A while back, I had the idea of getting My Favourite Little Person some alphabet blocks. That way, when she begins to approach literacy, they'll have a toy in the house that people can use to make words and demonstrate phonetics whenever the spirit moves them. And, in the meantime, she can make towers and knock them down, which is always entertaining.
So I went to a toy store and looked at their alphabet blocks, but I was very disappointed to discover that the picture on each the block didn't correspond with the letter on that block. So I went to another store and looked at more blocks, and, again the picture didn't correspond. Eventually I decided to put off the alphabet block purchase until she was older (she was under a year old and completely pre-verbal when I was looking at alphabet blocks), and she ended up getting some alphabet blocks form someone else in the interim. But the ones she owns don't have pictures that correspond with the letters either.
Why do they even make alphabet blocks where the pictures don't correspond with the letters? Someone at some point in the design process has to decide which pictures go on which blocks, so why not choose something that starts with that letter?
The first block should have the letter A, the number 1, and an apple. The second block should have the letter B, the number 2, and a ball. And they should continue with this pattern all the way to Z, with duplicates of the more common letters so people can use them to make actual words.
This isn't complicated. It probably takes more thought to come up with another system. So why not maximize their educational value?
5 comments:
I get what you're saying, but I also feel like having non-matching letter-picture combinations can be useful in that this allows the kid to try to match up a letter on one block with a picture on another. It's sort of a higher-level form of play, but they can get letters combined with pictures in alphabet books and things, and it's probably more fun to actually be able to arrange things in ways that can match them up, rather than them being pre-matched.
A while back, I had the idea of getting My Favourite Little Person some alphabet blocks.
Super cool!
Which alphabet?
Roman, since that's the only one her parents know and she's not going to learn her letters unless someone can tell her what they say.
@valprehension It never occurred to me to play with alphabet blocks that way! For me, they were always for making towers or spelling words. Or making towers that spell words. I wonder if my child self would have been bothered by pictures that didn't match the letters. (She wouldn't have been confused because I was confident in my letters, but she might have been offended on principle.)
Shockingly stupid block design. I had no idea it was now the norm!
Post a Comment