Athena starts school in September so of course many of the activities I am introducing her to are planned to subtly steer her towards the learning she will start in her reception year. She’s not all that interested in wanting to write yet, and pushes back when I try and suggest it as an activity. We have a few wipe-clean books and also some apps that she will spend some time on, but other than pointing out A’s and practising a few letters so far she’s not too keen. She does however love games, so a game that introduced the alphabet in a fun way is right up her street. Strictly the Alphabet Flashcards from Orchard Toys isn’t a game, more of a learning tool, but we made it into a game easily. The box contains 26 double sided cards with a different picture and word on one side and the letter it starts with on the reverse plus an a-z reference board.
Its a great way to help recognise letters, work on pronunciation and first spellings too. At the moment the main way we use the set is to mix all the cards up and then use the index card to put them all in order. We then practise the saying the letter with on each card; meaning we’ve worked on pronunciation and visual recognition at the same time. Some of the words are simpler than others, meaning that there are ways to stretch knowledge. Sometimes once we’ve laid them all out in the right order we’ll sing the alphabet song and I’ll point along as we sing the letters
Another activity would be to pick cards at random and try and think of more words starting with the same letter, or practising writing each letter, which is the stage we’ll move on to next! All learning should be fun, and hope that the more we play with the Alphabet Flashcards the easier it will be for Athena to learn her ABC’s! The set is also easily transported, good for car and train journeys and for keeping kids busy at restaurants whilst waiting for food to arrive!
Available from Amazon & all good toy retailers. You can view the full range of Learning and Literacy games from Orchard Games here.
We were sent this game for the purpose of this review, all words and opinions are my own. Post contains affiliate links.