Growing Bookworms: Making learning the alphabet fun
Posted: January 7, 2020 Filed under: Growing Bookworms, Reading | Tags: educational games, Growing Bookworms, Reading, Robbie Cheadle, teaching reading, Writing to be Read, young readers 37 Comments
In the Southern hemisphere, January is the time of year when our children start a new school year. This year, my youngest son is starting secondary (high) school which means, new environment, new friends, new teachers – just about new everything. He is anxious about it and I keep reminding him that the groundwork for this transition to high school has been laid over many years of nursery, pre-prep and prep school and he is well equipped to deal with the changes.
Sitting with him over the past few weeks of his holiday (and mine) and ensuring he reads [and understands] his first high school English set work book and his first Afrikaans (second language) reader, I was reminded of when I taught both my boys to read when they were six years old. In South Africa, children only start reading when they are seven, but my boys were keen to read and I saw no reason why I, with two degrees and the equivalent of a masters, couldn’t teach them something so common place. Ha! It proved to be significantly harder than I expected and I take my hat off to pre-prep teachers who teach children to read so effortlessly. For me it was a slog. Of course, it didn’t help that I forgot to start by teaching Gregory the alphabet. I am not sure how I thought he would read words before he could recognise his letters, but somehow, it slipped with me. Despite my only teaching Greg the alphabet after I taught him his first two hundred sight words, he still learned to read quickly and is now an accomplished reader. I can no longer say he is a prolific reader as, at seventeen years old, he is not that keen on reading at the moment. Hopefully it will change down the line when the allure of being the same as everyone else wears off.
Anyhow, these memories led me to thinking how important knowing the alphabet and learning the sounds is for children as they travel the path towards literacy.
My boys and I had a lot of fun learning the alphabet. Michael, aged three, got to sit in on Greg’s (aged six) lessons, and Greg (aged nine) got to help Michael (aged six), when he started his reading journey. One of our favourite past times, when Greg was learning, was singing the alphabet song:
Greg, Michael and I also used our time in the car to learn the alphabet. We played a game called “I spy” and we would each chose an item that started with a certain letter and the others would have to guess what it was. This game was a lot of fun and we played it for a number of years. The boys used to ask for it when we traveled. Now they ask for audio books and we listened to an awful lot of Eva Ibbotson books when we toured Scotland in August 2019.
The third fun activity we played to learn the alphabet was to bake an item that started with a certain letter. It had to be an exact sound match so, we couldn’t for example, make gingerbread for the letter “g”. This game and tasting session was very popular and sometimes we invited friends over to join in the fun. I specifically remember making jelly cakes [have you ever heard of those – if not you will find the recipe in Sir Chocolate and the Condensed Milk River story and cookbook.
Multicoloured jelly cupcakes
The nice thing about baking with children is that it is also a wonderful opportunity to teach them maths concepts like grams and kilograms and millilitres and litres. They also learn to weigh and measure and realise the importance of being exact. I even taught mine about ounces and pints as some of my cook books use English measures.
Do you know any fun games to teach children the alphabet? Let me know in the comments.
About Robbie Cheadle
Hello, my name is Robbie, short for Roberta. I am an author with six published children’s picture books in the Sir Chocolate books series for children aged 2 to 9 years old (co-authored with my son, Michael Cheadle), one published middle grade book in the Silly Willy series and one published preteen/young adult fictionalised biography about my mother’s life as a young girl growing up in an English town in Suffolk during World War II called While the Bombs Fell (co-authored with my mother, Elsie Hancy Eaton). All of my children’s book are written under Robbie Cheadle and are published by TSL Publications.
I have recently branched into adult and young adult horror and supernatural writing and, in order to clearly differential my children’s books from my adult writing, I plan to publish these books under Roberta Eaton Cheadle. My first supernatural book published in that name, Through the Nethergate, is now available.
I have participated in a number of anthologies:
- Two short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Dark Visions, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre;
- Three short stories in Death Among Us, an anthology of murder mystery stories, edited by Stephen Bentley;
- Three short stories in #1 Amazon bestselling anthology, Nightmareland, a collection of horror stories edited by Dan Alatorre; and
- Two short stories in Whispers of the Past, an anthology of paranormal stories, edited by Kaye Lynne Booth.
I also have a book of poetry called Open a new door, with fellow South African poet, Kim Blades.
Find Robbie Cheadle
Blog: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/
Blog: robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com
Goodreads: Robbie Cheadle – Goodreads
Twitter: BakeandWrite
Instagram: Robbie Cheadle – Instagram
Facebook: Sir Chocolate Books
Want to be sure not to miss any of Robbie’s “Growing Bookworms” segments? Subscribe to Writing to be Read for e-mail notifications whenever new content is posted or follow WtbR on WordPress. If you found it interesting or entertaining, please share.
Writing to be Read 
A delightful post and I agree children learn much through cooking…and games this post brings back so many memories…Thank you, Ladies 🙂 x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Carol. It is such a great bonding experience too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Robbie, I hope Michael has a great time in his new school! It is so daunting for them but I tried to reassure my son at the time, everyone new feels the same. Through battling the unknown friendships are formed! The first days are not easy on us parents either, as we can’t help but worry!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michael is leaving for the introductory school camp tomorrow, Annika. They come back Sunday. I hope he will have a great time and I know I will miss him madly. Thanks for sharing your experience.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on Robbie's inspiration and commented:
I am over at Kaye Lynne Booth’s blog, Writing to be Read, today with a post about Making learning the alphabet fun. I have shared some of the things I used to do with my son when they were at this stage with their learning.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I encouraged my three year old to ‘read’ baby books to his little sister and one day when he was five he picked up a book from the library that we hadn’t read yet and started reading it. All along I had been doing ‘look and say’ and he learned to read that way. BUT I soon discovered that different methods work with different children and his little brother had to have special help with reading at school!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had the same with my boys, Janet. Greg was a prolific and competent reader by the age of 7. Michael had difficulties due to a learning barrier and attended a remedial school. I persisted and read with him until he was 12 years old. Now he is an above average reader for his age group.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are so many great games that you can play with kids, to get them used to sounds and phonics, which will help their understanding of word building, that makes it easier for them to read! It’s a long, but interesting process for some!
LikeLike
Hi Ritu, you will have lots of experience in this. I am glad you make it fun for the kids. It was quite dry and rote based when I was at school and I was already reading, so deathly boring too. It is a long process for some.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When we were younger, it was different, but I guess theorists male different discoveries all the time, and the realisation that a child needs to know the basic phonic sounds in order to decode, created a whole different set of schemes of work, offering ways to teach!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Super post, Robbie! The opportunities to grow bookworms is everywhere and I love how you and Michael and joined forces in writing the Sir Chocolate series–a most wonderful way to make the love of reading personal for families. KUDOS! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Bette, our writing collaboration has been great fun. Michael is going off on his first high school introductory camp today. I can’t believe how the time has flown.
LikeLike
The key to any new school experience is making friends. If this is hard for your son, perhaps he can find a club at the school to join. Finding other kids with the same interest is an easy way to feel accepted and belonging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Pete. The school holds a camp for the boys for four days before school starts so that they can bond and make friends. Michael is leaving for this camp today. I hope it goes well and he comes home happy. He is also enrolled to do drums at school, which he has already been playing for a few years. He will join the band and that will, hopefully, help too. It is a mother’s role in life to worry about her children. Our hearts live outside our bodies.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We dads do our share of worrying too—afraid it comes with the territory when you become a parent. The band is a perfect place to make new friends.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good article, Robbie. I love your approach of cooking and reading.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jacqui. I am glad you enjoyed this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This posting is greatest motivation for all working with children, and their needs growing up with fun. Michael
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Michael. My Michael always has to be enticed into working at anything. He used to run away at homework time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Me too, in the past, Robbie! It isnt unusual for children having fun doing homework. Only the professionality of the teacher can act against.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right about this, Michael. My boys have wonderful teachers and do such interesting things at school. We just sat in a classroom and learned facts by heart.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sound for me like a fairytale. Here till now, the Prussia style is given.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hopefully it will change one day, Michael. You get better work out of children if the learning process is fun.
LikeLike
looks like good material; forwarded to my wife, a pre-school teacher.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Jim, I hope she finds it useful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gee, when I learned phonics in first grade, there was no singing involved. Or sweets! I like your method of teaching much better than worksheets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks LIz, I think I would have been a good teacher of younger children. Anyhow, I have taught my own and it worked with them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you would have been a wonderful teacher of young children!
LikeLike
Lovely post Robbie. You’re such a good mom. 🙂
LikeLike
Thank you, Debby. I really try.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It shows 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Terrific post Robbie.. children are like sponges and will soak up everything. We used to play ‘I Spy’ on long journeys as children. Wishing Michael a great start in school. I remember it being very exciting and I hope he finds it the same. x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sally, Wow, what a week it has been. Michael has been on a 4 day camp and started school with sports trials and a welcome chapel service and parents evening. We have all survived and Michael seems much settled and comfortable now.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That’s great news Robbie, sounds like a really good school.. xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love how you used cooking to help the boys learn reading, Robbie – great idea, and fun at the same time. It’s tough raising readers – especially boys – and I hope Greg reads more when he has time. When my youngest has breaks from school, he’ll try to work in a couple of books.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Teri, Greg has decided to do advanced English at school. I have seen the programme and it covers some splendid books, drama plays and movies. It will definitely make him read more as the programme is quite demanding. We are going to do some buddy reads.
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] Bookworms” has great ideas for promoting literacy in children. Topics discussed “Making Learning the Alphabet Fun“, “Reading and Mathematics“, obtaining a balance of parental approval, “Sir […]
LikeLike