When starting kindergarten, some children will know their abc’s. Some will still be developing this knowledge. While it is not mandatory for kindergarten readiness that kids know the alphabet, some familiarity with letters and sounds is really helpful. Practicing them can be done in lots of ordinary, everyday situations such as putting on a pair of socks. A parent or caregiver may say something like, “Here is your sock. SSSS. Sock starts with this sound. SSSS. What else starts SSSS with that same sound? Oh, did you hear that? Same goes ssss, too. What else?” As before, some kids will be able to give a few other words such as sun, or supper or soap that start with the same sound while others may not. In either case, hearing adults supply lots of words that start with the ssss sound helps children learn.
Parents can extend the learning for kids by telling them that sock starts with the ssss sound and that is the letter S. Sun and soap and supper all start with the ssss sound, so they all start with the letter S, too, just like sock.That’s some pretty powerful readiness for kindergarten practice with the help of a sock. Doing this a few times will help sock it in, the learning that is. S is for sock.
