Keianna, like her sisters before her, is learning to differentiate between those tricky lower case letters.

The standard methods for teaching children to distinguish lower case "b" from "d" and "p" from "q" haven’t worked for my toddlers. While my children have been ready to begin learning to read at around two and a half or three, the gimics and explanations traditionally taught in preschools haven’t worked at for their ages.

The word "bed" looking like a bed eludes them. So did the concept of "doughnuts" and "backs" or forming the letters with their hands. I have heard of some toddlers grasping these methods, but mine were bogged down by too much explanation, and needed something more concrete.

They did much better with just a little drill to recognize them by sight.

I make a bunch of "b"s and "d"s on card stock then cut out, as well as a single capital D and a capital B.  We place the "Mommy Letters" (capitals) on the floor and give our little abcdarian the deck of lower case letters.. Her task is to put the "babies with the right mommy." Basically a little matching game.

Here’s Keianna! She hasn’t quite made it to minding her "p"s and "q"s yet, but she’s working diligently on her "b"s and "d"s.