An alphabet puzzle is an effective way to teach your kid the ABCs because it allows him to visualize the letters in the alphabet while putting them together in order. For this game you will need large foam alphabet puzzle pieces. Instruct your child to put the puzzle together so that the alphabet is in correct order. He cannot fit two incorrect alphabet letters next to each other due to the different puzzle piece shapes. Allow your child to run through the puzzle once as practice. Then, have him put the puzzle together again while you time him with a stopwatch. Play the puzzle game daily and time him each time until his score gets better and better.
An ideal game for teaching your child how to identify different letters is called Find the Letter. In this game you call out a letter and your child must find that letter and show it to you. Set up the game by placing alphabet blocks around the room. As you call the letter out, your child races from one block to the next to see if that is the right letter. When she finds the letter, she brings the block to you for approval. If she gets the answer correct, give her a point for that round. If she brings you the wrong letter, she must keep searching for the right one.
Letter Match is a game where your child must match the uppercase letter to the appropriate lowercase letter on a worksheet. Create a worksheet with two columns of letters. One column must have uppercase letters and the second column must have all lowercase letters. Your child will use a crayon to draw a line from the "A" to the "a," etc. To make the worksheet more interesting and stimulating, draw pictures next to the letters of images that begin with that letter.
The alphabet race is a board game that you make to give your child practice identifying and saying letters. Create a trail for the board using squares that wind around the board in a snakelike pattern. Write one letter in each square. You also need dice and game pieces for this game. To play, instruct your child to roll the dice and move his piece as many spaces as the dice number shows. When he lands on the square, he says the name of the letter out loud. If the letter is incorrect, he goes back to start. If he gets the letter right, he rolls again.
Play an alphabet learning game on your refrigerator with ABC magnets. Give your child a simple word to spell using the magnets, such as "cup" and "dog." You can also have your child practice spelling her name. When she gets better at this, have her write messages with the ABC magnets, like "Hi, Mommy." Then, write back to her with your own magnet message for her to read.