have a treat for them, but they will have to guess the letters, first.

Oh and since we’re talking about food... I loved it when my mom fixed me a bowl of alphabet soup when I was a child. My children today still love to form words and little sentences from the letter-shaped noodles. The only problem is that the meal ends up taking a little longer than it should. But, hey – at least your kids end up having fun and learn how to spell while getting some nutrition. =)

Now go have fun with all these simple examples of how to teach the ABC’s! Happy learning!

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Tinyme design, make and sell very cute custom made products for babies, toddlers and kids.

Our range of personalised products include : wooden puzzles, name labels, kids invites, baby clothing, personalised bags, personalised stationery, nursery wall stickers, and kids canvas art

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