5 Practical Preschool Letter Activities to Make Learning Fun

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When it comes to teaching the alphabet, having preschool letter activities can help make learning fun and easy. Below are 5 practical preschool activities at home I highly recommend trying with your kids to help them learn their letters!

When it comes to teaching the alphabet, preschool letter activities can help make learning fun and easy. Here are 5 practical activities I recommend for your homeschool.

When should I start teaching the alphabet?

Most children do not start recognizing letters until they are preschool age (2-3 years old) and many will not be able to identify them until kindergarten age. Simply put, there are no right or wrong ages to start introducing the alphabet to your child. We typically stress about this milestone because of what we were taught in our years of attending public (or private) schooling.

As a homeschooling parent, you have the unique opportunity to follow your child’s personal pace of development. This is often overlooked and can result in more tears than cheers (as I like to call it).

In other words, naturally introduce the alphabet to your child as you see fit. Whether they are one, two, three, or four years of age – you’ll know when the time is right.

Practical Ways to Teach the Alphabet

Once you’ve set out on teaching the alphabet to your child, you’re probably wondering how to do it and do it effectively. I’m going to share some excellent preschool learning tips that have worked for me in our homeschool. Some of these suggestions may work for you and some may not. I always recommend keeping your child’s learning style and needs in mind.

Keep it natural

Nothing is easier than keeping things natural. In other words, while you’re doing your every day routine, throw in some letter learning. For example, while cooking breakfast, show your child an egg. Tell them it’s an egg and starts with the letter e. This simple and short verbal lesson will go further than you think (or feel).

Start small

Start introducing letters one at a time. Stay on that letter until you notice that your child is able to say it, recognize it, and say its sound. Patience is the key with this tip, but it’s easy to get into the habit once started!

Create a unit study

The unit study method is a great way to teach. You can easily accommodate the resources depending on the developmental levels of your children and teach multiple subjects at once. When it comes to teaching the alphabet, a fun idea is to do a “letter of the week” kind of layout.

Start by introducing the letter of the week. Then, read books, sing songs, and do a variety of letter activities throughout the week. Keeping the same layout and repetition typically helps kids learn their letters faster.

5 Preschool Letter Activities to Try in Your Homeschool

These preschool letter activities can be adjusted to accommodate any learning style and the number of children you are teaching. In fact, I highly recommend that you tweak them to you and your child’s liking anyways!

Flashcards

You can’t go wrong with having a pair of alphabet flashcards on hand. They come in handy when looking for a stress-free way to start teaching letters and they can be used for transitioning to something else. 

Sensory Bins

Did I mention how much I love hands-on activities? Sensory bins are the perfect way to keep your preschoolers busy but learning at the same time. You can use a small box, an old shoe box, or a plastic bin. Fill it with a variety of fillers from cut straws to buttons, beans, and rice. Then top it off with foam or magnetic letters. Just be sure to stick around if your child is prone to put things in their mouth.

Alphabet Collage Book

Creating a collage book is so much fun! These types of preschool letter activities gives your little learner practice with finding pictures and words that begin with different letters. I often suggest turning these into keepsake books that can be reused.

Make them on card stock paper, do the activities, then laminate the pages. Combine them in a binder or folder and voila – an awesome alphabet collage book created by your preschooler! 

Alphabet Coloring Book

What toddler and preschool-age child doesn’t like to color? I know mine do (and I do too)!

Give your preschooler themed alphabet coloring pages like these ones. They’ll not only practice coloring uppercase letters, but they can also practice working on beginning alphabet sounds if they’re ready.

Alphabet Animal Photo Posters

Alphabet posters are some of the top preschool letter activities used in classrooms, but you can certainly incorporate the strategy in your homeschool too. Themed alphabet photo posters can make for some interesting conversations and help keep learning done naturally. 

Final Thoughts

I can’t say this enough…as tempting as it may be, try not to force learning on your child. They are already learning every single day whether they are sitting a reciting flashcards or free playing with blocks and cars.

One of the best ways to teach your children is to use their natural pace of development. Trust me when I say you’ll know what this is and pick up on as time progresses. Pay attention to their cues and the questions they ask.

In the meantime, slowly introduce some of these preschool letter activities and start building the foundation of reading!

What are some ways you teach letters to your children? Let me know in the comments below!

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