I have been struggling a bit to teach Brady how to spell his name. He can recite to you, “B-R-A-D-Y” but has had trouble learning to write it and also identifying the letters.
I have a hard time with a lot of “learn to spell your name” activities because I feel like they are for kids who already know how to spell it. They are more like quizzes than teaching opportunities. I’ve been trying to find a way to incorporate fun with letter recognition without just shoving flashcards down his throat. I made this simple name puzzle assuming he wouldn’t like it but surprisingly he did!
Make a Learn Your Name Puzzle
All you need is a few index cards and markers to make these. I cut each card in half in a different pattern; zig zag, swirl, diagonal, etc. Then I wrote the uppercase letter and lower case letter in the same color – one on each side.
Since he has been having difficulty identifying the upper and lower case letters I thought it was important to put them here. He gets to match the big B with the little B and he doesn’t necessarily have to know they go together. He can make the match by color or by fitting them together.
I make sure he puts them in order of his name and then when he’s complete we start at the beginning and repeat each letter. I point and he says, “big B, little b” and so on. If he needs help, I tell him what it is but make him look and repeat it. This isn’t a quick solution but this is a fun way to get him paying closer attention to the letters in his name.
Liz is a just a mom trying to keep it real about how little she sleeps, how often she gets puked on and how much she loves them. You can find her here every day writing about real-mom moments.
