We have made it through to week 4, letter D, this week, so I thought it was time to look back on what worked, and what didn't, from doing letters B and C.
What Worked
Making the Letters
John has really liked forming the letter out of manipulatives. That has been our biggest, consistent, hit so far. It's something he looks forward to, and he is very proud to show it off. We're saving them and slowly forming an alphabet wall in the kid's room.
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| B out of beads. |
Adding in Letter Hunts
We walk a lot, and I found myself telling John about the things I saw that started with that letter. It became a thing so now we have regular letter hunt walks. We rode the bus to the bank and got books at the library for letter B. We looked for creepy crawlies and counted cars, which ended in getting a cookie at the farmers market, for letter C.
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| The cookie was originally bigger than his face. He's watching a random hippy play a drum and didgeridoo. Oh Berkeley. |
Making Games and Role Play Part of School
John really likes games. He is much more engaged when there is a game or role play involved. We did a lot of color matching games and played mass with candles and the chalice for letter C. This often requires me to be a little creative, but pinterest for the win here!
What Didn't Work
Cooking Together
We really haven't found doing the recipes in our school book very enjoyable. We did make cheerios and chocolate dessert bars, but that's all we've really done since applesauce for letter A. John does love to help in the kitchen, but we seem to do better when we're just making our usual dinner. I like the idea of making something special for school every so often, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be a big part of our school week,
Getting Through the Book List
I really wish we had better selection for kids books at our local library. I love the booklist in 26 Letters to Heaven, but our library can be a little short on these great children's classics and even worse on Catholic selections. I think it might be worth slowly building my own library of Catholic children books, especially saint books, since they are difficult to find here.
Another issue is John will REALLY like, and want to repeat repeat repeat, the first three or so books we read. I have learned that if I want to get him exposed to a greater variety of stories and illustrations I should pick one book we have read and one we haven't, let him pick which one first, but always read both. Two books is about his listening limit right now. Once I adopted that system we were both much happier.
Most of the Art Projects
We have done one or two of the suggested art projects, including the magazine collages, but John generally isn't very interested in them for too long. We have found that leaning towards a more activity heavy direction, over a quiet craft direction, is more productive for John. I try to do at least one craft, beyond the letter manipulative and magazine collage, a week. That is working for now on getting him more practice in skills like holding crayons and cutting with scissors, but prevents frustration.
Stay tuned for letters D and E with more cute kids (if I ever get better at remembering to take pictures!)
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