A man of letters

Upon turning four, we began working on the alphabet in a more focused way with Jack.  And he has enthusiastically come along for the ride!!!  In fact, he's become so enthralled with letters and writing them and spotting them that it is hard to get out the door on time.  He stops and says, "Just a minute, Mommy, I'm learning my letters!"  We've gone through reams of notebook paper, on which he writes a few letters of the alphabet and his name, then tapes up, stuffs in an envelope and designates for various friends and family members! 

Our plan has been to work on one letter at a time - I started out at one per week, but he is too eager to get to the next one, so sometimes we do two letters per week.  We're still working on matching the letters with the sounds they make, but he has made great progress.  Some of our favorite ways to learn the alphabet have been:

- putting fingerpaint in a Ziploc back and letting him "write" letters with a Q-tip

- coloring pages of each letter from these websites: Alphabet Coloring Book and Preschool Coloring Book 

- using lots of different mediums for Jack to write with, including regular paper, notebook paper, pens, pencils, white board and markers, write-and-wipe books, etc.  The more options, the happier he is!

-we love this great resource, our Twin Sisters Alphabet Train floor puzzle and CD with activities (this was a great find at JoAnn's in Phoenix on sale!)  The animal letters below are from this.

- and we also love this birthday gift from our Meyer cousins, the Melissa and Doug See and Spell; the hands on aspect of finding letters to fit in the puzzle words really reinforces what we are learning about the alphabet for Jack 

- I also use an idea from my good friend Rachel (who has a lot of preschool/elementary education knowledge and ideas) - when we begin a new letter, I have a zipper bag with items in it that begin with that letter.  For instance, on our first week, Jack's bag had an astronaut picture, an alligator, an apple, an airplane, a book about airplanes and flashcards with the capital and lower case "A" on them.  All week, we take out those things and review the sounds they make.  We also listen to Dana Dirksen's "Songs for Saplings ABC" CD which has a short Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet.  So, we are learning God's Word along with the sounds of the alphabet!

 

And what does George do during all of this?  Well, for the most part, he is right along with us.  He doesn't show the concentration or eagerness to draw/paint/write like Jack did, but he is happy to be a part of things!

 And he loves to work on his own puzzles and activities while Jack and I are working on the alphabet.

This is just the very beginning of our hopeful journey into homeschooling and I have so much more to learn.  But it is already such a joy to see Jack's eagerness to learn new things and to be able to give him the space and time he needs to really understand each thing we introduce.  I hope some of these resources and links listed are helpful to other moms who are training up their little ones at home or getting them ready for school!