obvious LETTERS

obvious LETTERS: The Associative Alphabet Every Child Will Remember by Gisela Hausmann

There is no shortage of marketing funds to advertise flashy corporate sponsored curriculum in the homeschool market today; consequently, it is easy for the products from small cottage industries to be lost in a maze of brand names, bright packaging, and high price tags. What homeschoolers really want, though, is a product that works. obvious LETTERS by Gisela Hausmann delivers. Instead of using illustrations of popular children's characters that have nothing to do with the alphabet, Haufmann has devised an ingenuous system where each letter is part of an illustration depicting a word beginning with that letter. The illustrations are in black and white except for the featured letter itself, which is colored (in a color which starts with that sound whenever possible).

Each letter is pictured in its capital and lowercase form if they are different. If the capital letter is the same as the lowercase, then only one illustration is given. The illustrations chosen by Hausmann show creativity and inspiration, such as the lowercase "i" as the keyhole in a chest, and the associative word being "inside". "O" is an orange oval, and "P" is a pan with the descender as the handle. The illustrations are simple and preschoolers are drawn to the book. They can even enjoy reading it themselves, since the letters and their corresponding associative words are the only text.

I can personally testify to the effectiveness of associative illustrations when a child is learning letters. Six years ago our family moved to Japan. Wanting to take advantage of the opportunity, I enrolled in language classes through a cultural exchange program. As an American with no previous knowledge of Japanese, I had to memorize two new alphabets, or syllabaries as they are called in Japan. I found a new respect for children learning the alphabet for the first time. Picturing associative illustrations was of great help in learning the katakana and hiragana, and the same logical associations are the basis for obvious LETTERS. Using the illustrations in obvious LETTERS your child will soon remember the shape of the letters because they are an integral part of each illustration. Even better, Gisela Kaufmann grants limited reproduction rights with the purchase of the book, so you can make copies of each page for your child to color as he learns the letters.

You can order obvious LETTERS from amazon.com for $10.95.