Conference moira::parenting_v3

    I think its most common on the part of parnts to teach capitals
    first...we did. However, several leading "authorities" on learning to
    read and write suggest this is not the way to go. You do not, normally
    write with all capitals, you write with predominantly small letters.
    They feel you teach these first, and only introdue caps. as necessary
    (as in writing the first letter of their name, etc. ) They then
    understand early on that the use of capitals has a place, and is not
    indiscriminaantly mixed in with lower case letters within words. I know
    I had seen kids do this...wRitE WorDS lIKe thiS, bEcCAuse tHey GOt
    mIXed uP as tO WHeRe "biG" LeTTerS and WheRe "LiTTle" LetteRs weNT.
    I never knew why they did this, but it makes perfect sense. Something
    to consider, at least!
    
    --dave--

    
    Capitals first.
    
    It seems like all the magnetic letters, puzzles, picture books,
    nursey schools and even Sesame Street feature upper case first.
    My daughter is 5 and will be in kindergarten in 2 weeks. She is
    still confused by the lower case letters. Apparently, the
    knowledge of lower case is not a pre-requisite for school!
    
    Eva.

First of all, in my opinion, a better terminology is "upper case" and "lower 
case".  That's what they used in our children's school.  You might check, so 
you can be consistent.  The terminology is clumsy and at first, but terms like 
"capital" and "small" or "big" and "small" can have ambiguous meanings -- 
children _always_ write "big" at first.

In my experience, it's almost universal for upper case first.  In fact it can 
be well into first grade before there's much use of lower case letters.  Also, 
there is incoNsistent and IncoRRect Usage frequently well into second, and 
even third grade.

Clay

    One thing to consider is that there is more distinction between the
    upper case letters than the lower case letters.  For example,
    
        B   D   P   Q   are very distinct.
    
        b   d   p   q   are all the same shape -- only the direction
    			is different
    
    At the pre-school age, a fair number of children have difficulty with
    letter orientation and may find the lower case letters confusing.  
    What do you mean these are different?  They look the same to me!
    
    Beth

    Thanks folks!! We'll stick with upper case for now. 
    
    It is so funny to see our son at this stage because he knows the
    Alphabet Song and that you spell/write with letters but he hasn't made
    the connection that the letters he sings are put into different order
    to form words. When you ask him how to spell something we usually get a
    portion of the Alphabet Song. It will come in time!!! 
    
    Andrea

    Upper case first - lower case are too similar and cannot be as easily
    distinguished one from the other.  The other point is upper case are
    more straight line forms, lower case are a lot of circular forms, for
    little fingers just starting out the upper case seem to be eaisier to
    write.
    

    
    My 3 year old easily memorized the shapes of capitol letters,
    but not of the small. In fact, he asked how to spell his name one day,
    and wrote it near perfectly.
    
    Guy