ABC's.

August 22, 2008

It's a hard job to try to educate your child and hope that you are giving them all the time and attention they need to learn and grow. I definitely don't claim to be an expert teacher or even think that my own son is a genius. I just want him to have some basic knowledge about things before he enters school (I know I have a while....). Anyway, something that my son has shown a lot of interest in lately has been numbers and letters. So I have tried to do a few craft projects with him to just introduce letters.

Here are a few of my ideas:

Bumpy Letters
Kids can learn from touch as well as sight and sound when it comes to letters. So reaching back into the recesses of my mind (when I used to tutor a little boy). I remembered this activity. We made letters out puffy paint on little index cards. We would trace the letters with our fingers and say what the sounds that the letters made. I have also played memory with the letters. Matching the Uppercase Letters with the Lowercase Letters.


More Texture Letters:
Shape letters out of as many textures and objects you can think of...

-Play-dough

-Glue Salt/sprinkles (Use glue to shape the letter and then sprinkle salt onto the glue, shake off the excess salt. Let dry and then feel them.)

-Glue macaroni/Penni noodles to a page to shape letters

-Cookie Dough and Letter Cookie Cutters (or just shape the letter yourself) and bake them.

-Alpha-bits Cereal



-Ice Cube Trays



I am in love with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree... A fun way to have your child find the letters and place them on the tree as you read or just play with



-Make letters on paper for your child to color or decorate how ever they like

My son seems to love Puzzles so we have also opted to buy him a letter and number puzzle...just one more way to see the Alphabet. I am a big fan of Melissa and Doug Puzzles.

My son also loves the Letter Magnates made by Leap Frog. I have to say that I am also a big fan of them, considering they make the say the letter and then makes all the sounds that the letter makes in a cute little song. I am not a personal believer in the A is for Apple method. I like to say A says and then list all the sounds that A makes.

I know this post in only partial a project or craft, but I did also say ideas right?! Well, I hope so because I like to get ideas from people too. Maybe one of the days should be designated just to teaching ideas...what do you think?

If you have more ideas for teaching the Alphabet share them!

Days Of The Week

July 28, 2008

Have you ever tried to teach your children something? Well, lately I have just decided that I want to really start teaching my son something once a week. I am starting small, but thought I would share my idea. I am taking one item a week and then working on it. My son might be a little young for this, but I decided that I wanted him to understand the days of the week, so that he can start understanding when events are going to take place.

I am 100% positive that this will take more than a week to master, but you have to start somewhere and then I will just keep asking and asking and working and working until we get this one down.

Our August calender is FULL of events, so this afternoon I am going to do a small introduction into our schedule. I have a wall claneder that I use to keep track of events, but we are going to draw pictures of the events on the days that are important to him and then let him help me color them in.

Below: I took our July Calendar and made quick drawings (no making fun of the artwork) of what our July calendar would have looked like. I would have the child color the pictures in or if they are old enough to draw them, let them draw the pictures too.

I am planning on looking at the calender often and pointing things out to him. I am also going to hang it a little lower so that he can see it.

Then on Playhouse Disney, I heard them sing this song (a while back), I thought it was cute song and if sung often might help a child start to place the days of the week in their place.

Sing to the tune of "Are You Sleeping/ Frere Jacques"

Today is [name of day].
Today is [name of day].
All day long, all day long.
Yesterday was [name of day].
Tomorrow will be [name of day].
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!
© Disney

I am thinking I will just keep singing and filling in a calender with him like this every month. I am SURE it will take a while to master this skill, but I am hoping it will start to give him an idea of what is going on. :)