Learning the alphabet can be a joy for some and a real struggle for others – so if you can make it fun, then why not? Here we share with you some of our favourite tried and tested products to help your little ones on their way. Some of them you can easily incorporate into your daily lives…

1. Alpha Block by Christopher Franceschelli (art by the British design team Peskimo). A favourite with Harriet and Harry,  (£8.79) features thick pages which are cut into the shape of each letter. The reader plays a guessing game – seeing the letter first and a hint of the word associated with that letter. A sort of peek-a-boo game. This book is clever and differs from similar alphabet books on the market by the way that it presents the shape and feel of each letter to the reader.
2. Alphabet letter iron-on patches by Hampshire-based illustrator Jennie Maizels. The vibrant colours and quirky designs of these iron-on letters (£1.99 each) make them fun for parent and child alike. Harriet has her initials on her pre-school kit bag and they have really helped her to familiarise herself with her name.
3. a to z magnatab game by Kid-o. The magnatab game (£24.99) is available in lowercase or uppercase letters. A great way to learn letters as well as to practise handwriting. Ball bearings magnetically rise up when the pen passes over. A really engaging and innovative way to make learning fun.
4. IWood Alphabet Puzzle by Janod (£24.88). allows our minis to really have a feel for letters and to see them all in alphabetical order. As well as helping them to develop hand-eye coordination, you can also use to the puzzle to learn colours.
5. Cotton bag with lower case letter felt motifs (£11.90). A very easy bag of letters to take out and about with you. Each letter has velcro on the reverse side for easy attaching to a teaching board or backcloth. Use them to learn each letter and therafter to start putting words together.
6. These by Alain Grée (£5.99) are a favourite in our households. With delightful animations and simple white backgrounds, they are the most effective flashcards we have found. There are two sets of cards. One set has the letters of the alphabet and illustrations and the other has the letters in lower and upper case. It can be hard to find flashcards with lowercase letters on, so these having both is ideal.
7. Encourage learning as part of your everyday activities with these modern melamine alphabet deep plate (£9.00) and cutlery sets (£23.00) by Design Letters. These feature typography by one of our favourite designers Arne Jacobsen.

As a little extra item at the end… we thought we would share with you our favourite iTunes app for alphabet learning. Endless Alphabet by Originator Inc. is an interactive app with friendly monsters, talking letters, letter matching and animation skits that help to teach children the spelling and definitions of words. For those of you in the UK, this is an American app and so the narrator speaks with an American accent. We have found that even though word pronunciation in the app is in American English, the phonics and letter names are in British English and so hasn’t impacted our minis’ pronunciation of words. This is an app we would definitely recommend.

Do let us know if you have found any other interesting products to help your minis learn their letters.

Katie & Georgie