Bug Learns the Alphabet Song

Bug (2y) knows the names of all the letters. Not because we've ever drilled him, or gone out of our way to teach him, simply from playing and being exposed.

We've almost never sang the alphabet song to him. It just doesn't come up. The very few times I have, I don't even sing it to the typical tune.

We were putting together an alphabet puzzle last week and he asked me to "count the letters" (which means name them). I decided to sing the song while I pointed to each letter. He enjoyed it, and asked for me to do it again. For about 30 minutes he wanted me to sing the song to him. Then he gave it a try for maybe another 30 minutes. Within the hour he had the song mastered and now sings it whenever the mood strikes him.

It goes to show, when kids are ready to learn something, when they WANT to learn something, they can pick it up very quickly. Much more quickly than if I had tried to get him to learn it on my timetable instead of his.