Homeschooling is a wonderful journey and one we take from day one. Most people think about the years from Kindergarten on up through high school as the homeschooling journey. However, in my opinion, there are a lot of learning opportunities that take place in those younger years, if we make it a priority.

Before I even considered homeschooling, I found that I was teaching my little ones at home. From the toddler years onward, I made sure to have different activities involving different skills throughout the day. From stacking blocks to letters and numbers, there was always a learning task to be done. It wasn’t long before I was starting to print off activities and began trying to be more deliberate in my planning of their days.

The alphabet was the first printed, planned and organized learning that I did with my kids. When my oldest daughter was two, I began doing a letter-a-week for her. I would scour the internet to find activities and printables that we could do together throughout that week. No week was exactly the same and it took hours to find just the right activities.

Flash forward seven years, and I have had a completely different experience with my youngest daughter who is two. While there are a ton of different activities out there for you to use in your letter curriculum, most of the time, it involves a lot of searching and compiling.

Instead of wasting the extra time spent searching, there is one site that will provide a multi-sensory approach for your child. The ABC Twiggles Program will let you relax, click, download and prepare to teach your child with much less stress and time waste. With a year membership only $24, it’s affordable too!

ABC Twiggles provides printables, online activities, themes and more for each letter of the alphabet. Making it a one-stop-shop for your alphabet lesson planning.

Each letter has it’s own dedicated page, making navigation of the site a breeze. Most items are just a click to download. This made planning and printing quick and easy to do and prepare.

But, ABC Twiggles is more than just download and print. One thing I loved about the site is that there are many different ideas and activities that involved all the different senses. The spirit of a multi-sensory approach means that there are activities for each letter that will bring the letter into many different contexts (tactile, auditory, kinesthetic, and visual). Each letter page includes activities that will help your child use her five senses to enhance their learning. These activities include using art, drama, music, movement, food and literature.

For the more complicated items (not just print and use), when you click on the item, there was a description of the activity, instructions and even the other supplies you need to have on hand. I loved that this was all laid out for me and I did not have to put it all together or figure out the details.

For our uses, I downloaded and printed each letter’s printable activities and put them in an organizer. Each week I pulled out the new letter items and we were ready to start. A few times in the week, we got on the computer and did the online activities as well. I loved that I knew exactly where I was going and that each letter’s page was organized in the same way so finding the activity was quick and easy.

If you are looking to start teaching the alphabet to your child, the ABC Twiggles Program is a great site to get all that you need. With simplicity and easy navigation, you will be teaching your kid(s) their letters in no time. The multi-sensory approach will help them learn in many ways and make learning more fun all around!

- Product review by Alexis Bennett, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2017

ABC Twiggles

KidsSoup, Inc.

www.abctwiggles.com

858.756.8644

13223 Black Mountain Rd. #181

San Diego CA 92129

I always enjoy the preschool years and the joy of teaching my little ones the letters of the alphabet. With my two-year-old son, I was able to use a hands-on approach and use the ABC Twiggles program. 

ABC Twiggles is such a fun program that teaches the letters of the alphabet with a multi-sensory approach. Each letter of the alphabet has an animal friend and/or object associated with it and includes visual-, auditory-, kinesthetic-, and tactile-learning opportunities. All five senses are stimulated within using the program through the use of dramatic play, music, art, literature, and movement. 

The ABC Twiggles program includes more than 41 printables and activities along with 2 interactive books for each letter. Also included are a helpful lesson guide and lesson plan backed by research-driven state and national standards. Signing up for a yearly membership of $24 gives you instant access to all the resources for easy download. Every letter includes and animal friend and object to accompany it, e.g., R is for Rabbit and Rocks. Each letter comes with chants, craft ideas, rhymes, movement ideas, tongue twisters, craft ideas, posters, e-books, and more.

Setting up my account was as easy as logging in. Getting the program ready to use was just as simple as picking which letter I wanted to start with. It is recommended that you print, cut, and laminate as needed the letter puppets, letter posters, sandpaper letters, letter placements, and letter banners before beginning each letter week. 

Because my son is learning his name, I chose to start with the letter M which just happens to be the letter sequence that ABC Twiggles recommends *m-s-f-l-r-t-p-n-b-h-k-d-v-j-w-x-y-z-q-c-g-a-o-i-u-e*. Since ABC Twiggles strives to provide a gentle introduction to the alphabet, one that gives a gentle instruction before an in-depth phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, only beginning vowel sounds are learned in this program. In addition, both the soft and hard sounds for the letters Cc and Gg found at the beginning of words are introduced. This technique is a new sequence for me but was easy to incorporate.

Overall, I have really been enjoying using this gentle program with my son. It is the perfect blend of hands-on learning, and the activities keep his attention, which is great because he is still young. I especially love that he can now recognize the letters of his name and points them out while we are out and about town. Having a solid foundation in letter recognition is an important stepping stone to phonemic awareness, and ABC Twiggles provides that solid foundation right from the start.

-Product review by Jacquelin Caffey, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2017