Free Online Games and Activities to Help Your Child Learn the Alphabet and Basic Spelling

For parents with inquisitive preschool-aged children, finding age appropriate websites for fun and free online learning opportunities can be difficult. If your child has expressed an interest in both the computer and the alphabet, then you can help your little one learn about both subjects with this selection of online learning games.

The games selected for this article are all approved and tested by my preschool-aged son.

Note: I recommend sitting with your child during these games. You will foster cooperative play, build computer skills and, most importantly, keep your child safe while online. These online games will also help your child acquire basic computer mouse skills.

Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse on Playhouse Disney

Kids love Mickey and his friends. This website contains many great online free games for learning opportunities. You can find games to both teach your younger child the alphabet and games to teach your older child basic spelling skills. This website does have sound.

1. Stanley's Animal Alphabet Chart - this free online activity helps your child recognize individual letters of the alphabet. Each letter is presented with a picture of an animal. Your child can print each letter in color or in black and white. Teach your child to print a combination of letters to spell his or her name.

2. Stanley's Alphabet Adventure -In this free online game, you child needs to find all the letters of the alphabet with a twist. Each letter is represented by a hidden animal. For example, to find the letter Z you need to find the zebra. Once you find an animal, you'll see a book with the letter, the word, and a picture of the animal.

PBS Kids

This kid-friendly website contains 2 popular cartoon shows designed to help youngsters learn to spell and write - Super Why and Word World.

1. Alpha Pig's Paint by Letter - This activity teaches letter recognition through coloring. You child can select from a variety of coloring pages. Each coloring page has different letters on different page elements. Your child must choose the right color (labeled on the paint) and apply it to the corresponding letter on the page.

2. Super Readers Challenge - choose one of the following categories: alphabet, words, spelling, and reading. This game might be a bit challenging for younger children, but will help older children with their spelling and reading skills.

3. Dog's Letter Pit - help dog spell words! In this game, your child will be given blank spaces and must fill them out to spell the word. Letter choices are displayed on screen, and your preschooler clicks them to find the right combination. Each time a letter is clicked, dog jumps up and retrieves the letter.

4. Frog's Rhyming Machine - Push the button on Frog's rhyming machine to display a word. Then, on screen your child can choose between a few different words to find the one that best rhymes with Frog's word. When your preschooler chooses a word, Frog's tongue reaches out to grab the word.

5. Alphabet Falls - Help Sheep and Duck catch letters cascading down the waterfall. Both uppercase and lowercase letters are used. Be careful! In this game, not all the letters are needed to win the game. The letters that are needed are displayed in a small box in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. This is a great game for teaching mouse skills and letter recognition.

FunSchool

This website offers many free online games for kids with a subsection for alphabet learning.

1. Haunted Alphabet - in this not-so-scary activity, your child needs to find all the hidden letters of the alphabet. Look carefully! Some of the letters are hidden in tricky places.

2. Letter Matching - this game is perfect for kids in kindergarten or who need a spelling challenge! The vowels are displayed on a little wall rack. Use the vowels to help fill-in-the-blank on the displayed words. Use your mouse to drag the correct letter to the word. As you spell each word correctly, it will change color. Pictures are used to help your child.