Mamas, my little girl is struggling with Kindergarten 
she knows her alphabet but can’t identify and has trouble writing them. No matter how much we work with her, there’s not much progress. My husband suggested a learning app, but we’ve tried ABC mouse before, and it wasn’t for her. My question is, what other learning apps do you guys use? And I was thinking of making flashcards with her lower and uppercase letters, but how would you address the writing? Is there something I’m not thinking of? Give me all your tips, ladies! We may try ABC mouse again… it’s been some time, and maybe she just wasn’t ready yet. All advice welcome! I’m also not the most patient person either; God did not make me a teacher!
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Did she do pre k? It’s still very early in the year so give it time. Kids that don’t do pre k are a little more behind then they ones that do. Flash cards are a tool. Abcya is a great website also
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I loved the preschool prep videos books flash cards and work books they are on amazon.
See if you can do ignite/hatch it’s like hatch through ignite or something like that
have you tried getting the abc books where they trace the letter? or write them down for her and have her trace yours. that may help
Not sure if this would help, but my daughter loved it! This was in a coloring book, and I just made my own after the fact.
Get flour and put a flat pan. Have her use that to practice letters. It is only October and these kindergarteners have had a rough start. She will get it. Just patience and practice for the time being. You are doing great.
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It all depends on how she learns. My daughter is pretty advanced for her age but I’m constantly working with her since her dad and I decided not to send her to preschool. I’ve always liked the dry erase hack. Get writing paper, write uppercase and lowercase of each letter, laminate the pages, and have her trace and write with dry erase markers.
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I use to use a water gun to help my son write letters or numbers, we go outside and squirt the water and shape it like letters or numbers, m&m’s arrange it into letters
I use to write the letters all out and my daughter traced them.
I dont have advice, just wanted to let you know you arent alone. My son is in Kindergarten this year, did pre k last year until Covid 19 hit and he still cant write his abcs and can not even recognize all of them yet. He knows colors, shapes, how to cut with scissors but not how to write. They will get there.
I just bought my 5 year old an activity book. It has the numbers and letters to trace and colors and shapes. $2.50 at Wal-Mart.
Sheet of paper. Numbers from 0-10 one side and alphabet other side. Laminate and use white board marker for her to go over, wipe clean after every use and get her to do again and again whilst she counts and sings alphabet.
Get some sheet protectors write one letter on a paper then place the paper in the sheet protector. Give her a dry erase marker and she can practice over and over again.
Dollar Tree has workbooks that could help. Look for an alphabet puzzle. I am currently working with a student in the same situation. Lots of patience and rewards, something simple. Our kids in class get a skittle and they are thrilled with it.
I do elementary intervention and flash cards would be a great idea and if possible, get a white board and dry erase marker and have her write the letters as you’re asking which letter is on the flash card. Or there are a lot of websites that you can print out letter worksheets she can trace.
I wrote them out had her trace them in crayon since 2
Have her trace the alphabet on paper. Either you right it out in marker and have her trace it with a pencil or print out some paper with the ABCs on them and have her trace the lines with a pencil. That helped my 5yr old. She didn’t like it but it did help her memorize her ABCs
The suggestions above are great, my kiddos liked Starfall, and just start with the letters of her name in capitals. Then add 1 more every week. Then try lower case letters and match to capitals. It’s early yet in the year, but if this persists into Feb I’d recommend some testing. 1 in 5 kids has dyslexia, so it’s pretty common and can impact her study habits through school. She will likely be reading 10+ words and beginner texts before mastering the alphabet.
Google squishy bags… they are a fun exciting way for little ones to learn both the letters and the writing
Make sure she’s physically ready to write. Do lots of fine motor activities. Such as puzzles, tearing paper, manipulative, etc. if or when those things seem to easy move on to another stage. Writing with her pointer finger in flour, sand shaving cream or other things like that. Color with her, cutting with safety scissors, form letters with her with play dough. Go step by step with her. Have fun keep it interesting and progressing as she masters each step.
Work on her fine motor skills, there are lots of fun things she can do to get her hands ready to start writing
Have her trace them. Helped me and my brother out a lot and it’s how my daughter is learning to identify them. I also have foam bath letters that my son who’s 2 uses and that’s how he picked it up.
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I found a couple apps that my son used a lot on my phone. It was free and he was able to trace letters and numbers and I think it helped him alot
Look up videos for a fun “break.”
I would suggest to just point out the letters as you see them. on food wrappers or boxes or bottles, on toys, on books. i think we all get so wrapped up in the apps but the old school methods work too. start with recognition first and tracing. my daughters teacher suggest we write letters in yellow and they copy over in pencil.
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You can write letters and numbers with a highlighter and she traces over them. We watched lots of Leap Frog DVD’s. lots of practice. Got a workbook and would do some pages every night before bed. Also, we do a word wall. Sight words are typed out and taped to the closet door. In addition, to me hand writing the words on flash cards so we can make a game out of it. Turn them upside down, roll a ball, where it lands the child has to turn it over and say what it says.
I really loved Khan academy. It’s an app and very well formatted but totally free. Also just keep reading together. When my son started kindergarten he seriously was struggling to read level one I can read books. It was so frustrating but we just kept practicing our sight words and reading together every night. He is now in 1st and reading at a 5th grade level. It will click just dont pressure yourself or her.
My kids liked the Endless Alphabet app.
Whatever you do. Be consistent. Don’t stop because you don’t see any progress. It will show but not right away. My now 1st grader struggled a lot when she started kindergarten last year. We did sight words everyday. Rhymes everyday. Not kidding that took an hour after school. After a month she started showing she is getting it and ever since she is doing amazing.
Handwriting without tears helped my autistic son.
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We do an erasable marker book so she can practice writing them. We have a Frozen one that has upper and lower case. I find those helpful!
If she can’t identify them she doesn’t know them. Singing the song and actually knowing the letters are two different things.
Did she go to preschool? If she didn’t I would maybe start there. I would also recommend talking with her teacher for some suggestions and resources.
I don’t have really any experience with flash cards but they sound like a good idea since for a lot of children repetition is key.
Time 4 learning is nice!! Its helping my son who has autism and my daughter who had the same issues on not being able to identify
Mine couldn’t do abc mouse
Squishy bags they are great
Honestly, my husband and I played hangman together on a boogie board together, we would write out a word based on a theme she picked and had her shout out letters at first, then had her start drawing them for us. She just turned 5 and honestly abc mouse is terrible for her, she only feeds the animals and clicks through stuff for tickets for outfits, it still isn’t worth it for us. Kids really need to have the practice holding a writing tool and calling out letters as you see them on signs is great too like “I see a B can you find it?” It helps. Also board I use is here: Boogie Board J3SP10001 Scribble and Play Color LCD Writing Tablet + Stylus Smart Paper for Drawing eWriter Ages 4+ Amazon.com: Boogie Board Scribble n’ Play Reusable Kids’ Drawing Board Includes LCD Doodle Board with Color Burst, Easy Erase Button, 4 Texture Drawing Styluses for Kids Ages 4+ : Electronics
I dont know anything about the apps but my sugestion work in 1 or 2 letters at a time do it for a few days till she knows them or shows that she is starting to. I started with mines name. I would write it out for her and make a couple lines for her to trace and then have her try on her own a few times.
jack hartman on youtube…he has videos that help sound out the letters…my son has done very well from these videos
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Flash cards were great for us and coloring helps develop the muscles needed for writing letters. Don’t worry She will get it. Takes time
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I run a daycare and I have letters of alphabet upper & lower fir each letter that we use dry erasers for tracing , we do a letter a day and use akili for letter songs . I use a $1 booklet that they use to trace and print as well .lots of stickers on hand for good effort .then we do a craft to make an animal they associate with the letter makes it easier for remembering . We’ve used sand to write letters in shave cream , make letters out of play dough . The first letters they seem to recognize the best are o x. We also throw a dry erase die with different letters on it . We use chalk on the trampoline or make hopscotch fir numbers . I bought a little leapfrog pad and had them trace and do a activity after with numbers like clap nine times . We used colourful beads to form the letters in their name , pipe cleaners to count with using beads . We’ve painted foam alphabet letters & numbers and used them as stamps . Learning should be Fun! Use your Imagination be creative . Good luck
Teaching through play is key. Through play use a lot of fine motor skill activities and sensory activities and hands on hands if she gets stuck or needs help. Lastly, YouTube works for my son. During covid he hasn’t been able to socialize so he learns through seeing other kids play with the alphabet and other educational stuff, once he observes the kids he’s more willing to try it in his own with me.
We love abc bingo. We also practice zoophonics while playing it.
We use wipe clean books from usborn books they are reasonably priced. I just received lower case letters for my daughter who struggles with certain letters and she loves it! It only cost 7.99
I use the lined paper for preschoolers and write the letters in highlighter, then have my little one trace over my letters. Also have puzzles that are the letters and say them as we do it together. Repetition is the biggest thing.
I had to do letter flash cards with my son every single day for like 2 months before he knew them all. Then from there sounds and writing. The apps were not helpful.
See if you can get Handwriting Without Tears. It uses 4 terms ( big curve, little curve ,big line and little line ) to describe forming the letters. We had great results with it in preschool. You can probably get just the basics although the extras are helpful but it could get expensive. If you have other little ones it would be worth it.
Make it fun! The learning apps are great! Takes the pressure off you a bit. Try making gestures for each letter and saying the letter name and letter sound with the gesture. The more senses they use in learning the better they learn!
I use to take a cookie sheet pan and pour some sugar on it and let my kids write their letters in the sugar then you shake it erase it and do another one my kids could careless about apps when they were in kindergarten lol
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What has the teacher said? Maybe there could be a learning difficulty
Maybe see if she needs glasses, she might not be able to see the letters properly
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My son never went to preschool. He started school when he was 4. The first year was a struggle and his teacher said we should hold him back. It took that whole first year for him to get used to being away from us. We had him repeat k4 and he’s now in 2nd grade doing amazing! He’s ahead of his class and confident with himself. Every child is different. They are little tiny humans absorbing so much around them. Give her time and be patient there may be something else she is advancing in.
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Try hooked on phonics it is AWSOME my son was wayyy behind and after alil over a month he was on track. It comes with apps. Mail u books every month and sends flash cards and work books its only like 10$ a month
With my daughter who’s in kindergarten I’ve made flash cards of upper and lower case letters, and I’ve also wrote out each letter of the alphabet multiple times with dotted lines for her to trace over and I left room underneath for her to try writing each letter without the dotted lines guiding her. Also I bought books at dollar tree for her to trace letters. And we spend alot of time learning the sound each letter makes when we do the flashcards, but there’s also songs on YouTube with each letter and its sound and I found she caught on more with the songs. Or you can spend a week with each letter of the alphabet and learning how to write it and sound it out. Once your child has that letter covered move on to the next! Good luck mama!
We had the same problem. Ours was with sight words and not reading or writing. Come to find out after 1st grade they said they couldn’t pass her so we made them test her for Special Education. We fought hard and finally they tested her and came back and said she’s not qualified for special education. And I told them I also wanted testing for dyslexia. They tested the next day and they said she was showing all signs of dyslexia. Since then she gets help at school and we don’t have tears from her anymore! Now she’s in 4th grade and thriving but we also keep close contact with her sped teacher and we pay a private dyslexia tutor 4 hours a week to work with her. It’s been a huge turn around.
My daughter had this same issue. We repeated, and she’s in 1st grade now making all A’s and reading and writing.
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My son loved the ‘Teach your monster to read’ app
Flash cards with pictures, they are not that expensive. Also stencils work well. Also if she did not have preschool it is not fair to expect her to know the entire alphabet in a couple months. It takes time and practice to learn to read letters and write. Also an app will not work to teach her how to write. You can get the special lined paper that we all used in lower grades in school. Remember you did not learn to write and recognize your letters overnight, it takes most us the entire first year of school to get good at the letters. If you have worked with her and she still struggles there could be dyslexia or some other minor learning disorder, but give her more than a couple months in school before you panic. Also good old fashioned refrigerator magnets, teach her to point to the letters while singing the alphabet song.
Sam’s club sells a great series of books starting with what your Kindergartener needs to know up to the eighth grade I bought them for my kids they are wonderful Math spellings Poems Songs Geography everything they should learn at the right age and grade
I made my son a giant poster with the alphabet on it and we posted it up In the living room and song the song every day with me pointing to each letter I also wrote them out dot to dot form on paper for him to trace … good luck momma she’ll get it 
If she goes to school. Ask the teacher about Smarty Ants. Or maybe it’s something you can look into yourself. My son loves it.
Long time ago,what we used to do was,make each letter with little and lite dots,so they will trace the letter.They used to be a notebook with the letters already with the dots.
Reading Eggs and Bimi Boo Academy are really good
Try writing the alphabet in dot to dot and have her trace over it. Flash cards are and excellent idea.
Talk to school about getting her tested for iep.iep helps kids that need extra to understand things.it helps in all subjects and writing.
Have her eyes tested… she might be dyslexic.
Starfall and ABCya are great apps.
I make these for my little girl. She traces the letters and colors in the right circles.
Flashcards are a fantastic idea! Also, you can use them to have her trace letters in shaving cream, or get a disposable pan and have her practice writing and identifying letters in sand within the pan(way less of a mess). I am a special education teacher and also have a struggling child in 1st grade. These are some things that have helped us. Also easycbm.com has a lite version which is free. You can download letter recognition assessments to identify known letters and unknown letters to help identify ones to focus on. Handwriting sheets are also helpful.
Unless you go year round, it’s very early in the year. Most seasoned teacher agree Kindergarten curriculum is too advanced for the age, especially for the younger ones. Make it fun, but don’t worry until mid year. She shouldn’t know all of her sounds right now anyway, only the beginning ones.
I have used books where she can trace her letters and numbers when my daughter was about 2 years old. Also, she used to draw and color alot so that gave her practice as to how to hold her pencil with grip. I have used flash cards and read loads of books to her. She now reads and writes on her own which is perfect because she started Kindergarten. Try the tracing and reading lots of books but those are some of the things which worked for us. YouTube has alot of videos too with sight words, learning to write, and stories she can listen to.
Practice, practice, practice!
Breathe mama!!! It’s kindergarten, the most important thing is for her to absorb through repetition and fun! Absolutely, we are not teachers and I feel you, but just try your hardest without stressing your baby out, that can take the fun out of it. Don’t compare your child’s progress to other. Just breathe have fun don’t stress mama, wish you the best!
If you have access to a printer you can actually print out practice sheets or make some yourself ams have your child retrace,thats what they use in kidergarten You can also buy workbooks or go to library and find books and print out sheets. Do the flash cards, they will help too. Be persistent, consistent and patient. Good luck
I hear you about being patient!! Its hard! My son is a kindergartner as well and he struggled a little with letters but is doing much better now that he’s in an atmosphere that is structured. My son is really in to superheroes so we started by learning letters that started with their names and it just took off. For writing we put sand or flower on a cookie sheet and wrote letters in that. This summer we did sidewalk chalk or you can do that bath crayons in the bath.
I have lot of things you can try 1 is tracing the letters 2 she can do a preschool learning book they sell these at walmart
Leapfrog videos go to dollar tree and they have cute workbooks and flash cards. When xmas stuff comes out walmart usually has abc bath toys in the xmas gift section
Get an ABC puzzle my son was obsessed with it. He knew his ABCs and could identify them before he was 3. We also did flash cards and watched PBS kids.
She is only in the kindergarden “school” why are u pushing a toddler so hard…? She will learn eventually dont push it she must enjoy the proses not be forced…just stay calm mommy it will happen
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We got my son some wipe clean books in Preschool that helped him. They can trace the letter and then they learn the basic for it and it’s like dry erase. Hang in there. Every kid goes at their own pace.
Try outschool. Fun classes for young learners. Also I find with my kid hands on works better because they can touch it.
I would look at alternative ways to have her practice. I have taught kinder for years. At this point in the year she should still be learning to identify letters and what sounds they make. Reading doesn’t come until the 2nd half of the year. Teach through play. Not apps. Read her silly books. Have her point out letters she knows. If she asks for a banana, emphasize the /b/ sound at the beginning and ask what letter it starts with. Build phonemic awareness into normal activities. If you want more explicit practice, smear shaving cream on the table and have her practice writing her letters with her finger. Stamp letters in playdough, etc. Look on pinterest. Kids that age aren’t made to sit and do worksheets or even apps. They want to play and create
Get a caulk board right out the alphabet and let your child trace the letters with wet (damp) paint brush and don’t fuss if it’s not perfect just have fun with it.
Iv got flashcards and laminated myself some numbers and the alphabet plus books ect. My little one has known the alphabet and numbers up to 30 since she was 1 and a half ish… She’s 3 next week and can’t identify what it is if i show her… My youngest is 1and a half and she’s barely speaking. Every child is different unless it’s something your really concerned about i wouldn’t worry, they’ll eventually pick it up
Maybe try having her trace the letter as you go through them speaking them to her. Good luck & have patients she’ll come along
I recommend dry erase books with traceable letters, and YouTube learning songs/ videos (I like to make playlists with a mix of alpha blocks, Jack Hartman and singing walrus.) Also, remember that everyone learns at their own pace and try not to stress too much.
Have her associate the letters with pics on flash cards. Then move on to writing exercises where she can trace them over. It takes time, don’t give up.
Leapfrog learning about letters is a DVD and my kids loved it. There are other videos in the series and I highly recommend them.
Start by concentrating on just the letters in her name. Those have meaning for her and as a bonus skill she will learn to recognize and even write her name.
I have a water pad and pens. The boarder is the alphabet. You can trace it with the lens, then it dries and you can do it again.
Over the summer we did a letter a week. I just wrote the letter on a regular paper with highlighter and did v is for vegetable and wrote the word and drew a picture. You can have them trace the letter. And draw their own picture.
My son had the same issue. He had the hardest time. Still does in first grade. But they are really good about working with him on what he’s struggling with. And we have flash cards Which have become so great
I’m having my daughter paint the alphabet, ill write it large a few times on paper and she will paint over it.
Check Amazon. They have tons of flash cards, workbooks, kindergarten teaching kits, tracing white boards etc. There’s also lots of activities/board games that incorporate learning so it’s more fun.
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Is it that important right now?
Starfalls was amazing for my girls.
Try stencils for writing
I’m thinking about trying this, looks cool!
I remember when I was in kindergarten. We played, sang songs, took naps and learned colors. A lot different today. Not in a good way.
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Leapfrog really helped my son. This leapPad helped a lot
We have always bought the learning books that let you trace and write the letters. I got my nephews 2 years ago at dollar tree and family dollar