How I First Introduced the Alphabet to My Almost 2 Year Old

By: Chelsea, from the YouTube Channel: MommysTrying

ABC Picture Board Set, Melissa and Doug brand

I recently realized that my almost 2 year old L.O. (little one) can recognize the entire alphabet. It makes you feel like a proud parent when you can see the carryover of your hard work, that the concepts are actually clicking with your child, and your child is actually happy and excited to learn.

I initially started my daughter on an alphabet set when she was about 20 months old that I got off of *Amazon that happens to include numbers 1-10 BUT the boards are made of cardboard, only have capitalized letters and I was afraid she would have trouble reading lower case letters. So, for the past few months we’ve been using the Melissa and Doug ABC picture board set and we’ve been seeing progress with it.

The Picture Board Set

Pros

• This is advertised for children 3 and up since it contains some smaller letters that could pose as a choking hazard
  • Just use common sense when you and your child have these out
  • Being their parent, you know your child the best and you can sense when they’re ready to advance to different toys
• It contains both upper and lower case letters that act as an interactive puzzle
  • 52 letters all together
    • Each letter corresponds with their own color on the block
      • Good for color recognition for your child
      • Also helps the parent find the matching letter more quickly
    • Some letters are smaller than others
      • This will help with your L.O’s fine motor skills
  • Puzzle activity
    • Since your L.O. has to properly orientate where the letter is supposed to be placed it will help them truly recognize what the letter is supposed to look like
• I like that this doesn’t have a set theme

• It includes pictures of recognizable animals and other items your child may easily recognize throughout their day
  • It’s a bonus that each block also has the word of the picture it’s representing spelled out clearly which will help when it’s time to start learning how to read

• Each wooden block is about 5 3/4 ‘’ by 3’’ and about ¾ of a cm thick, about the thickness of a cell phone without a case on
  • I feel like it’s thick enough and sturdy enough for a toddler where I don’t have to worry about it breaking
  • Since we’ve had the set, I’ve seen some color fading on the letters my daughter usually plays with and some nicks here and there but it doesn’t look bad. Just comes with the territory of having wooden toys

• Each board has a thin coating on it except where you place the letters in

• You can see some slight paint runs in the grain of the wood but that might be a minor manufacture defect

Cons

• I wish each letter had their own individual block

• This set has 13 double sided boards so you can go over the letters A – M before needing to flip the boards over

• I wish the actual storage container was larger or at least had 4 different storage spaces to place 13 sets of letters in it

• That way the parent has a designated space for certain letters instead of hunting for them in a huge pile with a hyper toddler next to you
  • A lid with hinges or at least a cover you can slide on the side to prevent all the pieces from falling out would have been helpful as well

Tips and Tricks

• When you’re setting this up start off by placing 5 or 6 different blocks out at a time on a flat surface your child can work on away from other toys

• Scatter both the upper and lower case letters out in a “word bank” so your child could easily choose which letter they wanted to put back into the puzzle first
  • I found this was the best way to keep a toddler’s attention span and it also helped my L.O. to get excited and want to do the rest of the alphabet
• I don’t push the activity onto my child even if she doesn’t finish a letter or if she wants to be done with the activity all together
  • I know she’ll go back to the activity when she wants to

If your child happens to show total disinterest in the alphabet all together, try leaving 3 or 4 letters or puzzle pieces out around their common play area. That way they would see it out and they could make the choice to go to it and play with it once they’re ready

• When I’m trying to introduce new letters to my daughter, I would take out 3 different letters at a time and focus on those for a couple days before we move on

• I would make sure she can identify it by pointing to the letter when I say it out loud and ask her to do the same
  • I’ve learned repetition is key for this
• When I’m reading to her I would take out some of the letters from this set and place them on the corresponding letter on the title of the book
  • That way, she could see how those letters form words and can recognize the letters in different fonts
  • You can also do this if you tend to wear printed shirts

All in all….

I think it makes it easier for my daughter to see and touch the letters herself because in a way it may make her feel like she’s playing some type of part in her own learning, her own toys, and she can play with them at her own pace. I feel like if you follow that their desire to learn will come easily too and they’ll be grasping concepts in no time.

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