Problems With Letter Of The Week Curriculum Activities

If you’re thinking about following a letter of the week curriculum, take a moment to think about what it really means to “do” a letter.⁣

⁣

What exactly is your toddler or preschooler learning from alphabet crafts and activities?

If you’re struggling to get past letter D because it’s just too much prep work, give yourself permission to abandon that letter of the week curriculum without feeling guilty about it.

That's because the letter of the week approach is outdated!

Research does not support teaching one letter a week in alphabetical order using letter-themed crafts and activities.

The book No More Teaching a Letter a Week highlights the gap between good intentions and results in terms of preparing children for learning to read.⁣

There are 3 main problems with alphabet letter of the week curriculum activities.

First, letter of the week curriculums focus on letter recognition out of context and in isolation.

Second, letter of the week curriculums introduce too many concepts at the same time.

Third, letter of the week curriculums don't meet toddlers and preschoolers where they are at developmentally.

Often toddlers and preschoolers can't remember the letter name or the letter sound.

Or they get confused between the uppercase and lowercase letters.

Or they struggle to trace letter of the week worksheets because the pencil grip hasn’t yet developed.

And this is assuming that your 2 or 3 year old child doesn’t run away as soon as you bring out the letter of the week activity that you’ve prepared!

Many toddlers and preschoolers simply aren’t interested in doing letter crafts or letter worksheets.

It’s SO frustrating for parents like you who just want to do everything possible to get their preschoolers ready for reading by learning letters at home!

There's an easier and more effective way to help your older toddler or 3 year old child get ready for learning letters.

Words we write and read are based on spoken language.

The alphabet letters are written symbols that represent speech sounds, called phonemes.

It's important to start with phonemic awareness activities so that your toddler or preschooler will come to understand that letters represent speech sounds.

Then to help your toddler or preschooler learn letter sounds, you'll do activities to associate each speech sound with its written symbol.

Learning this code between letters and sounds is learning phonics.

Reading requires knowledge of the code between written symbols and speech sounds.

Research shows that children need explicit phonics instruction because reading is not hard-wired in the brain.

Getting your child to memorize letter names and letter sounds using alphabet letter of the week curriculum activities isn’t enough.

Preschoolers need to start with phonemic awareness activities to get ready for learning letter sound correspondence.

Children who have a hard time learning the phonetic code often have difficulty hearing individual speech sounds in spoken words. They struggle with phonemic awareness.

The biggest mistake parents make is starting with letter recognition activities that you find in alphabet letter of the week curriculums before laying the foundation with phonemic awareness activities.

That’s why I created The Playful Path To Reading phonics program.

Inside you'll find the proven system to teach letter sounds to 3 and 4 year olds using fun, hands-on activities. There are no crafts or worksheets. Try it and see!

You've only got so much time and energy, and I want you to focus it on early literacy activities that actually set up your child for success with learning to read with phonics.