Our Kindergartner-in-Training series has officially ended its hiatus. As something that started when our now 7.5 year old son was 5.5, I am continuing the series with our preschool-aged twins who are now 4.5 years old. They will not be starting kindergarten until they are 5.75 because of when their birthdays land. Compared to previous Kindergartner-in-Training posts, these will include less challenging activities to coordinate with the twins' skill levels. It will be quite a challenge because our twins differ so much from each other when it comes to learning.
Since neither twin has the entire alphabet committed to memory yet, I decided that this ABC Dot-to-Dot book would be a fun way for both twins to become more familiar with the order of the alphabet, as well as letter recognition. When they sit down to do this activity, I provide them with a list of capital ABCs so they can use it for reference when they do not know which letter comes next.
This is not an activity that I can sit back and let them complete on their own. It is only effective if I am constantly asking things like "Which letter is that? What letter comes next?" so that they are hearing the name of each letter spoken and are associating it with the visual representation. This activity also is a good way to practice mastering the skill of controlling a pencil.
Our 4.5 year old daughter does very well with this activity. She understands how to refer to the ABC list when she gets stuck, plus she loves to color in the picture after the dot-to-dot portion has been completed. Her twin brother, however, finds this activity to be very difficult. He seems to consistently not put as much effort into most learning activities compared to his sister, so it is a challenge to get him to complete one whole dot-to-dot puzzle in the time it takes his sister to complete two puzzles.
The dot-to-dot book we purchased was ABC Dot-to-Dot by Joan Hoffman and seems to be perfect for preschoolers. It has a theme around the seasons and the pictures are interesting, but not too complicated, and are fun to color afterwards. Here are some other alphabet dot-to-dot books available:
If you end up trying any of these books for your child, I would love to know how you like them.