A Week

Teaching my kiddo the alphabet. Some of our silly, home-grown ideas.

This week has been A week. So far, so good. He can recognize the letter A, knows the sound it makes, and we have practiced writing it. This letter might have been a little easier than expected for us because his name starts with an A, so we've been discussing this letter since he started talking.

There are three main portions I have focused on in working with him. First, visually recognizing the letter A. Second, verbally recognizing the sound the letter A makes. And finally, how to write the letter A.

Visual Recognition

Coloring Page

To help keep in his mind what the letter A looks like, I started the week by having him color this page: (I colored one too - seemed to help keep his attention.)

  

Once colored, I taped it to the wall, so we could talk about it throughout the week.


To download a copy of this document, click here.

 

Grocery Letter Game

We also played one of my favorite letter-recognition games. (Favorite because it makes it simple to teach and get my grocery shopping done at the same time.)

When I took my kids out grocery shopping with me this week, I took along with me a bag of the multi-colored flavored miniature marshmallows. (You can use other items, if desired - see below.) Once I got my boys secured into the cart, I gave my little guy a small sandwich bag and told him that while we were in the store it was his job to find as many As as he could find. For every one he found, I would give him a marshmallow to put in his baggie.

As we went up and down the aisles, he intently watched the shelves, searching for As. 

As I quickly learned, the grocery store is an excellent place to work on letters - they are EVERYWHERE. 

I think in the future I probably won't use the miniature marshmallows - they were my first thought as I rushed out the door that day. I think pennies or small jelly beans or something like that would have worked marvelously as well. But next time I might try taking some small dry beans, and then tell my boy that if he can collect 30 or more beans he will get a special prize. I don't know about your kids, but I know my little guy will definitely go for that.

Verbal Recognition

When it comes to working on the sounds, there are a few things I've discovered. First, I have to stay on top of it. I work on highlighting the letter in my everyday speech. So, if I happen to ask him if he wants some apple slices, I try to remember to say "a-a-apple... What letter do you think the word a-a-apple start with?"

We also sing a little song together randomly throughout the days (driving, playing, etc.). It goes something like this:

What sound does an A make?
A, a, a!
What sound does an A make?
A, a, a!

Silly-stupid song, I know. But it seemed to work. In fact, by the end of a few days, HE started singing the song to ME. It was great!

Coloring Activity

I also created a coloring page for him of A words. To download a copy of this document, click here.

Writing

This is an area where I really want to make sure to start him out with proper writing techniques an habits. So, although there are many other creative ideas on working on writing, I will probably always make sure to include real writing on real paper with a real pencil.
 I purchased a learn-to-write tablet much like this one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mead-Writing-Tablet-Raised-Ruling-Dotted-Lines-8-x10-White/22653841, However, the price listed there was not the in-store price - it was cheaper.

The reason I selected this particular tablet was the raised ruling. It did, in fact, seem to assist my little guy in starting/stopping lines in the proper place.

All I did was take one of the pages, and drew dotted upper and lower case As for my little guy to trace, leaving blank lines for him to draw his own after practicing on my dotted letters. It looked like this:
 
I also made sure to give him a regular, sharpened pencil to use, and made sure he was holding it properly. For me, it's  not just about him forming the letter, but also about starting proper habits.

 He did great. I was very impressed at his first attempts at writing.

Tub Writing

It was a happy coincidence that I learned how much fun writing can become for the little guy when we went to do "tubby time," and he picked up his tub crayons and began forming As on the tub wall. It was great.

These are the ones we have: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Crayola-Bathtub-Crayons/15754363. They work well. We like 'em. (We have purchased other cheaper brands, but they seemed to break much easier, so we'll probably stick with these ones for now.)

TIP:  I learned the hard way that it is wise to wash off the crayon at the end of tub time... It is not a good idea to "just wait til next time." It was much more difficult to remove after it had sat for awhile. It does come off completely, one way or another. A wet wash cloth and little effort will wipe away fresh tub crayon, and medium effort will scrub away dried-on tub crayon. :)

If the tub crayons aren't your favorite option, we have also used these finger paints:  http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bathtub-Fingerpaint-Soaps/14648452. 

TIP: I'd suggest keeping a close eye on the kiddos when using these - and make sure to warn them that they will hurt if they get them in their eyes. My little guy has a thing with rubbing his eyes in the tub... so, again, we learned the hard way with this one. (He does still have perfect vision in both eyes.)
 

Have an A-A-AMAZING time with As!