Sandpaper Letters

This is the BEST way so far that I've found to teach letters and beginning phonetic sounds!  Eli has had much success learning his letters this past spring using SANDPAPER LETTERS!

                                                     
Sandpaper letters are easy to make (although it could be time- consuming), and fun to use!
Here's how it worked for us:

•  Downloaded a "sandpaper letter" template from the internet and printed it; 
• Traced the letters onto sandpaper and cut them out; 
• Glued each letter onto a square piece of cardstock (blue for constanants, red for vowels);
• Focused on 3 letters at a time until proficient (so I only made 3 letters at a time!)

I focused *only* on the basic letter sound and formation.  I didn't even teach the name of the letter.  You don't need to *know* the name of the letter to learn to read, right!! 

There are lots of ways to use these, but  I just put one letter in front of him at a time- we said the sound together and then I helped him trace the letter with his finger.   This process involved touch, hearing and seeing and really seemed to *cement* the letter into his head.
After going through all three letters, we might play a game with them or make up nonsense words.  Nothing big- and it only took 5-10 minutes for the whole thing!   I honestly didn't even do this everyday (maybe three times a week) and he was *able* to learn how to read a lot of c-v-c  words in just a couple of months. 

With my oldest, Grace, I focused on letter names, capital letters, etc... you know- the usual way! 
In my opinion (which doesn't really mean much!!!),  focusing on lowercase letters and sounds is a much more effective way to start the reading/writing process!

I'm curious to what others think!?