Part of his seemingly sudden interest in the alphabet is due to my obsession with writing names but also in part due to his one year old sister’s recent interest in his fridge phonics toy. He could not have cared less about until she showed some fascination with it and now he thinks it is one of the best toys in the house. It is unnerving how that seems to work. The two of them would stand in the kitchen and he would put the letters into the toy and she would press them so that the toy would start its song about each letter. Interest in this toy was provoked further when his sister would press the alphabet song button again and again and we (mommy and daddy) would sing along. Even though he has heard the “Alphabet” song a million times, he will not sing it, which is weird because this kid loves to sing!
Regardless of the reason, my son was finally getting excited and interested in learning the alphabet. Now that he was identifying a few letters, I felt like he might be at the point where he could use a little bit of guided semi-formal learning. So I collected the alphabet blocks and books together and put them in the living room in a basket. My son found this new placement of toys, that he had long ago lost interest in, intriguing. We would read the books (mommy, son, and daughter …. sometimes even daddy) about the alphabet. He would build towers and “churches” with the alphabet blocks during which I would ask him, “Hey what letter is on this block.” He was best with the letters that names of family started with: “m” is for mommy, “d” is for daddy, “s’ is for mom’s name, “k” is for dad’s name, “g” is for his sister’s name. This was great progress, but he still was not able to recite the alphabet and if I asked him. “what letter does “dog” start with,” he would name a random letter.
(To be continued…)