Children learn to recognize letters that have meaning to them, first, so don’t try to teach him to recognize the alphabet in order like the song. Start with the letters in his name. Find his first letter everywhere, on cereal boxes, signs, and newspapers, in books, magazines, etc. At first, tell him “Look, here is your M, Matthew.” Then make a little game of it. I see Matthew’s M on this book! Can you find it?” Soon he’ll be pointing his M out to you, and you can start on the next letter. When he’s sure of all the letters in his name, move on to more letters that mean something to him: m-o-m, d-a-d, c-a-t, etc. He will probably pick up the letters very quickly, but if not, be patient and persistent. He’ll get it.

Numbers are a little different. You could start with his age because he probably knows that. Then maybe you could do a number a week. If this is “two” week, write 2’s every chance you get and point them out to him. They might be in phone numbers. on your grocery list, in your address, in the newspaper, etc. Let the numbers be concrete to him by having him count specific things, like two feet, two eyes, two forks, two books, etc.

Let him write whatever number and letter you are focusing on in interesting ways: finger paint, shaving cream on the kitchen table, in sand in the sandbox or in flour on a cookie sheet in the kitchen, and of course markers, crayons, and pencils on paper.

Remember that rote counting, and the ABC song, are not the same thing as knowing and recognizing the letters and numerals. Both are important skills, but he is ready to move to the higher skill level, and that is what you will be teaching him. Always use hands on activities, and have fun!

Make it fun and informal.

I also pop up a few bright charts on my son’s walls right next to their beds.

We have a lot of fun at night just looking over the alphabet, and number charts.

We play ‘tic tac toe here I go , where I stop I do not know’ and they love doing it to trick me also.

We use the A5 size alphabet cards from k-3teacherresources.com, to make up the alphabet from one end of the house to the other, then I take some letters away, and my boys have to work out which ones are missing.

You can download a heap of great charts and other resources at http://www.k-3teacherresources.com. There is a yearly fee of around $15 but it is well worth it as the charts are really good quality, and new things are added all the time. It’s great for parents.

I really like their concept books also. I think they have quite a few number, and alphabet concept books.

Try and make it fun and incorporate it into everyday events.

Having the charts up near the bed is really good. I can often hear my sons reading the charts to themselves before they go to sleep. Great reinforcement.

Hope that helps…

Repetition in doses he can handle. We always try to incorporate learning into everyday things…just a few minutes at a time throughout the day. We play ball with the Buh Buh Buh Ball…What else starts with B? Buh Buh Buh Baby… What else? The letters of their name are great to start with.

Drawing and painting are good activities (I love the chalkboard suggestion!), and there are a lot of good games too — It should never become a chore.

I used flash cards with my kids. You can make your own with 3×5 index cards. I also mixed them up so they would not just remember them in order. And you need to teach upper case first and then lower case. I used flashcards for numbers also. I only went to 10 at first, my kids seemed to struggle with the teens so I waited until they had 1-10 recognition down pat. I did not introduce lower case until they knew all the upper case.

I just did it daily it only takes about 10 minutes, if they get it wrong just say the correct letter and go on. If done daily you will be amazed at how quick they pick it up. And on letters they struggled with I used name association, like for F I would say “daddy’s favorite letter” because he loves to fish.

We also lay them out like memory and just let them flip it over, or hold them in your hands like a deck of cards and let them draw one and say it.

Rose Art also makes an alphabet Bingo that makes it fun for them to learn.

There are also great PC games. Ther is Jump Start and Reader Rabbit, my kids love both.

They make levels like Jump Start Preschool, or Jump Start Kindergarten and so on.

Maybe you should try some games. I just made my son a Bingo game. We call Joshua with the numbers and letters. You need to be creative.

Simple ABC and 123 books – try the libraby. Also, you can make flash cards or buy flash cards just for that purpose.

Have a lot of Patience. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition – Point out the letters as you sing along – Did I mention Repetition?

Get him a great big chalk board and put it on the wall where he can stand next to it and practice. Kids love to write on a board. That is how my DIL taught my grandson his letters. He was able to write them all by the time he was four.

write on a letter on each pieces of paper. Example “A” for what- you would say an A for Apple like that.

Try this game Website:

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f