You look online and it seems everyone has a right and wrong way to teach the alphabet. 

I’ve read posts saying you should teach the alphabet in a specific order. I’ve read posts saying you shouldn’t teach the name of the letters, but the sound the letters make first. I’ve read posts saying you should teach the lowercase letters before the uppercase letters.

It all seems rather complicated and stressful. 

As a parent, it can be overwhelming looking at things like this. Yes, we all know we should be teaching our preschoolers the alphabet, but why does it have to be a stressful thing? 

Honestly, my daughter knew the alphabet before she was 2 and it took very little effort on my part. 

I’m not saying this to brag. I’m saying it because I sincerely don’t understand why some people make this a complicated thing. 

Even though she already knows the alphabet, I’ve read all these articles about the “proper” way to do it and it stresses me out! 

Did I teach her wrong? 

Is the way I taught her going to make it harder to read? 

Have I already ruined my kid’s ability to do well in school? 

Okay, let’s wind the anxiety back a bit and get to the beginning of the story. 

When my daughter was about 18 months I truly became a WFHM. 

Prior to this point I WAS working from home, but my boyfriend wasn’t working at the time and was able to take care of our daughter during the day. 

When he finally went back to work, things suddenly got more complicated. I had to find a way to manage my one year old AND work at the same time. 

I’m not gonna lie, we watched a lot of TV. 

I’d start work as early as I was allowed, she’d wake up 2 or 3 hours later, and then the TV was turned on. 

Don’t get me wrong, there were also random toys and books spread out around the living room we would play with as well. There were just good chunks of the day when we would both be on the couch and she’d be staring at the screen munching on some cereal. 

I felt so bad! 

Here was my beautiful, hyper kid just staring at a TV for hours a day! We’ve all heard how TERRIBLE screen time is for kids, especially babies and toddlers. 

So, one day I had a really good mental talk with myself about it. 

Was I able to stop all screen time and actively play with my kid while also working 5 – 6 hours a day? No. 

Could I try and make the screen time a positive thing though? Definitely! 

Yes, Bubble Guppies, Paw Patrol, and Santiago of the Seas are all great shows! Cartoons make a real effort to teach kids things these days in any way they can. 

The problem is these shows were not geared towards 1 year olds.

Many shows these days are geared for preschool and kindergarten aged kids. As great as I think my daughter is, she’s not going to pick up on social cues about right and wrong and other people’s emotions. She’s not going to learn any problem solving skills to use on her next adventure. 

She’s 1. She’s just going to be happy about the bright colors and fun songs. 

When it boils down to it, learning takes directness and repetition. 

If I wanted her to learn something it had to be very obvious and repeated over and over again. 

So, I took to Youtube! 

The Solution

We were already working on teaching my daughter things like letters, shapes, and colors. We weren’t super focused on it, but we’d point stuff out to her here and there and talk about it. 

The beauty of the world we live in is how easy it is to find information. 

All I had to do was put in Alphabet Song in YouTube and I had more choices than I knew what to do with. 

The video that I really think helped my daughter learn the alphabet was this one. 

Not only does it sing the alphabet song over and over and over again, but it also focuses on each individual letter. Each letter gets a good 30 seconds and they spend that time showing the letter on the screen multiple times and saying words that start with that letter. 

My daughter loved this video! She loved the alphabet songs. She’d stop playing and baby dance anytime they came on. She also really enjoyed the sections about each letter. 

We’d only get halfway through the 50 minute video before she lost all interest and became intolerable, but it was progress! I felt less guilty about the screen time she was getting and I was able to focus more on my work. 

Showing your kid a YouTube video everyday isn’t going to teach them something though. You as a parent need to reinforce that knowledge and help them build on it. 

In addition to showing my daughter that YouTube video, I also started spending 5 – 10 minutes every night reviewing the alphabet with her. 

Most days I would break out a big drawing mat and some bees wax crayons and we’d color! 

While she was learning how to hold the crayon and make marks on the paper, I would draw some letters. 

I would start by asking her what the name of the letter was. If she knew the name of the letter I would praise her and mention the sound the letter made. If she got it wrong I would correct her and we would repeat the name of the letter a few times. 

Tired Mama Alternative

While this is what we did MOST nights, there are times I was just too tired for it. 

When we’d had a really long day, I would break out the tablet.

Again, the world we live in, it’s super easy to find educational apps for your kids. 

My favorite app that we used was Lucas and Friends ABCs. It’s free and has no ads! 

While the app itself has quite a few games for kids to play, the game we focused on was simply tracing the alphabet. We started with the uppercase letters and moved to the lowercase letters once she mastered the uppercase ones. 

Now, I’m not saying hand your 1 year old a tablet and walk away. I’m sure they would figure out what they should be doing, but it wouldn’t be a very effective way for them to learn anything. 

On the days we practiced with the tablet I would sit my kid in my lap and show her how to use her pointer finger to trace the letters. At the age of 1 it’s likely your kid will need help folding down their other fingers. 

Preschool aged kids and younger learn better when they can touch things. By tracing the alphabet on a tablet she was getting familiar with the shapes and curves of each letter. 

Both of these activities were not only good at teaching the alphabet, but they also helped foster a love of learning. Learning the alphabet wasn’t a boring, stressful thing. It was one on one time with Mom where we cuddled and drew on some paper or a tablet. 

Both of these activities were great fine motor skill activities as well, by the way. 

That’s it! After a few weeks of doing this everyday my daughter started learning more and more letters. I honestly think her favorite part was when Dad would come home and we’d show him all the letters she knew. 

Other YouTube Videos

As time went by I did branch out to other videos. I could only watch the same hour long video so many times before losing my mind. 

A video I recommend for kids of all ages is Leapfrog Letter Factory. This can be found on YouTube or you can purchase it on Amazon. This movie was a great way to go over the sounds of each letter. They also have Leapfrog Phonics Farm, Leapfrog Numberland, and Leapfrog Adventures in Shapeville Park. 

All of these videos are repetitive and have great little songs for your kid to enjoy. 

There you have it folks. The tried and true way I taught my 18 month old the alphabet. Be sure to save this post so you can reference the video list later! 

What are your thoughts? Are there any fun activities that you do with your kid to teach them the alphabet?