Go Easy on the Alphabet Books

It’s normal to teach your child the alphabet.  I actually thought it was necessary - of course, my son needs to know how to read and write.  After all, that’s what we do in life.  That’s what he will do in life.

To confirm my belief, we received many alphabet books as gifts, I saw them on shelves and bought them myself, and many YouTube kids’ channels were teaching them. 

Spoiler alert! The alphabet is and has always been a thing.  And that is why we don’t need to spend our precious book time on teaching our children the alphabet. Our kids will learn the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors in depth in school. 

Teaching them corollarily is great.  We incorporate all of the above in a variety of places.  But try to find books on other topics that your child won’t learn in school and use those books to teach the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors. 

Children are most impressionable when they are young.  Using this time to teach them emotional intelligence, empathy, patience and inclusion will help them far more in life than if they can recognize their letters before they start pre-school.  

Recently, we’ve been reading “The Little Blue Truck” books.  One, in particular, talks about how a new animal comes to town and each of the animals hesitates because the new animal is not like them. 

It’s a fun and wonderful way to teach inclusion and highlight the value of differences.  

With this book, you can easily incorporate…

• letters as the animal sounds lend well to phonics

• numbers by counting the animals

• shapes by analyzing the parts of the animals or scenery, and 

• colors through the vivid illustrations. 

But, what about the reverse?  Can you teach inclusion through an alphabet book?  (Yes, there are some books out there (and probably more being written)).

But if you want to teach a value, a skill, it’s certainly easier and more powerful in story form. Before you grab the first book you see in the store, think of something you want your child to learn and search specifically for that book. I think you’ll be amazed at the options available!