Letter & number recognition games

I've been sharing about EV's milestones, and as a parent, I'm heartened that she knows how to recite A-Z and 1-10. However, one constant thought is: can she recognise & identify the letters and numbers, or is she just reciting from memory? Plus, with Tot Club, I've been teaching her 'Aa', how is her recognition for this letter?


Today, I took out her lowercase letter foam magnetic board, and asked her to point out letter 'a'. She had her finger waving everywhere around the board, except at 'a', and could only correctly point out 'a' when I made little circles in the air around 'a'. 


So I thought, perhaps she's confused by all the letters she's seeing on the board? So I took out 4 letters randomly, including 'a', and asked her where 'a' was. This time, her reaction was much faster, and she could point it out correctly. I did this a few times, and then went on to 'b', which she had learnt in her Talentplus playgroup. She could identify it correctly too. This is a good way of determining her recognition of letters, and I can gradually increase the number of letters that she chooses from.


We also played another recognition game - I Spy. I called out letters A to Z randomly, and to my surprise, she could pick up most of the letters correctly. This no doubt answered my question of whether she recognised the letters. 


While we were at it, why not do the same for numbers? We have been showing EV flashcards since she was a few months old. So I took out the numbers flashcards 1 to 10, spread them around the floor and called out the numbers randomly for EV to choose. She got all correctly. 


So my question was answered: EV wasn't just reciting; she knows her stuff. These activities are a good way of gauging her recognition of what was learnt, and is definitely useful as well in future.