Montessori: Letter Work

Love this book and so does my son! He attends a montessori preschool so this book supports that method well. The letters are all lower case and presented out of order (so kids aren't just memorizing the abc's). Each one is made with sand paper to support a sensory connection and promote learning. There's also a picture to hint at the sound (although my son thinks the "bus" should actually be "school bus."). And of course, true to the montessori method, the letters are presented as sounds, not things with a name (e.g. B is "buh"). My favorite part is the last page where all the letters are presented (out of order) so we can review and see how many he really knows. When he gets stuck, he turns back to find the picture page for a hint to help him remember. He knows most of the letters now and gets so excited when he finishes the last page without missing many because he's eager to start reading. (By the way, we never approach that last page as a test or anything stressful. Just a fun way to finish off the book.)

This is a great little book for learning letter phonics! It can be used for very children - my son is only 20 months old and has already started learning letters right away! Not sure if you can tell from the stock photos but the letters in this book are raised and textured, so when little ones runs their fingers across them, a sensory experience is created. I use this book in addition to our sandpaper letters and my son loves it! This book reinforces his letter/phonics learning while we are in bed, or other places that the sandpaper letters would be too cumbersome to present. Sometimes he even picks this book from the shelf himself. I highly recommend this book for purchase for young and older children who are learning their letters and phonics. It's an interesting and fun way to learn!

I use this book every day with my 1yo. She is so excited to go through it every morning. It has really helped her learn the sounds the letters make and now she is pointing to letters on shirts and in books and telling us the sound for the letter. The “sandpaper” part isn’t super textured but it is enough to give sensory input while tracing the letter.

This is a neat little book for learning letters. The pronunciation spelling helps adult to say the letter sound, rather than the letter name, which is a more important prereading skill. I would have given it 5 stars, but I thought the description and pictures were deceptive. From the picture, it looks as though each page is made of two board-pages pasted together, with the top one cut out, so the child can run their finger through the groove that forms the letter. You can see little shading on the letters, that gives this impression. Well, the letters aren't cut out at all, they're actually just a slightly matte vs gloss texture, and the shading is just printed on. It is kind of like sandpaper letters, but much more subtle. I think it would be a much better book if it were actually cut out, and something I'd pay more for. I bought it for my 16 month old, because he loves books like the Hungry Caterpillar and sticking his little finger through the holes, so I thought he might enjoy running his finger through the grooves of letters which would provide so many interesting forms to explore and improve his fine motor skills, all while passively familiarizing him with similarities and differences between letters. This is not the case, as I have explained. Although the book would be fine for an older child really learning letters, I think the book would also appeal to much younger children if the letters were cut out--and who wouldn't want a book with more longevity? I will put this away until he's a little older, and probably end up buying number work and map work at that time

Love this! Such an affordable option for sandpaper letters. I was trying to teach letters to my son, and we were both frustrated, so I decided to change tracks and try the Montessori way since this book was cheap. I was very unconvinced about the sandpaper letters thing, but I'm no longer a skeptic. I've replaced letter lessons with just reading this book once a day, and everyone is enjoying it. Some reviews say the sandpaper isn't rough enough, but I think it's just fine. Even my two year old can feel and trace the letters no problem.

This is an absolutely wonderful book for young children who are showing an interest in letters. Introducing letters as their phonic sound is a much more logical way to explore letters than by their 'names'. The tactile tracing letter on each page helps cement the shape with the sound. My 3 year old sons loves this book and picks it up every day to look through by himself - the pictures make it easy for him to recognise the letter sound, and the letters themselves are nice and large (without being oversized and hard for little hands).

My son loves these books and being able to feel all the letters helped with the process of him writing and know what letter he’s feeling. I also got the numbers and shape books as well.

It’s wonderful for lowercase letters. Wish there was an uppercase version.

Muy buena opción, aunque en minúsculas, para iniciarse con las letras. El material del libro es genial, lleva intacto a pesar de su continuo uso. Súper recomendable toda la colección a partir del año y medio, incluso.

Quality is good.

Great book for my 4 year old. He loves learning the sounds of each letter. Tracing the letters really helps with recall.

This idea has been pinched! It's well meant but I ma not so keen on the presentation as it doesn't really follow the Montessori method. It's not a bad idea to have the sandpaper letters but you'd have to know how to use them to really benefit the child.