teach your preschooler

In my five years of homeschooling and teaching kids the alphabet we’ve grown to love our letter of the week crafts for preschoolers more and more. This alphabet flip book has changed everything! For the better!

Years back I created this alphabet flip book as I worked with Matthew to teach him his alphabet. This was a suggestion from one of the Mother’s Day Out teachers when my twins attended years ago. I have used it since and preschoolers and young learners love it!

You make a flip book of the alphabet and every morning you go over it together. Say the letter. Say the picture. Say the sound. In no time the kids know their letters and the sounds they make. It’s like magic.

Redundant magic.

And the best part? I made cards for you to use that you can download instantly and make this today.

I am going to show you how inexpensive and simple this is!

Ready?

You Will Need:

Alphabet Flip Book Printable Pack
1 set of Photo Alphabet Bulletin Board Cards
access to a laminating machine
1 large book ring
hole punch

If you prefer the cards in this picture they are from a bulletin board collection before I made the instant download. If you prefer the photo alphabet bulletin board cards you can order them from Amazon and get them in a few days.

Laminate the cards if you would like. This way they will last longer. I really recommend it. You could even take them to a local office supply and get it done for cheap! Cut out the cards leaving about a quarter inch of laminating material around each card all the way around.

Put them in order from A-Z.

Use a hole punch to punch holes in the upper left corner of each card. Line them up and ensure the holes line up.

Once each card had a punch in it, I fed the large book ring through the cards keeping them in order from A-Z.

Close the ring and you have a flip book!

Matthew and I sit down and go over the alphabet together. And now we will begin using these with the little guy we are fostering- he is 2. It’s never too early to learn!

Most of the time I hold the card and the child sits across from me. I flip the cards as we move through the alphabet.

Sometimes I let him sit and hold the cards and lead the way.

Sometimes we do this on the couch. Sometimes we do this at the kitchen table. I never want it to be a lot of pressure!

The idea is to make learning fun.

While you’re here, check out our collection of letter of the week crafts for your preschooler as you enjoy exploring the alphabet together!

Order the card pack from my online store and instantly download them now! No waiting and you can start teaching your little one today!

Teaching my four year old how to write his name is on my list of goals for this homeschool year. You see, while I have worked with all of my children with enrichment activities evolved around writing their name, I’ve never had to come up with my own independent name practice for preschoolers.

Our oldest two children (now 14 and 12 years old) attended day care when they were little and then went on to attend public school. So, while we did name writing practice at home, they really learned the methods and such at day care/school.

Our twins (now 7) attended Mother’s Day Out from the time they were 2 years old until we started homeschooling. Again, we did fun name writing activities at home, but the nuts of bolts of accomplishing writing their name came from their MDO teachers. I cannot take credit.

With Matthew (now 4) all the pressure is on me. I am teaching him all of his letters, the sounds they make and how to string them into words, like his name.

I am on the hunt for name practice for preschoolers that include hands on activities as he learns how to spell and write M-A-T-T-H-E-W. I am so excited to share these tutorials with you if teaching your little one to write his or her name is one of your goals too!

You Will Need:

play dough
alphabet cookie cutters
a rolling pin for flattening the letters (you could also use a cup from the cupboard)

Matthew wanted to pick a different play dough color for each letter. This presented the perfect opportunity to review our colors.

(If you prefer, you can make your own play dough. I have an easy tutorial for making Pumpkin Pie Play Dough that is perfect for this time of year. Your kids will love playing with it, smelling it and learning with it!)

Matthew used his little rolling pin that came in a play dough tool kit that we bought when he was younger.

If you do not have one, just grab a hard plastic cup from the cupboard.

Matthew flattened out the dough.

We laid out the cookie cutters in the order in which his name is spelled.

One by one he cut out the letters of his name with the play dough and the cookie cutters.

As he would cut them we would refer to our alphabet flip book and discuss the letter, the sound it makes and the name of the picture on each card.

(If you’re interested in making your own alphabet flip book, check out my super easy and inexpensive tutorial.)

As we cut out the letters and discussed their sounds, we placed them in order on his place mat to spell his name.

The more he sees the letters, the more he becomes familiar with them.

At the end he stated, in order, each letter until he spelled M-A-T-T-H-E-W. He needed some help along the way, but again, we are getting him familiar with the letters.

And that is it!

This is a great activity that focuses on name practice for preschoolers! I hope you will give it a try.

You Will Need:

You Will Need:

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