How to Teach Letter and Number Recognition to Your Child: A Fun and Simple Way for Parents

It doesn't matter which Language you are trying to teach your child, or anybody for that matter, letter and number recognition (1 -10) is essential.

I am going to share with you the methods I carried out to teach my children letter and number recognition. You can start as early as 3 years old, especially when they have shown interests in reading. The best part? These can be used for ANY language!

Materials you need

  1. Marker/pen and paper. (If you have alphabet/numbers flashcards, you may use them too!)
  2. Any book with capital letters of the letter you are teaching (cover page or contents)
  3. YOUR GREATEST CHEER FOR YOUR CHILD! 

Teaching your child

Depending on your child's age and attention span, we can start off with one letter a day. To explain the methods, we are going to use the letter A (capital letter).

  1. Write out the letter A on the paper. For those who are using the flashcards, pick out letter A. 
  2. Taking your child's hand, point it to the letter A, and say "This is letter A."
  3. Make your child repeat once after you by saying, "Say A"
  4. After your child has repeated, immediately ask for High-5 and cheer him/her with "GOOD JOB!!"
  5. Now, you are going to point to the same letter and ask him/her, "What letter is this?"
  6. If your child is able to say "A", once again, give a high-5 and a cheer. If your child is unable to say it, repeat steps 2 - 5 just once more.
  7. Now, get the book and point to the letter "A" and ask your child, "Can you point to me the big letter A?"
  8. Again, once pointed correctly, give them a high-5 and a cheer!
  9. Next, find a word preferably all capital letters, if not, as long as only the letter A is capitalised.
  10. Using their finger point to each letter of the word and ask them, "Is this big letter A?" 
  11. Once the letter has been identified correctly, a high-5 and a cheer. End it off with a big hug! 
    • If your child is unable to identify correctly, do not worry! You will repeat this on the next day/session.

Consistency in Revision

After doing all the above, over the whole day, or before the introduction of a new letter/number, make it a conscious effort to get your child to identify the letter "A" around him/her.

  • For letters, you can use any other book or the signages on the roads, or even the notices on the lift/lift lobby!
  • For numbers, you can use the block numbers and the lift buttons for your child to identify. 

Remember to always revise with them the previous session's letter/number before starting on a new one.

Scaling up

  • Once you and your child have gotten the groove of the sessions, you can slowly introduce 2 letters/2 numbers a day.
  • After completing all the capital letters from A-Z, you can start with doing lowercase letters.
  • After lowercase letters, you can start phonics with them.
  • For numbers, once you have completed 1-10, you can go on to the next set of numbers of 11-20.
  • You can also use this method for any other language like Arabic*.

Instilling The Love for Reading, Writing and Maths

Being a mother of 4, I can assure you that your involvement and being the one to teach your child, will bear beautiful fruits.

The love for reading and maths is not just a one-off thing. You need to ensure that they see the interconnection of reading and maths with their lives. I would do certain things for this.

  • For Love of Reading:
    • When my children were aged 4 and below,  I would read to them almost every day. They get to pick out the book they want.
    • By the age of 5, my children were able to read fluently on their own so reading to them was an occasional thing. We turned out living room into a mini library, decked with books, for them to access it easily. Their favourite type of books? Encyclopedias! When they wanted to know more about a certain animal, they will be directed to an encyclopedia. 

 

  • For Love of Writing:
    • When my children show readiness to write, they would be writing their names, Birthday Cards and Thank You Cards*.
    • I would write one out first and they will copy. This is known as copy-writing.
    • I love to gift them simple notes or cards, with a simple "I love you." And now, their favourite thing to write? "I love you, Mummy." I have stacks of papers chucked in my box of papers under the bed!

 

  • For Love of Maths: I gifted my children their own calculator, albeit it being cheap, in their favourite colour. I would tell them my phone number over and over again, getting them to punch it into their calculator because should they get lost, they will know how to get an adult to call me. They would use it then as pretend phone to call anyone by forming up their own phone number! 

In conclusion,

Teaching your child letter and number recognition is not difficult. It's just that we parents feel lost on how or what to start. I hope by sharing these methods, you will feel more confident to teach your child and kickstart your journey of being the first educator for your child today!

If you require additional assistance, please do contact me at enquiry@sgmathsmentor.com or sgmathsmentor@gmail.com 

*Additional For Muslim Mothers

Before teaching my children any alphabet or number, i will teach them to recognise the kalimah of Allah (الله) and Muhammad (مُحَمَّد) first.

I will point to the kalimah throughout the day and get my child to say "Allah" and "Muhammad".

The late Habib Taha Al-Barr, who was the caretaker of Habib Nuh's maqam, advised me to teach my children hijaiyah first before alphabets. Alhamdulillah, I did that using the above methods and only then did I progress to alphabets and numbers.

Our teacher, Ustazah Farhana Munshi, advised us to teach our children to write the Kalimah of Allah first when teaching them to write. Alhamdulillah, we heeded the advise. After that, it was the alphabets.

I hope these advices will be useful for you. May Allah ease your teaching, sisters!

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