This post is sponsored by Kids in Socks. All opinions are my own. Please view my disclosure.
How many times have you had a fun moment with your child saying the rhyme, “This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went home…”? Countless times we teach kids with their feet without even knowing it. Simon Says, a simple dance party with the kids on a rainy day, number path activities, and with this idea your child can learn letters with feet in an engaging way.
For toddlers and young preschoolers, feet are a topic of interest. Stinky feet, tickly feet and goodness knows they run everywhere! All that energy can be channeled into a good use for some letter learning, and your kids won’t even know they are learning.
Learn Letters with Feet
I call this a gross motor meets literacy activity because it gets kids learning with multiple domains and senses.
Kids learn the alphabet primarily through sight and hearing because they see as we point to letters and hear as we sing the ABC song. Children learn in different ways, and if your child is a gross motor learner, they can learn letters with feet to add a level of interest to their engagement with the alphabet.
Kids in Socks has a fun collection of socks for letter learning. These socks have an alphabet letter on one sock, and a corresponding picture that begins with that letter on the other. The letter and its picture create a pair of socks for kids to learn letters with feet! How fun is that?
I tried out the Kids in Socks letter learning footwear with my 3 ½ year old twins. Just as I suspected (because they are young preschoolers and think feet are so interesting and funny), they were both eager to get a pair on their feet.
My son chose a gray pair first. They had an R on one foot and a rocket on the other. A great letter and sound pair to play and learn.
Putting the socks on is a fine motor exercise all on its own! Many preschoolers will still need help with this. Mine did, even though they did give it a try on their own first.
My daughter wanted pink. She put on what she thought was a princess, but since the matching sock had Q on it, I gently told her that the picture was a queen.
The twins explored their new letter learning socks. Isn’t it funny how a simple pair of socks can be so exciting to a child?
I have a poster of the alphabet that I painted just using stencils, so we grabbed that to dig a little deeper into how we could learn letters with our feet. I asked the twins to each find the letter on their sock on the poster.
We started with Q and it took a few searches to locate it. My daughter pointed her toe to the letter Q on our letter poster.
Then it was my son’s turn. He did the same and needed to search a bit as well.
He found R and pointed to it. Then he pointed to it with his toe right after.
We sang the alphabet song through a couple of times while we were searching and I made sure to point to each letter as I sang it. This has been the primary way my older two learned their letters: singing the ABC song over and over again throughout their early years. That is why I love having this ABC chart around and all of our alphabet letter learning activities.
Repetition will equal learning when it is engaging for preschoolers.
Then, of course, we had to change to new pairs of letter socks. On and off it went, pair after pair. We received a few sets to review, and you can enter to win your own letter learning socks at the end of this post.
Kids in Socks was so gracious to offer a giveaway for 5 winners!
A unique birthday gift, stocking stuffer, baby shower gift, or just a fun special treat to give your toddler or preschooler, letter learning socks from Kids in Socks are fun. (Plus, to answer the main question on your mind: How do they wash up? I put them all in the washer on a warm cycle and dried them on low heat. All socks came out ready to be worn-and played with-again. There are washing instructions included.)
Even after the twins had their exploration time, the big kids got involved in helping their little brother and sister find their letters and even pose for pictures on our old camera that the kids play around with.
Kids in Socks offers a new way to reinforce letter learning without your child even realizing it.
Want to win some letter learning socks from Kids in Socks?
Enter through the giveaway widget below.
Check out more letter learning activities for kids on the Preschool Activities page.