One of the most challenging aspects parents face today is helping kids to become excited about reading. Reading remains one of the most crucial areas of education and oftentimes it can seem as difficult to make it exciting for children as it would be to make math exciting. Both are vital in today's educational world, but this will discuss the alphabet.

Fortunately, a good foundation for reading starts with learning the alphabet. This is an area where parents can help their children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude about learning the alphabet and creating words with that alphabet.

One good way to actually teach your children is through alphabet games. While they focus on having fun, they're actually learning vital skills that they will carry with them always.

Flash Cards for Infants:

Flash cards are wonderful ways to prepare children 6 months and older for a lifetime of learning. You can utilize this method for everything, from teaching about geography to popular culture to history. It also works astoundingly well for the alphabet. You hold the picture in front of baby for a moment, clearly and softly pronounce what it is, before you move onto the next.

Rather than purchase ready-made flashcards, create baby's cards. You need some printer paper and markers. Create each letter in proportion to the page. Rather than having a small letter on a flashcard, baby will have a letter the size of a 8" x 11" piece of paper to view.

The "Shell Game" for Toddlers:

You can help baby learn a variety of skills by using the old shell game once used by scam artists. This is also great for helping them learn to pronounce and identify the letters of the alphabet. This would be suitable for the first few years.

For this you need three plastic cups (not the see-through kind) and a set of alphabet blocks. Take one block and, while baby watches, put it under a cup. Slide them around gently and see if baby can point out where they are. This works best if it's done gradually. Help baby to find the block during the first several times so they will better understand what they need to do.

School-Age Games:

Most children by now are fairly fluent with the alphabet, so you can incorporate more complicated games with no issue. This activity is suitable for children in the first few years of grammar or elementary school.

By now, you've probably accumulated a host of building blocks, such as Lego blocks. Rather than let them gather dust, you can utilize Alphabet games for kids to help your child build sentence structure and proper grammar.

You need the larger blocks for this to work properly. Give each block it's own distinct word and build sentences with your child. You can also give a few of the blocks their own respective punctuation mark to help your child learn sentence structure. After a period of building sentences, they can start to build walls or towers. ABC games for kids leads into building better paragraphs.