Can you recite the alphabet backwards?  Can your children?

What sounds like a simply activity is rather challenging.  From a young age, we have been repeating the alphabet over and over.  The letters are ingrained in our memory in an A to Z format, not Z to A.

According to the website Braingle, the reason this is so difficult is that the alphabet is taught using serial-learning.  This means that each letter is a cue for the next letter.  Therefore when you hear, “D” you automatically think “E” not “C”.

My kids and I have been working on learning the alphabet backwards after we found a fun website of songs, one of them being the backwards alphabet.

It is much easier to learn the letters to a song and/or rhythm than it is to simply say the letters.

Idea of the Day:

Learn the alphabet backwards with your children.

Here is a fun song by SongDrops.com, to help you with the activity:

The CDA Song

Today’s post does not have a great deal of educational value.  It is simply funny.

I was looking for children’s songs when I came across songdrops.com by Bryant Oden.

When I played a couple of these for my 1st grader, he started belly laughing.  My 3 year old liked the silly voice of the singer but didn’t understand the humor.

If you are against discussing bodily functions, then you may not want to watch the video.  It is not gross and disgusting or anything like that, I just know that some families find the word “fart” inappropriate.

So far we have only listened to a few of the songs. The two that have produced a lot of great giggles are

The Tomato Song and I Got a Pea.

Have you heard of Sing-A-Lingo?

I am always looking for fun yet authentic foreign language books, toys, CDs, etc for my children.  Recently I found out about a small company in Massachusetts that sells Spanish products.  They are working on developing CDs and other learning tools  to teach Spanish to children ages 2-6.  Currently they have a CD entitled, En Mi Casa. They have also created lyric and vocab cards to accompany the CD.

After watching their You Tube video and listening to a few of the samples songs, I decided to buy the CD.  I am anxiously awaiting its arrival and hope my kids like it as much as I think they will.

I like that it is a small company that was founded by two people who are musicians, educators and parents.  With that kind of background, I believe they will be able to produce high quality learning materials for children.

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Do you sing the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with your children?

This song is commonly used to help preschoolers learn body parts.  By age 3, most children know their body parts.  However does your 3 year old know where his/her wrist is?  Elbow?  Ankle?

Why isn’t there a song to teach more specific parts of the body?

(Actually there probably is, I just haven’t looked hard enough).

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Did you know Sesame Street has a Spanish CD?

Ok, it is not completely in Spanish.  It is more Spanglish, but it is a very fun CD.  My kids learned to count from 1 to 10, forwards and backwards in Spanish singing with this CD.

I have to admit, I am not usually a big Sesame Street person.  Yes my children have watched it from time to time and they both went through an Elmo phase of life.  We love the characters but have never been into the actual TV program.

It may be because of the fact that Elmo talks in the third person.  This drives me crazy!  Children naturally go through the phase of referring to themselves in the third person.  Why would a program continue to expose children to incorrect grammar?

Enough ranting about bad grammar.  I do encourage you to check out the Fiesta Songs CD.  We love it!

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