Parents often wonder how to teach letters and phonics to their children. It’s easy for you to teach letter sounds at home. You just need to know a few simple techniques based on Montessori principles.
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Letter Sound Games with Toddlers
Phonetic Sound Game for Toddlers
There are many letter sound games you can play with toddlers and preschoolers. You can start with simple phonetic sound games with a toddler. The game can use any toy your child loves. In our video today, my daughter, Christina, played a phonetic sound game with Zoey (my granddaughter and Christina’s niece) using Beanie Babies.
Introducing Letter Sounds and Letters
When your child is ready to be introduced to letter symbols, Montessori sandpaper letters are wonderful for first introducing letter sounds with letter symbols. In the video, Christina also tells about some Montessori techniques for introducing phonetic sounds. Then she tells how to pronounce each letter sound. There are some variations among Montessorians, but the sounds Christina gives in the video are ones that should work well for most families.
(See “How to Teach Phonics with Montessori Letter Work” for another simple way parents can introduce phonics at home.)
Showing a Possible Order for Introducing Letter Sounds
Some of the Montessori principles to consider when teaching letter sounds to your child:
- Use lowercase letters to introduce the sounds.
- Don’t worry about introducing letter names (letter sounds are enough. Most children spontaneously pick up the names).
- Teach the phonetic sounds in an order that allows your child to quickly learn to read many words rather than in ABC order. (See “In What Order Should You Introduce Letters to Your Preschooler?”).
- Introduce short-vowel sounds before long-vowel sounds.
- Introduce letter sounds with sandpaper letters and the Montessori 3-period lesson, using your index and middle fingers to trace the letters. (See “How to Teach Concepts and Vocabulary to Your Preschooler Using the Three-Period Lesson” and “Inexpensive and DIY Sandpaper Letters.”)
- Use a variety of writing extensions, such as the butterfly salt writing tray shown in the collage at the top of the post.
- Later on, introduce the Montessori movable alphabet for spelling activities. (See “Inexpensive and DIY Movable Alphabets”)
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Does your child have a favorite activity with phonetic sounds?
This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning series!
Amazing blogs involved in the 12 Months of Montessori Learning
Natural Beach Living ~ The Natural Homeschool ~ Living Montessori Now
The Kavanaugh Report ~ Study at Home Mama ~ Child Led Life
Every Star Is Different ~ Grace and Green Pastures ~ The Pinay Homeschooler
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Deb, this is a wonderful resource!!! What a great video that shows how to pronounce each sound, plus how to begin early sound game activities with a young toddler! Shared!!
Fabulous post! So much information. I love the guidelines to help teach letter sounds etc.
Awesome post! I love the video. It is a great resource for parents.
Such a wonderful resource — so many families want to start Montessori with their toddlers, but with little guidance as to how to do that properly and end up trying Montessori Primary activities before children are developmentally ready. This is a great guide for engaging a toddler, while keeping it age-appropriate!
There is so much useful information here. I love how the video demonstrates how to properly pronounce each sound.
I am learning a lot from you for my little Vito!! Thank you so much for this!
I loved watching a bunch of your toddler videos! They are SO much fun, especially because my Little Bee is about Zoey’s age. 🙂 Thanks for sharing. These lessons are so helpful to me.
I loved this Deb! I wish more people understood the correct letter sounds. We recently had mandatory kindergarten screening with Henry at our local school district. In one of the tests they performed they showed Henry a flashcard with a picture on it and he was supposed to match it to smaller pictures that started with the same letter sound. The lady started and I was cringing. Every letter sound had the extra “uh” at the end. Henry was completely confused — “ssssuh sssuh sun” “muh muh mouse” I almost wanted to correct her, I should send the school district your video!
Just found your blog and love it. You provide such high quality content. This article was so helpful and I learned a lot about Montessori. Thanks again!
Great post! Thanks for the encouragement and ideas! Definitely sharing on twitter and Pinterest.
I love so much seeing 3 generations working in a Montessori home! And I love the video. I’m happy to share this with my readers!
I find this very helpful as my preschool aged son is just now beginning to show an interest in letters and their sounds! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us again next week!
Deb,
This is a fabulous post. I will share it. So many kids that learn the names of letters first get confused like saying the letter Y makes the “wuh” sound, because when you say the name of the letter, that is the sound. I am a huge fan of teaching sounds first. Sounds lead to reading. 🙂
I came via Squishable Baby link up, but I am a fan of yours. 🙂
Pamela – Literate For Life
Hi very good
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