Alphabet Knowledge

I discovered Lakeshore this summer on a break I had between clients. It was great for me, but not so great for our wallet (especially when I was already paying ASU for the clinical rotation, ha ha). Basically, Lakeshore is a teachers/speech pathologists/educators/moms dream store for teaching materials. It's the best.

My first visit I wanted to buy everything on the shelf. But, I controlled myself and only bought these two products:

These are tactile letters, and I only bought the uppercase ones (for now). The letters are textured with a rough, sand-paper feel. In school we learn that kids learn in many different ways. Generally, when you can present information to them in multiple modalities (visually, auditorily, tactily), they learn it easier/better/faster. That's why I love these letters. Kids can see and feel them simultaneously, and can really "get to know" the letters if you will.

My son and I played with them for hours yesterday and he loved them! He cried when he couldn't take them with him for his nap.


I also bought these lowercase letter cubes (though I bought a pack of 6 that are all over double the size of the ones pictured). These letter cubes are great because you can really play and have fun with the letters. My son and I would roll them back and forth to each other and then we'd hurry and try to find a specified letter on the cube. Or we just took turns rolling the dice and trying to get a specified letter. We also played a racing game where we lined 3 cubes up on the couch on one side of the room, went to the other side of the room, and then raced to get a specific letter. My son loved beating me and getting to the appropriate letter first.

Making learning fun will engage your child and help them to enjoy working with the letters at a young age.