Is learning the alphabet song necessary in learning how to read? I don’t think so. But that doesn’t mean it is not important or not helpful. Recently I started encouraging my 7 year old to use the dictionary to look up the meaning of words she doesn’t understand. Searching for a particular word in the dictionary requires the child to know the sequence of the alphabets. You can point out other areas where your child can use their knowledge of alphabetical order such as telephone directories and libraries. Show them that listing words/things in alphabetical order makes searching for them easier.

My son has been doing some Dolch word worksheets from http://enchantedlearning.com and one of the exercises is to put the words in alphabetical order. Slowly I had to teach him to the technique of how to do it.

So, an activity you can do with your child that has mastered the “ABC” song is to rearrange a set of words into alphabetical order. You can start with something simple e.g cat, dog, elephant, mouse, tiger, lion.
Then go on to words with the same first letter e.g. ball, bat, bear, chair, cot.

They say wisdom is knowing how to apply the knowledge that you have. Therefore, a child that knows the ABC is clever but a child that knows how to use that knowledge is wise :)

Hmm… Talking about the alphabet song, my children really love this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song.