Learning The Alphabet Letters - Use Food To Teach Your Child The Alphabet

As the parent of a preschooler, you should make alphabet lessons an important part of your daily routine. Waiting until your child starts preschool or kindergarten to begin work on the alphabet will put your child behind in the literacy race while teaching your preschooler the alphabet can make them a sure winner. Teaching the alphabet letters does not need to be arduous or complicated and certainly does not require special tools. One of the simplest way to teach your child the alphabet is by using food. After all, your child needs to eat.

Here are some fun A-B-C food snacks to get you and your child started:

A Snacks: Almonds, Alphabet cereal, Alphabet soup, American cheese, Angel Food Cake, Animal Crackers, Apple Butter/Juice, Apples, applesauce, Apricot, Asparagus, Avocados

B Snacks: Banana splits, Bacon, Bagels, Baked Beans, Banana Bread, Barbecue Beans Bean Sprouts, Beets, Berries, Black Eyed Peas, Bran Muffins, Bread Sticks, Broth, Brownies, Brown Sugar, Brussel Sprouts, Butterscotch, Buttermilk, Beef, Bell Peppers, Biscuits, Bologna, Brazil Nuts

C Snacks: Carrot sticks, Cucumber slices, Celery sticks, Cheese, Crackers, Cinnamon rolls, Cornbread, Cereal, Carrot juice, Cranberry juice, Cantaloupe, Cottage cheese, Cashews, Cupcakes, Cauliflower

D Snacks: Doughnuts, "Dirt" cakes (chocolate cupcakes), Deviled eggs, "Devil" sandwiches (put a devil face on bologna or cheese with condiment), Hot dogs

E Snacks: Eggs, English muffins, Egg drop soup, Hard-boiled eggs, Eggplant, Eskimo pies

F Snacks: French Fries, Corn Fritters, French Bread, Finger foods, Fig Newtons

G Snacks: green jello, graham crackers, garlic bread, garbanzo beans, goulash, green beans, greens grapes, grape juice, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, Gatorade, granola, guava, green split peas (or pea soup), grits, gingerbread, gummy candy (bears, worms, fish, etc.)

H Snacks: Ham, hamburger, hash, hazelnuts, hoagies, honey, honeydew melon, hot chocolate, hot dog, hot sauce

I Snacks: Ice, ice cream, ice tea, Italian bread, Ice cubes

J Snacks: Jam, Jambalaya, Jello, Jelly, jerky, johnnycakes, juice, jellybeans, Jello jigglers

K Snacks: Kiwi, Kite-shaped sugar cookies

L Snacks: Lemonade, Lemon cookies, Lemon sherbet, Lemon Lollipops, Lime koolaid

M Snacks: Muffins, Milk, Milkshakes, Macaroni and cheese, Marshmallows, M and Ms

N Snacks: Nachos, navy beans, nectarines, Neapolitan ice cream, noodles
nut bread, nuts (not for small children).

O Snacks: Oatmeal cookies, Oranges, Orange sweet rolls, Edible O's (using cookie dough), Olives

P Snacks: Peanut butter, pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, pasta, prunes, pineapple
pizza, potato pancakes, regular pancakes, cheese pretzels

Q Snacks: Quiche, Quaker Oats, "Q" Cookies

R Snacks: Raisins, Rice and raisin pudding, Raisin-Apple Muffins, Rice cakes with peanut butter, Rice cakes (flavored), Red jello

S Snacks: Sandwiches, Sugar cookies, Salad, Soup, Strawberries, Salsa, Sour cream

Toast, Tea, Tangerines, Tuna, Teddy Grahams, Trix cereal, Taffy, Tapioca pudding, Tofu, Triscuit crackers, Tomato, Trident gum, Twix candy bar

Ugli Fruit{Also called Unique Fruit, it's a cross between an orange and a grapefruit}, upside-down Cake

Vegetables, Velveeta cheese, Vienna Sausages, Vegetable Soup, Velvet Cake, Vanilla Cookies, Vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream, Vermicelli noodles

Walnuts, Waffles, Whipped cream, Wheat, Wieners, Watermelon

X-shaped cookies

Yams, Yogurt, Yellow cake, Yeast rolls

Zucchini, Zucchini Bread, Fried Zucchini (cut into strips like french fries, bread, and fry. Serve with ketchup!), Zesta saltine crackers, Zwieback Toast

To fill in with the letters without many snacks or to reinforce and review letters you can use condiments to create letters or build straight letters using pretzel sticks and the like. You can also trace letters in many foods such as peanut butter, whipped cream, frosting, mashed potatoes and so on. When the children are ready you can let them create letters out of foods too.

Learning the alphabet letters can be as easy as A-B-C when you use food to make learning fun and easy for your child.

Learn more about learning the alphabet letters at http://www.squidoo.com/learningthealphabetletters/

Learning The Alphabet Letters By Making Learning Fun

Learning the alphabet letters is an important part of early childhood education but it can be fun, too. Here are some fun suggestions to make alphabet fun for your child.

A Fun: Make paper airplanes and fly them around, or line up chairs in 2 rows and pretend it's the inside of an airplane. Make up your own tickets, provide flags to wave when the runway is clear. Pretend to be alligators in a swamp.

B Fun: Make bead or button necklaces. Play with balloons or beach balls. Paint butterflies: Fold white construction. paper in half - cut out a butterfly shape. drop small amounts of tempera on one wing - fold and press together.

C Fun: Make cotton ball art projects. Paint clown faces on you and child. Play with clay. Play with cars.

D Fun: Color or paint pictures of dinosaurs. Play with stuffed dogs or real dogs (if you have them).

E Fun: Decorate envelopes to mail to a friend or grandparent. Pretend you are elephants. Pull out an art easel and make art. Make up your own episode of "Elmo's World".

F fun: Go fishing (for real or pretend). Pretend to be a frog. Decorate fish. Make foot prints.

G Fun: Cut a green sponge in the shape of a G. Wet the sponge and place in a shallow pan. Add water as needed to keep the sponge wet, but not soggy. Let the child sprinkle on the grass seed and watch the grass sprout and grow. Make art with glue and glitter. Make gingerbread people out of paper or cookies.

H Fun: Make hats from construction paper and decorate them with stickers or cutouts of things beginning with the letter H. Play a hopping game (frogs, rabbits, whatever you like)

I Fun: Go on an insect hunt and record your finds by drawing pictures. Have them make an "I" collage that is all about them and their favorite things. Ice cookies or freeze juice to make special ice cubes. Make or play with musical instruments.

J Fun: Make jewelry by stringing beads. Paint or finger paint with Jello. Play jumping games such as jumping races, jumping rope, jumping over things, jumping jacks. Pretend to be jet planes and zoom around.

K Fun: Make paper kites and decorate. Crown a "King" for the day. Make "kisses" on paper. Color or pain kangaroos.

L Fun: Make a lollipop tree with styrofoam. Paste cotton on a lamb picture. Make a "love" collage of things they love.

M Fun: Make masks. Make a "Me" book. Make or play with magic wands. Make macaroni necklaces.

N Fun: Have some fun with names. Make necklaces. Make a "night" collage. Make up a bedtime story for the night.

O Fun: Trace a big O and a little O on a piece of paper then glue Fruit Loops inside the O's. Make an opposite book. Have an orange day (wear orange clothes) and find orange colored items around you. Make owl puppets or color owls.

P Fun: Make puzzles out of cards, postcards, photos or artwork. Make popcorn. Paint. Have a pajama party.

Q Fun: Make a Queen for the day. Paint with q-tips. Quack like a duck. Play quiet and loud.

R Fun: Let the child draw/color rabbits and add a cotton ball tail. Make rabbit ear head bands and give your child a cotton ball tail and pretend to be rabbits for a day. Paint with radishes. Make rainbows. Have a "Red" day.

S Fun: Sprinkle a painting with salt so it dries all sparkly. Make cloud pictures with white chalk or cotton on blue paper. Play Simon Says.

T Fun: Decorate T-shirts with fabric paints or do Tie-dye. Have a tea party. Build a tower with blocks. Play with trains, pretend to be trains, color pictures of trains, tell stories about trains.

U Fun: Make "U" shapes with pipe cleaners or play dough. Throw balls underhand. Go up stairs. Draw pictures or tell stories about uncles. Listen to the story of The Ugly Duckling. Draw, color or glue a unicorn picture

V Fun: Make Valentines. Find various velcro objects in your home. Make vests from the large size paper shopping bag or an old piece of cloth and decorate with glitter, ribbon, fabric scraps, vegetable stamping, etc. Talk about, color and/or eat different vegetables.

W Fun: Make a mural using wallpaper samples. Make a "W" using watermelon seeds. Using pipe cleaners and googly eyes, and lots of other imaginative doodads, make a pet/monster/whatever that has Whiskers using the "W" anyway they want.

X Fun: Max X-traordinary puppets using paper bags. Have a treasure hunt with a map where "x" marks the spot. Make or play xylophone music.

Y Fun: Have a "yellow" day. Make a "yellow" scrapbook using old magazines. Paint yellow flowers.

Z Fun: Use rick rack to make a "Z" mural. Play zany zoo animals. Walk in a zig zag.

Learn more about your child development and child education at http://www.squidoo.com/childsdevelopment

Preschool Education - What You Must Teach Your Preschooler

Many members of my mother's generation did not even attend kindergarten. Many members of my generation did not even attend preschool. With my son's generation preschool has become a necessary part of preparation for formal education. In fact for most children, formal education actually begins with preschool. That does not mean that preschool education begins the first day of preschool. In fact, if you want your child to successful in preschool and beyond then you must prepare your child for preschool. What are some of the things you will need to teach your preschooler?

First and foremost you must help your child become as independent as possible. This means toilet training and basic hygiene as well as the ability to dress themselves. Prepare your child mentally and emotionally for the idea of independence from you and other primary caregivers. Preschool teachers are obviously caring and helpful but they will not be able to give the same level of attention many children are accustomed to from their primary caregiver.

There are also some basic concepts that children must learn. These lessons will be solidified during preschool but if a child grasps them before preschool that is even better. This includes knowledge of colors and shapes. Do not spend a lot of time drilling this knowledge into your child, but instead casually introduce it to your child through daily life. Name the colors of the clothes your child will wear that day. Point out various shapes during the day or even cut food into a shape of the day.

Begin working with your toddler early to introduce the letters of the alphabet and then as those are mastered begin introducing the beginning letter sounds. Again, make these lessons fun and casual as you go about your daily routine. Similarly, begin working on counting as you cook, clean and dress.

Why must you prepare your preschooler for preschool? As I pointed out in the opening paragraph, the educational bar is continually being raised. Kindergarten is no longer about preparation. Real education goals are set and children learn reading and math. They begin learning several reading concepts and are expected to count to 100 in kindergarten. First grade students are reading and performing complex math and money problems. Children can enter preschool without any knowledge of independence, colors, shapes, letters, and numbers, but a head start can help them be more successful in preschool and then later in formal education.

A child who starts kindergarten not knowing these concepts will be behind and may never get caught up. Even worse, this late start will destroy the child's self esteem and confidence as well as cause the child to hate school and learning. Some children can overcome these challenges and go on to become successful but all too many children continue to fail throughout school and life. Which would you rather for your child's future? If you want your child to succeed in preschool, formal education, and life then you should work on the key concepts long before schooling starts.

Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more articles for your family at http://ezinesbydawggone.com

Good Parenting Advice - Encourage Imaginative Play

Imaginative play is an important part of childhood. Not only is it fun for children but it is also an essential part of learning and developing. Children learn about themselves, about their world, and lay the groundwork for their future through imaginative play. Yet too many children are not encouraged to use their imagination through play. There are three essential ways you can encourage imaginative play in your child -- by providing the place, the time, and the supplies.

Does your child have a place for imaginative play? Is there somewhere, even the corner of a room, where they can build a block city or shape play dough monsters? Can they assemble all their stuffed animals into a school or all their cars into a parade? While children should be encouraged to pick up after themselves sometimes it takes a while to build the city of their dreams and they want time to play with it again. Try to strike a balance between your need for order and their need for imaginative play. Give them a day or so to create a complex setting for their imaginative play before forcing them to put away their toys.

Does your child have the time for imaginative play? It is amazing how many young children have a very full schedule. While many of these activities are likely required, such as school or day care, and many are also desirable, such as sports or clubs, it is also important that children be given the opportunity for free, unstructured play that allows the opportunity for imaginative play. It is not desirable that every moment of every day be structured and planned. Children who are not given the opportunity to exercise their imagination run the risk of losing the ability to use it at all.

Does your child have the supplies for imaginative play? As we know from our own childhood that imaginative play does not require extensive and elaborate supplies, but children do need access to objects they can use. A complex wardrobe is not necessary but a few items can be helpful. A bath towel might be a king's robe or a super hero's cape or swaddling for a baby. A cardboard tube from wrapping paper might be a sword, the container for a secret map, or a spyglass. A cardboard box might be everything from a treasure chest to a race car. Provide a few basic supplies and try not to be too suggestive in their use. Children will do better if allowed to give their imagination free rein without your interference and control.

Imaginative play can be a wonderful opportunity for your child to not only enjoy their childhood but also to learn and grow as people by trying on different roles such as parents, cooks, police officers, and firefighters but also to experience safe adventures as pirates, explorers and paleontologists. Imaginative play should be encouraged in children by allowing them the place, the time, and the supplies for imaginative play.

Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more good parenting advice in her blogs at http://deannamascle.com