Many children’s books are based on the alphabet and many kindergarten readiness evaluations will ask children about letters. There is no doubt that having some basic knowledge of letter names is beneficial before going off to school. But letters have names and they also have associated sounds. Sometimes, these are the same but sometimes they are quite different.
Matching letters and sounds will be part of many activities in the early grades but before kids go off to school we can 
help build their awareness of sounds and train their ears to hear ones that are the same and different. Since this is pumpkin season, what other things start with the same ‘puh’ sound as pumpkin? Pirate, pickle, panda, pants, pig, pineapple, puzzle, puppy, etc. For wee ones, even if they are not yet talking, just babble off a string of words that all start with p. (Make some up if you can’t think of any.)
For older tots, you can pair up some words and ask kids if they start the same or not: pumpkin-puppy/pumpkin-sunflower. It’s okay for adults to give these answers if kids are not able to–this is a difficult skill that involves comparing sounds. Some children may be able to add to the list of words that start like pumpkin: pineapple, princess, pillow, penguin, and more. Hmm, maybe some pizza or pasta and for dessert some pumpkin pie with a slice of pineapple will package up this readiness for kindergarten learning? Or is this a pickle?