As the parent of a preschooler, you should make alphabet lessons an important part of your daily routine. Waiting until your child starts preschool or kindergarten to begin work on the alphabet will put your child behind in the literacy race while teaching your preschooler the alphabet can make them a sure winner. Teaching the alphabet letters does not need to be arduous or complicated and certainly does not require special tools. One of the simplest way to teach your child the alphabet is by using food. After all, your child needs to eat.

Here are some fun A-B-C food snacks to get you and your child started:

A Snacks: Almonds, Alphabet cereal, Alphabet soup, American cheese, Angel Food Cake, Animal Crackers, Apple Butter/Juice, Apples, applesauce, Apricot, Asparagus, Avocados

B Snacks: Banana splits, Bacon, Bagels, Baked Beans, Banana Bread, Barbecue Beans Bean Sprouts, Beets, Berries, Black Eyed Peas, Bran Muffins, Bread Sticks, Broth, Brownies, Brown Sugar, Brussel Sprouts, Butterscotch, Buttermilk, Beef, Bell Peppers, Biscuits, Bologna, Brazil Nuts

C Snacks: Carrot sticks, Cucumber slices, Celery sticks, Cheese, Crackers, Cinnamon rolls, Cornbread, Cereal, Carrot juice, Cranberry juice, Cantaloupe, Cottage cheese, Cashews, Cupcakes, Cauliflower

D Snacks: Doughnuts, "Dirt" cakes (chocolate cupcakes), Deviled eggs, "Devil" sandwiches (put a devil face on bologna or cheese with condiment), Hot dogs

E Snacks: Eggs, English muffins, Egg drop soup, Hard-boiled eggs, Eggplant, Eskimo pies

F Snacks: French Fries, Corn Fritters, French Bread, Finger foods, Fig Newtons

G Snacks: green jello, graham crackers, garlic bread, garbanzo beans, goulash, green beans, greens grapes, grape juice, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, Gatorade, granola, guava, green split peas (or pea soup), grits, gingerbread, gummy candy (bears, worms, fish, etc.)

H Snacks: Ham, hamburger, hash, hazelnuts, hoagies, honey, honeydew melon, hot chocolate, hot dog, hot sauce

I Snacks: Ice, ice cream, ice tea, Italian bread, Ice cubes

J Snacks: Jam, Jambalaya, Jello, Jelly, jerky, johnnycakes, juice, jellybeans, Jello jigglers

K Snacks: Kiwi, Kite-shaped sugar cookies

L Snacks: Lemonade, Lemon cookies, Lemon sherbet, Lemon Lollipops, Lime koolaid

M Snacks: Muffins, Milk, Milkshakes, Macaroni and cheese, Marshmallows, M and Ms

N Snacks: Nachos, navy beans, nectarines, Neapolitan ice cream, noodles
nut bread, nuts (not for small children).

O Snacks: Oatmeal cookies, Oranges, Orange sweet rolls, Edible O's (using cookie dough), Olives

P Snacks: Peanut butter, pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, pasta, prunes, pineapple
pizza, potato pancakes, regular pancakes, cheese pretzels

Q Snacks: Quiche, Quaker Oats, "Q" Cookies

R Snacks: Raisins, Rice and raisin pudding, Raisin-Apple Muffins, Rice cakes with peanut butter, Rice cakes (flavored), Red jello

S Snacks: Sandwiches, Sugar cookies, Salad, Soup, Strawberries, Salsa, Sour cream

Toast, Tea, Tangerines, Tuna, Teddy Grahams, Trix cereal, Taffy, Tapioca pudding, Tofu, Triscuit crackers, Tomato, Trident gum, Twix candy bar

Ugli Fruit{Also called Unique Fruit, it's a cross between an orange and a grapefruit}, upside-down Cake

Vegetables, Velveeta cheese, Vienna Sausages, Vegetable Soup, Velvet Cake, Vanilla Cookies, Vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream, Vermicelli noodles

Walnuts, Waffles, Whipped cream, Wheat, Wieners, Watermelon

X-shaped cookies

Yams, Yogurt, Yellow cake, Yeast rolls

Zucchini, Zucchini Bread, Fried Zucchini (cut into strips like french fries, bread, and fry. Serve with ketchup!), Zesta saltine crackers, Zwieback Toast

To fill in with the letters without many snacks or to reinforce and review letters you can use condiments to create letters or build straight letters using pretzel sticks and the like. You can also trace letters in many foods such as peanut butter, whipped cream, frosting, mashed potatoes and so on. When the children are ready you can let them create letters out of foods too.

Learning the alphabet letters can be as easy as A-B-C when you use food to make learning fun and easy for your child.

Learn more about learning the alphabet letters at http://www.squidoo.com/learningthealphabetletters/