Teach Your Toddler the ABC’s – without actually teaching

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

I’m often asked how it is that my 2-year-old knows his alphabet, how did I “teach the abc’s?”  He can recognize all 26 letters (upper and lower case), knows the sounds they all make, and knows the order of the alphabet.  He just surprised me the other day by reciting the alphabet backwards as he was washing his hands.

What!!! I can’t even do that without putting some serious thought into it.  Yet he just rattled it off.

It’s beyond me how he learned them so quickly.  It honestly blows my mind.  But I would like to think that I had something to do with it.  So here are a few of the things that we have done in our home that I believe has helped tremendously.

First of all, we read.

And by that I mean, we read A LOT!!!

Reading is extremely important in our home.  I have read to my kids since day one. Even when they are little babies I read to them out loud.  When they are really young I read out loud. I read my books out loud, the Bible out loud, and the newspaper out loud. Plus I read them their books too.  It really doesn’t matter, I just read it OUT LOUD. No matter what it is you are reading it is introducing them to language.

We read books in the morning and afternoon, not just before bed.  Anytime my child brings me a book, I read to him.  It’s not always convenient, but I feel it is extremely important to foster a love for books and reading.

To me, reading is more important than folding the laundry, washing the dishes, or sweeping the floor.  If dinner is 5 minutes later because I was reading to my 2-year-old, well, I’m okay with that.  If the toys aren’t all picked up because we were busy reading, well, I’m okay with that too.  There are always more chores to be done.  The toys can be picked up anytime.  However, there are few precious moments when a little one brings you a book, climbs up in your lap, and just wants to spend time with you. 

I for one want to take advantage of every one of those moments.

Sometimes it gets pretty boring reading the same book over and over and over and over.  (You know, the one that now has the torn or missing page, has been colored in, or maybe a giant bite taken out of it from the baby.)  The other day I read Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? 3 times in a row, because somehow, someway, we ended up with 3 copies of the book and Batman wanted to read each one of them.  At times like those I just remind myself that it may be boring and tedious for me, but it is EVERYTHING to that 2-year-old.

Second, we make learning letters fun.

I have these awesome foam bathtub letters that my mom got my kids for some holiday or birthday.  For the longest time those letters were the best thing about bath time.  Batman would sit there and name each letter (or have me name them) and place them on the side of the tub.  Then he would start over again.  Oh, and sometimes we have to wash each letter off individually after they get bubbles on them.

He still likes playing with those letters but has begun to make room for other bath toys as well.

We have these giant magnets that we use on the fridge.  I’m not sure when I got them or why, but I’m so glad now that I did.  Sometimes they get taken down off the fridge and we play ring-around-the-rosy around the letter (or with the letter and it falls down).  Either way, he LOVES it.

A few other favorites include writing the alphabet on the trampoline or driveway in sidewalk chalk.  There’s this great alphabet train puzzle that’s always fun.  And stacking the wooden blocks that have letters on them.  I think if nothing else, the exposure to the letters is what’s important.

Third, we watch educational TV.

When I first started this mommying gig I was completely against my kiddos watching TV.  That was until my then almost 2-year-old Batman was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Television became our saving grace in many ways.  There’s only so much to do when you are stuck in a hospital room for an entire week, multiple times in a year. Not to mention when the kid is utterly exhausted and worn out as a side effect from chemotherapy.

So as TV became a normal part of our lives, I sought out ways to make it somewhat educational.  One of the ways we did this was to get the Leap Frog videos.  And they were a hit!  Especially the ones about learning letters and phonics. I’ve honestly been amazed at how much my child has learned from these videos (not to mention how much my husband has learned).

Fourth, we make learning letters part of everything, all day long.

Letters are part of our everyday life.  We sing the Alphabet song when the kiddos wash their hands.  Sometimes we sing it two or three times at the request of the hand washee.  

On walks we read license plates.  Or the letters on the stop signs. S-T-O-P.  Yes, our walks become 2 to 3 times longer, but you can’t expect to go on a brisk walk with a 2-year-old anyway!  Let’s be honest here people.

When I am sitting at the computer, Batman almost always comes up and wants to type the letters too.  He’ll push down a letter and say what it is.  Sometimes he pushes each letter once, sometime he pushes it lots and lots of times.  Here’s a sample of him helping me write this post:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbnnnnnnnnn

And yes, sometimes it’s irritating, but I try not to let him see that. 

I try my best to keep it a fun thing for him to be able to interrupt mom to type the letters, even if it puts me behind.  I want so badly for learning to remain fun for him because I believe it’s a critical aspect of his life-long learning.

As a parent, teaching your child is sometimes exhausting (like just about every other aspect of parenting).  Sometimes I don’t know how I will get through another day of repeating the alphabet over and over and over and over and over and over… You get the point.

However, this stage of life is temporary.  What your child is learning during this stage is setting them up for a lifetime of learning.  The skills that children learn as toddlers impacts the rest of their lives.  Therefore, it is now that we are building their foundation.

To me that’s worth reciting the ABC’s one more time.

What about you?