Learning letters

I don't worry too much about teaching my kids the alphabet. That is, I don't worry too much until the August before they enter Kindergarten (except Nathan, of course, being the first kid, knew them when he was two). They've all picked up on it pretty quickly. Sariah will go to Kindergarten next year and I'm way ahead of my game here already teaching her letters.

I can't really take credit though. My sister recommended a DVD called "Leapfrog Letter Factory" that her kids had been enjoying to learn their letters. I can't recommend it enough. In just 2-3 weeks Sariah knows every letter and all their sounds. She has graduated to "Leapfrog Talking Words Factory." This DVD teaches kids that vowels stick words together and helps kids put sounds together to make simple three letter words. Sariah enjoys music and these DVDs do use music to teach kids their letters. I've also been surprised at my other kids wanting to watch these shows. I personally didn't find them very entertaining, but the kids love them.

I'm having fun teaching Sariah. I had fun quizzing her on her letters and also I found these cute letter cookies at the dollar store and I would pick through them every day before she went down to watch her DVD so she'd have one cookie of each letter to eat as she watched the part about that letter.

She's also starting to read a little, just the kind where they memorize the book, then point at the words as they go through the book. May and Elijah both did this in their Kindergarten classroom. I don't know what that's called. It's not whole word recognition, because she doesn't really recognize most words.

On top of that, the other kids are teaching her addition, subtraction and even some multiplication. I'm wondering if she will have any use for Kindergarten once she gets there! I've been blessed with kids who love to learn!