Teaching the Alphabet

Try videotape called "Alphabet Jungle." I got it from Walmart for less than $5.00. It was very entertaining and my 10 year old learned to recognize the letters quickly. Already looking forward to using it with my 2 month old.

Starfall.com is great. My daughter also really liked the Leap Frog movie called the "Letter Factory". It teaches the letters and their sounds. There is also a Leap Frog toy with magnetic letters and a thing to stick them in that will tell what letter it is and sing a song about the sound it makes. I think it's called "Fridge Phonics". It comes with the upper case letters, but you can buy a pack separately with the lower case letters also. Pretty fun ways for kids to learn these days! :-)

Another starfall.com fan here :) Things that also helped my son were books about the alphabet and playing with his refrigerator magnets with him. We'd sing the ABCs and point out each letter. He enjoyed some workbooks I found at the dollar tree as well on each letter.

One other thing that he really liked (and my husband and I did too for long car trips to keep him entertained) was the Hooked on Phonics Smart Sticks. They come in both numbers and letters.

If you want your child to be a good reader and love reading, find time to read books to him/her, even if it is only at beditme. I was a science teacher, but I became very concerned about my teenage students who couldn't read and volunteered to help.Their biggest problem was that they had been taught the NAMES of letters and not the SOUNDS or phonics. Most of the educational books and programs on TV teach the NAMES of letters, and tend to concentrate on the capital or large letters, (lower case) but when beginning to read the small letters and sounds are the most important. It is much harder for teenagers to learn the sounds, especially when they look at a letter and the NAME is the first thing that pops into his/her head. Once the children are comfortable with the sounds, you can move on to word recognition. I taught my own daughter the sounds of small letters (lower case) and we had (lower case) magnetic letters that she made up words with. We played games, "I spy with my little eye, something beggining with "a". Then of her own accord, she started writing words, even though some of the letters looked a little strange. We never pushed her. We just made it fun. Sometimes I made up silly stories based on simple words. By age 5 years her teacher said she was reading on a 4th grade level. She was always an exceptional reader. I was afraid she would be bored in school, but she seemed to find ways to make even boring things (filling in the blank assignements) more interesting. The schools she went to also had good programs for bright children I never wanted her advanced a grade because in my experience children need to be with their age peers, as it often can cause so many problems when they reach puberty - other kids learning to drive and they are too young, for example.
Reading is most important for success. Children who are good at Math often have difficulty with Math problems.
My little granddaughter is reading quite well at age five, but she has picked up capital letters from programs she has seen and at present is writing in capitals as she likes them better, but she is a bright little girl and will overcome this. My main concern is for children who do not find reading easy and get of to a bad start.
Grandmother

Pick a "letter of the day" and "number of the day" and all day long, go around the house looking for your special letter or number, or finding objects that begin with your letter or grouping of objects that represent your number. You can do the same with shapes and colors as well. And you can keep up this game in the grocery store, at the park, pretty much wherever you go throughout the day.

My son is almost 2 1/2 and recognizes all of his letters and numbers up to 10 as well as some sight words thanks to PreSchool Prep Co. videos ("Meet the Letters", "Meet the Numbers", etc...). You can even find them at the library.

I second starfall.com. My daughter learned most of her letter sounds that way. I don't like to let her use the internet too much, but this website receives my full approval. I also did letter crafts with her for preschool at home. We used the Alphabet Art book from the Little Hands series.

Sesame Street has some of the best songs. I found that my kids learned things much easier if we sang about them. Happy little tunes that get stuck in your head.
I was always creative so I'd buy a pack of index cards and make our own flash cards. We did them together. I'm not the most brilliant artist, but my kids would come up with a word that started with a letter and I would draw it. It helped them remember. And, we had fun doing it.

Every single thing you do throughout the day can be used as a learning experience. Laundry starts with L. Toothbrush starts with T. Potty starts with P. Fruit starts with F.
Little things like that help them recognize letter sounds. Have fun with it.
My daughter wasn't even 3 and she could spell her whole name because I made it into a song. It actually sounded more like a cheerleading cheer, but she knew all the letters in order.
It doesn't have to cost a lot to get kids learning things and heck, if you make it fun, they don't even realize they're learning. It just happens.

Have fun and best wishes!

www.starfall.com is AMAZING, and completely free, and did I mention AMAZING???

:) :) :)

There are also a bunch of free montessori "albums" (aka curricula) and resources available out on the web. Here's a starting off place:
http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2009/07/montessori-links.html

my son goes to Montessori but i will be bringing him home soon to teach him due to finances, but he turned three in march and he knows most of his sounds. they teach the sounds before they teach the names. kids really have no reason to know the names it will come in the future. the sounds are what they put together to read. they have games at target and stores like that that have the letters and i would by those not too expensive, and teach him to trace with fingers and say the sounds. you can add pictures that start with that sounds also. coloring books are a great place to start for pictures.

We used flash cards - the kind that have the letter along with a picture of a thing that starts with that letter (A - Apple, B-Balloon, etc). Also, you can write the names of everyone in your family and ask him to find his name. They used to do that at my daughter's preschool, and I was surprised that out of 8 or 10 names, each child could find their own name! So that is a good way to help him recognize some letters too. The best thing to do is read books to him. There's one by Dr. Seuss (I'm forgetting the name off the top of my head) but it's a book about the ABCs and it is, like all Dr. Seuss books, very zany and funny. Both of my girls loved it. Also, as you go about your daily life, make a point of showing him different letters and the sound that goes with each one. For instance, you're in the grocery store shopping for apples, and you point to the sign that says "Apples" and you say "A - a-a-apples." Slowly he will begin to learn each letter's sound and begin to recognize the letters.

www.starfall.com My son (just turned 3) learned to recognize all of his letters and several of their sounds within a couple of weeks when we started using the site for 10 minutes per day.

I also have some great, affordable things through Discovery Toys that he can have fun with while he learns. Check them out at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao in the preschool section.

Hey I miss those days. Well we made up a song of sounds w/ea. letter with the things around the house and or the outside. Our girls had so much fun and if you read to him ask to show you a letter and what it starts with and the sound what it makes. Do this 1 or 2 times a day. It makes it fun, enjoyable and easy to learn and teach. Or you could make crafts, drawings that begins with ea. letter. Then ask him to draw his picture and the letter and MAKE BIG DEAL out of anything that he learns. He will feel a sence of pride in the things momma is doing with him and he is A BIG BOY. The liitle one will pick these things up quicker and it will be easier for the next time around.
Good luck and have a BALL w/ this I DID!!
PS: Our girls are on the "A" honor roll ever since they began school. And both read at least 4 to 5 levels higher than their grade levels.

My son had one of those little magnetic drawing toys...kind of like the next generation of etchascketch. I used to draw letters on them, and say their name and continued while he was interested. Once his interest faded, we moved on to another topic (once it is no longer fun, it becomes work...I wanted learning to be fun!).

We would also colour together, and I would sometimes colour the letters, and saying their names. Sometimes I would draw a letter and a few things that started with that letter.

Leapfrog Letter Factory is a DVD that is worth its weight in gold. If you can afford this, or see if your local library has it, I highly reccomend it.

Hope this helps.

well, i accidentally taught my son when he was 18 months, so you can teach your 1 year old at the same time. :)

i started by teaching him his shapes. once he recognized those real good, i had bought some alphabet magnets for the fridge. when he pointed to the "a" he called it a triangle. that's when i started teaching him by telling him that is an "a". after thet, we worked on 5 letters at a time, moving on when he could recognize those letters (and all the previous ones) on billlboards, road signs, menus, books, where ever we found them.

i did sign the "Abcs" with him, and read to him. a lot!! the only thing i had problems with were his lower case letters. i only had magnets in capital letters! lol

he was reading on his own by 4 years old, so i did something right.

numbers is much the same. show him the number 1, then show him how many one is. do that with the rest.

sam's club has some great curriculum books you can use to teach your kids from, but i know not everyone has a sam's club card.

good luck, and kudos for wanting to get your kids ready for kindergarten!

My son is 4 and reading and STILL enjoys his ABC puzzle :-) Get a good wooden one and he'll enjoy it for a good long time.

Since he already knows the song (with my son he learned the letters before the song) you might want to get one of those Alphabet charts like they have in preschool and kindergarten classrooms and hang it in his room. I got my son one when he was younger at the Dollar Tree (for $1 :-P ) .

Other than that, I'd say just start talking more about letters when you see them. Like when you are walking and come to a stop sign, point out each letter... "S-T-O-P" or "O-P-E-N" in the shop windows etc. You can even read the licence plates on parked cars (my son thought that was SO much fun when he was first learning letters, although it drove me CRAZY because it made a walk around the block take twice as long)!

As for numbers, have him help you count out his snack "three apple slices, 1, 2, 3" etc.

You could also do like preschools do and pick a letter and number each day or week then do lots of stuff around that all day. Make him pancakes in the shape of the letter, give him however many strawberries for the number. Just have fun with it.

Hope this helps,
T.

You should check out the "my baby can read series". It looks like it really works. I wish I had known about it with my kids!

My daughter loves her ABC puzzle. It's made of foam but I've also seen wooden ones at the store. That helps her a lot! Also just point out various letters as you see them at the store, etc. Flash cards is another good suggestion. You can even make your own and look for things that start with that letter in magazines and newspapers to paste onto the card.

I would start with the Kindergarten paper from Walmart or Dollar General store to write them down for him to see and practice with. Also Discovery Toys has an alphabet and number set you can purchase for him to see
the letters and numbers.

I was wondering the same thing, as I have a grandaughter that knows the ABC song, but not recognizing the letters...thanks

Our school district hands out magnetic letters for your fridge the summer before school starts, but they are lower case, because they find that most kids know all the upper case letters, but are not that familiar with lower case. Just thought I would throw that out there, once you have upper case down, expand to lower.

M.

Absolute best, best way (in my opinion) is flashcards. Flash cards work for everything. He can help make them with you out of index cards. Let him draw pics on the back of the letter of something that starts with that letter. ie. A-apple. Flash cards are a great way to teach numbers, letters, shapes, colors, anything. Write the color word in the color and they are working on vocab as they learn colors. Flashcards are cheap to buy in the stores (Dollor Store has tons) or to make your own from index cards. Tons of clever ideas on how to use them at www.homeschoolwithindexcards.com, I'm a homeschool mom of 5. I struggled for a whole year with my middle son. I cried buckets thinking he would never read. As soon as we simplified and went to flashcards for special sounds like fr, sp, th, ch etc. and for vocab he picked it up and he reads better than his older brother who was taught in the public school system. Flashcards are a solid and easy way to teach kids anything. And the secret is, once they have mastered an area, flashcards are always great for a quick review to keep skills sharp. One more little opinion...three is a little young to do any intense drilling or introduction. It's very common for kids to pick up and learn ABCs and the song and even letter recognition at this age, but if he doesn't pick it up don't be discouraged with the method. Wanted to mention one other thing now that I have read some of the other responses. Great ideas from many people. I would be cautious of some of the videos and electronic voice toys. Sometimes the sounds the kids hear from these is not the true letter sound but how it might be used in language. There can be some distortion in the true sound or pronunciation of letters or words on any electronically generated sound. For an introduction it is best that children hear sounds from a clear speaking adult. Reading to children is the best model for speaking and best introduction of letter sounds. I have seen kids(when I taught in the public system) that sing the ABC song but don't understand that L,M,N,O and P are separate letters. One of my main gripes as I get older and see the downfall of primary education shortening the gap between average and exceptional is that people are writing the way they speak. Many educated people, college graduates even, will write a sentence like: I like Pepsi better THEN Coke. instead of writing I like Pepsi better THAN Coke. Somehow, they don't understand that THEN is to be used in a sequence and THAN is a comparison. It's sad, but so many people just accept it and don't say anything about it and our children grow up without a clue, and our educational standard then drops one notch lower. WOW, I really got on my soap box didn't I? Sorry about that. THis was about you, and teaching the ABCs somewhere in the beginning. LOL I'm not opposed to slang and shorthand at all, my interest is that we teach true sounds and correct language when they emerge as readers to instill great understanding in the future. I have other websites you may be interested in and plenty of info if you would like, but I am not going to draw this out any longer. Would love to share or hear your thoughts if you'd like. Best of luck to you.

I used the leapfrog video about abc's. She was 2.5 and picked it up. Now she is all about letters. I have also told other moms about this and they feel the same way. She was sounding them out before she was saying the letter when she saw them. Which means she will be able to read a little faster also.

I recommend the Leap Frog "The Letter Factor" DVD. Children love to watch movies so I let mine watch learning movies. This one has catchy sounds and songs to learn to recognize and learn the sounds of each letter. Then you incorporate those sounds into everyday life things you do and they begin to click. Your 1 year old will even enjoy it and will catch on without even knowing it.

I would go to a store that sells teaching aids. All that I have known had professionals there to assit you. You can make some nice friends also.
They can help you along. You will be surprise how fast the one year old will come along as ages.
I know of cases where 3 year olds were doing second grade work!
God Bless

I don't know how you feel about your son using the computer but starfall.com is a great (free) website for kids without any ads on it--it is to help kids learn to read but it starts with the ABCs and my two year old daughter loves it.

This woman's blog has a lot of great ways to teach things to kids using everyday objects: http://teachmama.blogspot.com/

Read "with" him. pointing out letters that are in his name, then in his brother's name...and so on. When you are in the car point out and spell what is written on short signs--such as STOP signs etc. Signs are also a good way to recognize shapes. My kids and grandkids learned simple shapes, then went on to learn more complex shapes, such as cylinder, this way. The more time you interact with him the quicker he will learn--and he'll think he's just playing.

Not sure if you have your child watch much TV but Leap Frog has a video called letter factory. My daughter learned to recognize letters and their sounds when she was 18 months.

There are alot of preschool websites that you can use to print off color sheets. You can google alphabet color sheets. Since you are doing this at home I would suggest working on one letter at a time for a week or two before moving on to the next letter. Also a fun way to learn is by having a snack that begins with that letter like A-apple, I-ice cream. Doing a craft, like decorating a letter B with buttons, I-make an igloo out of sugar cubs, or a D with dots. In pre-k, my daughter made her own alphabet book. They had a square piece of construction paper and her homework for the week was to find and glue a picture from a magazine or an actual photo from home that began with the letter of the week to the construction paper. The teacher would then punch a hole in the corner of the paper and she put them all on a metal ring for each child to have their own flip book. You could also write letters out note cards and stick them all over the house. When you are near the letter point to it and say it and the sound out loud. You could also label things like chair, dresser, and bed by doing this and it can help him recognize the word when it is time to read. Have fun with it all and let your creative juices flow. There are alot of fun things you can do!

Great advice so far! I teach second grade, but did some student teaching in pre-k and kinder. One idea that seemed really neat at the pre-k was they had a letter of the day or week, can't remember. But they had different centers for students. One I remember was a sand center where the kiddos could practice writing the letter in the sand. You could also do this for numbers. We use shaving cream to practice spelling words: I put it on the desk, the kids spread it around and then write the word with their finger. You could do the same thing for a letter or number. Or you could use whipped cream :) I would also just practice counting things, etc. When I talk to my daughter (14 months) I will say things like, that's an apple, it starts with the letter a, how many dogs are there? Let's count, one, two, three! etc. Just a few ideas off the top of my head. I bet you could google fun activities for learning numbers, letters or something similar and could get some great advice!

I got my son a magnetic letter set from Leap Frog. They have two sets, both upper and lower case. It has a base that you can put the letters into and when you push the letter down it sings a song telling the letter and the sound(s) that the letter makes. There's also a button for the ABC song. If you don't want the music playing one day, just take the batteries out or take away the base. I've had to do that a few times! Just keep going over the letters with him. Repetition is the key!

Hey S.,

I have a 3 yr old and have been doing the following to help with learning and recognizing the letters. I print the letter using both lowercase and uppercase forms( A a) at the top of a page that is taped to my cabinet at her height. I then googke image search things that start with the letter and print the images scaled down to sticker paper. For A we had apple, airplaine, ant, alligator. For B it was ball, baby, box, etc. I try to do 3 words for the letter. Each attachment has a picture and the word spelled out below. I first do just the letter taped to her height. We name the letter, sing the alphabet song up until that letter, review the self made stickers, make the sound and we agree that to get a sticker to attach, she has to remember the letter. I ask at random times, what's your letter. The we do all or some of the initial activities. She then chooses what sticker to attach. I will random ask "what start's with the letter a" or "bike starts with what letter?" Of course I only stick to the current letter. I keep it fun, we make the sound and I even quiz at potty breaks with, "c makes the ca, ca, caaa sound! now what starts with c? hot or cold? i simply state if she is right or wrong but the get all excited if right and say yeah the ca ca caa sound is in caa caa cold. If it were wrong I just say no, hot doesnt have the caa sound but cold does. listen, caa caa cold. We do several of these a day and some days none, just depends on her response to learning. Her favorite part is placing the sticker on the letter paper.
If you do not want to print your letter page or the colored images, etc, you could handwrite on paper, tape to their eye level and use cut out from magazines. just tape the cut out and neatly write the items name.
We aren't finished but the progress is huge and fun to observe. I try to give each letter a week to two weeks, depending on her ability to grasp it well without my over doing it. She is ready to place a sticker everday but I only have enough for every other day and this way the learning is it's own reward. Most of the learning is our verbal discussion. The paper and self made stickers allow for a tactile stimulation with a visual reference to aid in her retaining it all.
Hope to have helped!
MB

My daughter pointed out a letter "W" to me when she was 20 mos old-I was amazed at her! I bought her "Fridge Phonics" by Leap Frog this particular one has letter magnets and a device where you put the letters and it will sing a song telling what the letter is and what sound it makes, and before she was 2 she knew all of her letters-except "V" she had trouble with that one. She started reading about the time she turned 5, she's 5 1/2 and reading like crazy! But you know it depends on your child-my 3 1/2 year old is still working on learning all her letters, her only interest in fridge phonics was dancing to the abc song it plays :) I just point out letters and keep going over them with her, and alphabet books, the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" has been helpful as well.

You have gotten some really wonderful responses. I have a daughter who is getting ready to turn three and a son who just turned one and they both know the ABC song too. I use to teach two and three year olds. We had a letter of the week, number of the week, we also discussed what day it was and the weather outside. We did activities with cool-whip/shaving cream and labeled items. We would count everything. Learning the sounds is very important. I started with flash cards with them at six months. My daughter is a much faster learner than my son but he is picking things up. There are wonderful homeschool web sites out there. I am just newly a stay at home mom so I have been looking for a currculium to use to teach preschool due to lack of funds also. I found a good Christian one and I am combining it with some other things I have learned over the year. You have to decide what all you want him to know and create it in a manner in which meets his learning style. My daughter will sit for hours doing flash cards and reading books (has since she was six months, she was signing at three months) but my son won't. He refuses to sign but will sing everything. So I combine flash cards and making up little jingles he can learn. Have fun and be creative. FYI your house is full of learning tools and it is free. Also, the library has great tools too.

they have the little flash cards that are about 2-3 dollars. we are using those and the numbered ones for our daughter (they have pics on the back of sesame street things and she loves them

My son could recognize all of his letters at 18 months. Now, at 3, he can read really well. He can read the entire Cat in the Hat, as well as many other books. To teach his letters, I would do as the person before me pointed out. I would point out letters on cereal boxes or anything else in the store and make it a game. He also very much enjoyed the attention he got from strangers who were so impressed that he knew his letters at such a young age, so he would often do it without my prompting. If he started answering incorrectly on purpose, I would stop the game because he was clearly tired of doing it. Now, he reads signs and labels in front of anyone who will pay attention because, again, he enjoys the praise.

starfall.com free online website excellent.. my son knew his letters at 2 from starfall.

leap frog letter factory is a good letter video.

Leap Frog is the way to go. We had the DVDs the Letter Factory and the others that go with it and we hade the magnetic letter sets. And with absolutely no effort from me suddenly both of my girls knew all of their letters and their sounds.

I stayed at home with my first 3 kids. I taught my oldest daughter how to write her name before she turned two. Repetition is the key. At random times, I would just ask her to spell her name or point out a letter saying, "What letter is that?". The problem is not with the kids learning, it sometimes lie with us thinking that they are not getting it because they cannot immediately regurgitate what it is we are trying to teach them. I use to think something was wrong until out of nowhere she started saying the letters on her own and writing her name on her own. So when you go to someplace like McDonald's or Burger King...point out the letters in those names. Make it relate-able to them. Make it out to be a game. While my son could not write his name as early as my daughter, he spoke the quickest and was able to make complete coherent sentences at 18 months. All kids are different. Don't stop teaching them even if you think they are not getting it. Just continue to make it fun. Read them stories and point out whole words and specific letters. I hope this helps. Hang in there. I am sure you're a great mom.

I sat down with my 3yr old and did one letter per day, about 20 minutes per letter. Then each day review all the letters he already learned plus the new letter. It took us 26 days. I didn't use any particular program, just worked on it one on one. Good luck!

My daughter always loved animal flashcards when she was 2, so when she was 3, we got number & letter flashcards with pictures she was already familiar with (A - Apple, B-Bird, etc). Also, they have alphabet books that show them letters & items, and books for shapes too.

I agree with Sueann, Preschool Prep. Company is the best!! My twin boys are 2 1/2 now, but by the time they were 2 they knew every color, shape and most letters. They now know the entire alaphabet and are learning sight words. We put the dvd's on while driving and they just pick it up. We would, and still do, read to them a lot and make it interactive. I cannot say enough about the Preschool Prep, the kids LOVE IT!!

We've been doing letter of the day. We use the magnet letters on the fridge to form a big capital and lower case letter. We also spell out the word associated. A "ant" B "Bike" C "Car" D "Dinosaur"...etc. Then we have him run around the house and find the object. Let's say today was D and Dinosaur. I would say what the letter is, the capital and lower case, and I hand him the D magnet. I say D D Dinosaur. And say some other words that start with D. D D Daddy, D D Drink. And then ask if he knows another word that starts with that sound. At first I got no response but after several letters he caught on. We just finished our first round. Monday we will start again with A and a new A word. In the 26 days of letter of the day we went from a child that could not recognize any letter but R (I don't know why R) and A, to a child that recognizes all 26 letters. He's 2.5 and not singing all of his ABCs completely (he thinks the letters can go in any order) but if we ask "Where's the letter D" or other letters he can point out which one it is, in any order. We also throughout the day, anytime we see the letter of the day, or word that starts with it we point it out. It's a fun game to find things in our day that start with our letter. Everything is an opportunity. We even had an incident on "H" day. He fell and hit his head while we were at the park. As freaked out as I was at first, when we got home and he felt all better I talked to him about his boo boo. I said you hit your head and it hurt. Hit Head Hurt...all H words. I used a bad moment to use it to learn and he loved it. Weird that it happened on H day, however I used every opportunity I can to point out the letter we are working on.

I also worked in a preschool and we watched letter factory while waiting for lunch. As much as I didn't like the TV being on in a pre-school i was just a teacher, and what the director wanted was the way it went. However, the kids really caught on with their letters. I bought it for home too and we watch it once in a while. We call it Frogs (at 2 that's what he started calling it). Though we try to stay away from TV as much as possible in our home so he's seen it about 3 or 4 times in the past 6 months he still loves it. I definitely recommend it for letter recognition. It's really good about teaching letters and their sounds.

We cant afford pre-school right now either. So I use all of what I learned to teach him at home. We have a pre-school type setting in the mornings (structured learning time) and use the rest of the day to expand on that while playing. notimeforflashcards.com is great for art projects with different letters (or just art projects in general) and lots of other things to do at home with your preschool aged kid.

When I would sing the ABC song with my son we took out his magna-doodle and I would write the letters as we sang them. For a long time this was how we always sang the song together. Also when we went to a store we would play spot the letter, for example if we went to Wal-mart I would also him if he could find a big W. Because we were integrating letters into his daily life he picked them up in no time. We did the same thing for numbers. Just find different ways to slip them into your daily life and he will pick them up.

My son is also a big fan of Word World on PBS where everything is made up of letters. In order to build things or make food on the show they have to find the right letters and put them in the right order. It is pretty cute and they show.

We used the Leap Frog: Letter Factory DVD. It is awesome. My oldest watched it once or twice a day for a few months because she was entertained by it. Little did she know we had an alterior motive having her watch it...she learned all of the letters and the sound they made too. She is now going into kindergarten and can read short stories already. I attribute most of her success to watching that DVD. You can find it on Amazon or Ebay for pretty cheap. Good luck with it!

For my three children I taught them by playing computer games that taught the alphabet or by using flashcards. I also rewarded them by giving them stickers or some other kind of prize when they recognized them. It was a fun way to learn for them as well as for me. Hope this helps

We had a simple board page book of ABC's each letter had a picture to go with it. Also, you can get flashcards--I think they have them at the dollar store!

Alphabet magnets for the fridge (dollar store), flashcards (also dollar store), magnadoodle, paper and crayons, books, playdough and alphabet cookie cutters (or cookie dough). There are lots of fun ways that are interactive. There are also websites- starfall, abcya, and others that are free. Kids that age love to actively learn, not just sit and watch. Try one letter at a time. Point it out everywhere. Have him repeat it. You don't have to go in order. You can start with the letters in his name. Once he starts to recognize the letter, you can introduce another one. Just don't forget to keep reviewing the ones he knows. You can even keep a chart where he can color in each letter as he learns them. Don't forget that uppercase letters and lowercase letters look different for many letters so you may have to teach them separately (start with either upper or lower case, then introduce the other set...if you think he is able to, you could introduce both at once). Preschools usually do one letter per week. Activities, songs, foods, etc. that start with that letter.

Starfall.com
I used this to teach my daughter who just finished Kindergarten. It's free. She went into Kindergarten reading all of the short vowel words and some sight words. Now she is reading really well.
L.

Fridge phonics and sesame street