Anyone who's ever met Matt and me would guess that our spawn would be the most tenacious little humans on the continent. Sure enough, that is the case, and our headstrong three-year-old seems to get more stubborn every hour! Our most recent issue is this.
Being the slacker that I am these days (and I also like to blame the fact that we hardly spend two strait weeks in the same region of the US), it's been a while since I worked really consistently on educational junk with Jesse. So we're just now starting, really, to address letter identification. Yesterday we went over A-D and he picked it up immediately, but I didn't go any further. I want to make sure he learns them well and doesn't get too many letters all jumbled up in his brain. So today I pulled out the flashcards to review and see if he was ready for a couple new letters, and he was definitely enthusiastic to get started. I mentally patted myself on the back and praised my genius knack for teaching while I pulled out the homemade cards. We went through the letters he knows, and he got each one right. Mental gold stars for both of us. Then we began to go through again, and he started to play with me. He insisted that "A" was "B," and that "C" was "Stink." No matter what I said, he wouldn't budge. When I'd had enough and began to just plain argue with him, he only dug in deeper and clung to his opinions like his life was at stake. Now how the crap do you teach a kid the alphabet when he wants to make up his own names for each letter?
Seriously! Any suggestions? I can tell you from experience that he is not likely to back down on this anytime soon. I feel like it's time to call in the professionals. But professionals of what?! People who got their doctorate in the field of, "Education for Indomitable Children Who Refuse to Learn" ???!!! Well the only people I know like that are YOU GUYS- parents of your own impossible little offspring. So please write me with ANYTHING you can think of to try. And please, don't leave a note just to laugh at me. Though to be honest, that's what I would do.
4 comments:
Some of my suggestions: Play word games- "what words start with 'B'? Ball, baby...boy. But the fact he's under 4 and shows no interest, let it go for a while. There's no evidence that suggests that early alphabet learning is related to more advanced reading skills later on. Or if you're insistent, enroll him in a preschool program.
I tried 'teaching' our daughter Kalli the alphabet a while back, but it didn't go well at all. She ended up picking it up pretty much on her own. It's amazing how much their little sponges for brains learn from just day to day stuff. Fridge Phonics (Leap Frog product) may have helped too. Good luck...he'll know his letters before you know it!
Stacey
Yes, I agree with the Leap Frog magnets. But like you said. He takes after you guys so, our suggestions probably won't matter ;o) Love ya! xoxo
Hey Beck loves this ABC zoo game on the fisher price website that you press the letter and it says what letter it is and then what animal starts with that letter and it makes the noise the animal makes and I think that has helped Beck boy. He loves to read books and do flash cards too so maybe try any of that crap and see if it works. Either way Jesse is so cute he can use that to get through life... who needs the alphabet? Much love.
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