Name Recognition/Learning

I'm baaaaaaaack...finally settled in from the exhaustion of Disneyland last week!  I'll share all about that soon!

At the beginning of this year, B was so NOT interested in learning his letters or writing his name.  Even now, after working on letters for months, he has trouble remembering some of the ones we learned in the beginning...he just wasn't into it then. 

Now, he is 100% on board with learning EVERYTHING...especially how to write his name.  The past few weeks, on top of learning letters, I have done an activity involving his name.  I wanted to get him interested in it without forcing him to sit down and write.  He really enjoyed the name activities...I think it was because no "work" (aka writing) was involved.

These are all EASY little activities that you can throw together with things you already have at home.

1.  Stamps

2.  Rocket ship...This was an activity not only involving his name, but shapes and following directions (B had to put his squares in the same color order as my example...We wrote his name at the end.), as well as counting out a certain number of stars. 

This is from a few weeks ago and he had just started writing the letter B by himself...so cute.

3.  Foam letter stickers...This is when we were learning the letter N and discussing how it is part of his name.  I laid out a pile of letter stickers and he had to search to find each letter of his name and then put it all together at the bottom.

So, yesterday I decided that B needed to start trying to actually WRITE his name.  I wrote his name in a light color on card stock and stuck it inside a page protector.  **This is a SUPER cheap and easy way to get your kids (at home or school) to practice ANYTHING.  Put it in a page protector and give them dry erase markers and used dryer sheets (works perfect as an eraser!).** You're welcome!

B was a little wary at first about writing his name, but after I guided him through it the 1st & 2nd time, he was ready to go!  

Here is the picture of his 3rd and 4th time (1st & 2nd time ALONE):

Remember, this is the FIRST time he has EVER sat down to write his entire name...

Pretty impressive, right?!

Then THIS happened this morning...  

He wanted to write a "letter" to his grandparents and I told him to write his name on it, so that they could see what a great job he is doing.  (I did not expect that he would do anything past the B.)

His first reaction was, "I can't...there are no other letters."  So I talked him through it (showed him where to begin each letter and new line), but never touched his hand or the marker!

AMAZING.  I almost lost it, y'all.  I'm one proud nanny!!! Not only is it his whole name and he did it ALONE (no tracing, just listening and looking over at his practice sheet from yesterday), but we started this YESTERDAY and he is not even 4 yet!  Plus, look at the improvement on that B!

Easter Egg Letter Hunt

I love holidays.  EVERY holiday.  I love doing "normal" everyday things inside of a holiday theme.  Who doesn't love eating their PB&J in the shape of a bunny instead of a square?  Or playing a letter matching game after having to hunt down the letters inside of eggs all around your playroom?  HELLO.  FUN.TIMES.

This week I decided not to introduce a new letter to B, but to review the 7 letters we have already talked about.  He loves hands-on activities (what kid doesn't?!), so I decided I had to think of something that would get and KEEP his attention.  And since Easter is approaching, there is only one answer...an Easter egg letter hunt.

I put this activity together in about 8 minutes, right before B woke up from his nap.  All you need is:  paper, markers, alphabet letters (I used letter magnets from the Dollar Store), plastic Easter eggs, and an Easter basket.

I started by taking out the letters I was going to use, because using all 26 would be too much too handle at once for a 3 year old.  I used the 7 letters that B and I have been working on: B,M,S,A,H,T,C plus E and N (to finish out his name) and P (a letter we will be learning in the near future).  I chose these letters so that when matching them, he would have immediate success naming most of them, and excitement over a few new ones.

I put each letter in an egg and hid them around the playroom.  I also hid a piece of candy (that B had been begging for all day) inside another egg before hiding it.

B was psyched from the second I told him what we were going to do.  He wanted them to ALL be filled with candy and was initially disappointed when I told them they weren't.  However, I told him that once he found all of the letter eggs and matched them up, that we could play again and I would put some yummy treats in a few more eggs and use fewer letters.  He loved that idea and set out on a mission to find all the eggs.

He LOVED opening each egg to find either a letter or a treat (2nd round) and enjoyed naming all of the letters as he matched them on his sheet.

The sheet I made had each letter I hid written on it in the same color as the letter magnet.  That way it is a matching game of colors and letters.  Also, very helpful for the few letters he is not familiar with.

This activity is so much fun and so easy to just throw together any time of the day or year!

B was obsessed and wanted to keep doing it over and over again.  I will probably do it with him again right before Easter with some new letters and a few objects that correspond with the letters.  

I made each letter the same size as the magnet and B loved that the letter "disappeared" when he covered it with the magnet.

Letters

B is very smart and learns quickly, but he hasn't quite mastered all of his letters when they are out of order.  B's mom asked me to work with him and so we have been learning one or two letters a week.  It's nothing formal and he usually only stays interested for a few minutes.  But he catches on quickly, so it all works out.

To reinforce each letter we learn, I decided to cut each letter out of construction paper and then fill it with corresponding pictures (stickers).  I also find magazine pages with big words (so he can find the letter himself) that he can cut out and glue on each letter.  He LOVES to use his "red safety scissors" ALL THE TIME.  

None of these happened in one sitting, we keep them out and everyday we will kind of talk about them and add something to them when we come across it.  We started out doing one letter a week, casually.  And this week he asked if we could learn 2, so I guess I was moving too slow for him!