Partial Vent and Partial need of Reassurance

[Crystal]

She doesn't HAVE to learn her letters now. We are doing them as part of our curriculum. Who doesn't expose kids to letters by age 2.5? I am not pushing it on her. We are doing crafts that involve letters and I go over what the letter is and the sound it makes. We talk about the letters in our names. She is not frustrated, I am and I keep it inside so she doesn't pick up on it. And memorizing the letters is the first step in learning how to match sounds with the letters. It's an important building block for reading.

I posted this thread because I was looking for some support and encouragement. Perhaps I'm reading the tone of your post incorrectly. I apologize if that's the case. I'm not trying to sound snotty or rude, but I feel like I have to defend that I'm teaching the letters to my kids. We all get frustrated in our jobs and I needed to know that I wasn't alone.

My tone probably sounded diferent than I intended. My apologies. I didn't mean to put you on the defensive....I guess I get frustrated that some providers try too hard...it makes your job more difficult than it needs to be, and as you see, frustrates you.

I think we all expose children to the alphabet by 2.5, but, to me, it's not so important that I introduce the individual sounds at this age. It's really not even developmentally appropriate - the focus at this age needs to be about hands on learning through play based activities. While I sing the abc's with the kids, I typically start teaching letter recognition through the use of their names. Every time I write their name on their artwork, I spell it outloud as I write each letter. I have no expectation of the child to repeat the letter or the sound, but they usually do copy what I sa. Typically by 3 my children are writing their name, by 4-4.5 they know the letters and sounds and by 5 they are reading.

Anyways, NO you are not alone....we all get frustrated, and there are some days that I think each and every provider questions their career choice.