Many parents begin teaching their children to read by using the big-picture concepts of phonics. They’ll teach their kids how to sound out words, or even give them whole books to read that are made up only of familiar sounds. This is definitely an effective way to learn how to read!

But there is another very important concept in reading called grapheme-phoneme correspondence. This means learning the shape of a letter corresponds with its sound so you can recognize it as a word.

So instead of just practicing long vowel sounds like “mama” and “ada”, we practice short vowels like “a�” and “o”, then syllables like “pa” and “ga”. This is because they relate to each other through this rule.

The rule says that if you take any group of three consecutive letters and change one, two, or all three slightly, the meaning changes sometimes dramatically. For example, changing the A in BAT into B shifts the meaning from bat to boat, while altering the E in TEA turns it into DAY.

This connection between shapes and sounds is what makes literacy possible, and it should be emphasized early on.

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Give me down

Let’s start with our letter ‘D’! The song that goes, “Give me down” is called ‘Desolation Dance’. It was written by Robert Hunter and Eric Clapton for their 1974 album Duane Allman Day-After-Day.

Give me out

The first letter of the alphabet is usually given as ‘A’ for Alexander, or something similar. But what about the other letters? What song starts with those letters?

The songs that start with the letters B, C, D and E are easy to recognize because they have a familiar chorus or rhyme scheme. These songs use their beginning word in the lyrics so you can easily sing them along with it. For example, the song “Happy Birthday” begins with the word happy, so you could say the whole thing like this: Happy — birthday! — let’s give him some cake!

Songs that begin with the letter F are slightly harder to identify because there’s no direct connection to anything else. However, these songs make up the most common type of music people listen to — hip hop. A lot of artists feature an extended introduction before the song even really gets going, making it possible to tell which letter comes next.

That being said, not every artist uses the same pattern when introducing a new track. Some may just mention a part of the song, or maybe nothing at all! It depends on how they feel about the song and what genre it belongs to.

Give me over

Let’s do an alphabet song! The letter is A, the song is What? I know what the word is but how does it go?

The words more complicated than the one we practiced yesterday. And this time, you’ll need to use your ears as well as your eyes. Because the pattern changes every line.

And just like before, there are two main parts to the song. Part one is called the question and part two is the answer.

Give me up

As your child grows, so does their need to learn how to self-relate. They want to connect with other people but they also want to know that you believe in them and will always be there for them.

At this stage, it is very important that your child can identify who they are beyond just being yourself or telling everyone that you don’t care.

They needs to understand that they are an integral part of this world and have something to contribute. Even if they never becomes famous, they still matter.

So, as your child begins to explore what things they like and why, try asking them about themselves. What colors do they like? Why did they choose that shirt? What kind of food do they like to eat?

By getting into more detail, they will realize that they are not the only one who loves pancakes! Or cats! Or reading!

Theirs could be the next big thing! If they were able to talk about it, then they must feel the same way too.

Take me down

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Take me out

As your child learns to read, they will often learn how to recognize their favorite letters by putting them together in fun ways. A common way to do this is with a word or sentence as a primer, then asking them to identify the letter and defining it. Then, once they have that down, you can move onto creating an alphabet song!

A great way to begin is picking one of your children’s favorite colors and using only those colors for the lyrics. For example, if your little boy loves yellow toys, his set-up could be going up the road/yellow car, boat, truck. He can easily sing along with this song because of its simplicity.

Take me over

The first letter of the alphabet is typically considered to be A, which means it’s time to sing your way through all of the other letters! This fun song called “Take Me Over” starts with the lyrics take me over, I need you more than chocolate or coffee.

The second part of the lyric uses the word love twice in a row. That makes sense because the rest of the song follows the theme of romantic intimacy! If you like this songs then watch the music video below.

I hope you enjoyed this article about how to learn the alphabet via song.

Take me up

Let’s start with our alphabet song “Take me up, take me down.” This fun music and lyrics pattern is perfect for teaching your child how to say their favorite letter of the alphabet.

When you sing this song as a parent, there are some surprises in the lyrics that can surprise even the most seasoned singer. For instance, what does ‘take’ mean? Does it refer to lifting something off the ground or taking someone somewhere? Or both?!

It depends on the context! Luckily, this song comes in at just over one minute long so parents don’t have too much time to work out the lyrics. But if you do, you’ll learn lots about the English language!

If you want to give these songs more exposure then go ahead and share them online or tell everyone about them. If people ask why you sang an ABC song when they didn’t know what word starts with A, you could mention this new, funny lyric.