Upper case or lower case 1st?

[Nooknookmom]

It's been a while since I did the preschool thing, do I start w/ upper case letters or lower? I think our 3/4 class started w/ upper but I forget.

DD has a ball drawing circles & filling them in & I she likes to do the alphabet tracing pages, I want to start her on the right track and not confuse her!

TIA

[justlearning]

Are you talking about learning to recognize letters or write them?

I taught my sons how to write uppercase first, then lowercase. But in DS's kindergarten, they worked on learning to write lowercase first (writing them perfectly according to specific criteria), then uppercase.

As far as learning to recognize letters, I taught DS1 uppercase first, then lowercase. But with DS2, I taught them at the same time and he easily learned to recognize both cases when he was 2. So that way seemed better to me.

ETA that in DS's preschool, they learned to write the letters with the uppercase and lowercase at the same time for each letter. They taught them D'Nealian style so it actually made things harder for DS that he already knew how to write letters because he then had to change completely to do their specific style (with curls, etc.).

[kayte]

As a former Kindy teacher I always started with and stressed lowercase letters. 99.9% of the letters we see in type are lowercase. Uppercase were treated as a matching pair--used only in special cases.

[mommylamb]

My DS just turned 2. I didn't focus on one or the other, but we always do an awful lot of reading. He learned both uppercase and lowercase at the same time really, without a lot of help from me. For a long time he has been fascinated with letters and he would point at them and say "that" as in "what's that." They're such little sponges at this time in their lives that it seems like they learn everything so quickly.

[spanannie]

Uppercase first. In K, they start writing both.

[Nooknookmom]

Wow-you guys are quick :)

Koi is very interested in writing, I guess it is b/c she (on her own accord) does not watch TV, or sit still to *play* w/ toys very long. We found early on that if you give her paper and a writing instrument, she is HAPPY!

I will have a ball working w/ her and her letters - Thanks to everyone!

[Tanya]

My daughter learned uppercase first, but when it came time to start writing her name, they stressed that it was very important that she not write it in all uppercase. So, she learned to write her name with the first letter uppercase, then the rest lowercase.

[Nooknookmom]

My daughter learned uppercase first, but when it came time to start writing her name, they stressed that it was very important that she not write it in all uppercase. So, she learned to write her name with the first letter uppercase, then the rest lowercase.


Ah-ha, THAT is one of the reasons I wanted to make sure I started w/ the right case. DD1 started writing her name in all caps and we had to correct it.

Boy, this long spread between preschool and now high school is going to throw me for a loop!

[Gena]

We use the Handwriting Without Tears program and that method teaches the uppercase letters first. However, the preschool and kindergarten teachers like the students to write their names as first letter capitalized and the rest in lowercase. So DS writes his name this way and writes everything else in uppercase.