Tools for Teaching 2 Year Olds The Alphabet

Since the girls have been successfully counting from 1 to 10 for a while now, I decided to tackle the alphabet next. Just like when learning numbers, what works best for us is making this fun and part of everyday life. Here's a short list of tools / educational toys that have really helped the girls learn their letters.

1. The Alphaberry: Santa brought this over for Christmas. Basically, with this toy the child pushes a letter and the alphaberry says what the letter is out loud. It also has a button that when pushed sings the alphabet song. This toy gets bonus points for having an adjustable volume control. I take the bonus points back because the battery compartment was screwed on so thigh that I am now unable to change the dead batteries on one of them

2. Schylling magnetic letters: I bought a magnetic whiteboard (available from Costco and Walmart for less that $10) and mounted it on the wall. On it I have wooden magnetic letter blocks and the girls love this. They pick up a letter and bring to me to tell them what it is or sometimes they tell me what it is. I specifically went for the Schylling letters because their magnets are flat unlike the button shaped ones that can become a choking hazard. This setup has also been useful in teaching shapes. (Unfortunately I can't find a link that shows what we have but any magnetic alphabet kit would do as long as it doesn't have button-shaped magnets)

There are other toys and books for learning the alphabet but these two are the ones that I think have had the most impact on the girls while being fun. So, is it working? Well last week when I took them to buy their ukuleles, we got out of the car, they looked up at the Future Store sign and said four things. Sugar said "T" and "O"; Spice said "U" and "triangle". (There's 2 triangles on the Future Shop logo)

This mama's heart just about burst with pride.