The Poortinga's: The alphabet

I'm editing this original post - and strictly making it about the alphabet to avoid anyone having issue with what I was saying - so if you read this post previously, and see it's changed, that is why!

SO back to the alphabet! At Christmas time a letter was sent home with all the kids that there were still several in class who weren't recognizing any letters. Without even having to ask, I knew Maree fell into the group. I attempted to sit down with her with fun books, letters, flash cards you name it… she was just not interested. And I know my kid. She is a busy, short attention spanned little 3 year old. I remember nannying for 3 year old twins and I taught one of them every letter of the alphabet in like 2 days… for the life of me, I couldn't get Maree to sit still. Thank goodness I used to be a teacher myself, because I quickly realized that she is a kinesthetic learner (learns through movement). SO, I came up with a game. Every night before bed I'd reveal a NEW letter…. and then throughout her room I'd "hide" objects that started with that letter, but had the letter taped to the front of it. She thought it was the greatest thing ever… and was SO proud of herself every time she would remember letters night after night. We started this back in February… she will still today point to a letter and say "It's 'B' for bandaids or 'L' for lunch box or 'D' is for daddy (I literally taped it to Marc and she thought it was amazing" etc.

Just adding this game to our nightly routine (yes it does add about another 10 minutes to the process) but it has really helped to boost her confidence and she is so proud when she recognizes letters on signs throughout town, in books etc. And as an added bonus, Ellie now knows most of her letters too. Just recently Maree's even gotten excited to start writing the letters and can now write her own name!

Here are just some examples of what I did…