Learning here we come!

I told myself you have to make your munchkins education a top priority! And I set a goal for myself of teaching my 3 year old his alphabet, how to say the letters correctly and to be able to identify them individually. Then work on writing each letter. I want to do a letter a week and add a new color and a number (1-10) every 2 weeks so as to not rush or do too much a week.

Sound like alot?

I think it does sound like alot to accomplish but who will it hurt to try? I don't want to put too much pressure on my son but I don't want to send him off to pre-k next year unprepared. I want him to be confident.Its hard either way because I want to enjoy the time we have left before he heads off to school.

So I started this week as Week #1: Letter A 

On Monday I worked with him on recognizing the letter A. On saying the letter A and being able to see its unique look so as to recognize it mixed up with other letters. I made a collage of A's on thick paper using old magazines that I cut into and saved other big letters for future weeks (I'm doing capital letters first). I thought that by seeing A's in different colors and fonts and sizes it would give him a good visual. I got out all the A flash cards I had and the foam letter A and A magnets and we just looked at them and kept saying A...

We have read the book "ABC T-Rex" many times before but today we focused on the letter A page and looking at the different words that start with the letter A like apples. Then repeating those words so as to hear the A sound in them.  

We also played with his magic screen palm pilot (Great flea market find) that says the letter and shows it on the screen and you can use the attached "pen" to trace over the letter.

Then we played with his alphabet pal caterpillar (Other great flea market find) that has legs of the alphabet in different colors and has lots of functions besides alphabet. So we were pushing the A to hear its sound and how its different from other letter sounds.

I asked him to try to make me a letter A on the dry erase board after making one myself and here's the 1st letter A made by his own hand. We will continue to work on that. But still how cute is this?

Overall i learned Its not easy teaching a child his letters and I just started (wish me luck). Trying to make it fun is fine but no 3 year old boy wants to sit still for his letters when theres toys nearby. You cant make a lesson too long because they will get tired and lose interest. Try to make it fun like a game or some sort of playing. And don't feel let down if they don't understand it and aren't ready to learn.  Everything will happen in its own time and you shouldn't stress (though most parents cant help it). I kept at it this week and will update you on our progress! Any tips? ideas that worked for you?