Letters

     This past week a cousin of mine posted a video on facebook of her little guy reading. This child is the same age as Laura, and he's reading. They both just turned three last week. !!!!! Of course, all children are different and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. And generally, people don't go broadcasting about things their kids suck at (with possibly the exception of sleep). So I'm sure there are things that Laura is better at than her same-age peers. Memorizing details of Disney movies is probably one of them. ;) Blah blah blah, etc etc. Either way, I still feel a little ... competitive? about stuff like this. Which is dumb, I know. But its also kind of good, because it inspired me to find some printable letters that we could use to practice with.

     Because we have an awesome printer now, I was able to google printable letter flashcards. I was hoping to find the regular Aa Bb type ones, and maybe they would include a picture of something that started with the letter. But I didn't find any like that (somehow? If anyone has a link, feel free to share!). So then I went to Pinterest, and stumbled across these printable Disney alphabet flashcards. Generally, I'm not a big fan of commercial merchandise like this, especially since I was planning on putting them up around the playroom... I'm more of a homemade, old-fashioned kind of girl. But, I know how much Laura loves Disney, so I thought these would probably be better for learning's sake. (I'd still like to find a set like that for the playroom, though).


     Anyway, if there is one thing I learned at teacher's college, it is that you need to make the subject material relevant for the student, or else they won't care or want to learn. And to date, Laura has not shown a lot of interest in learning letters and numbers. She usually just shuts down if we quiz her on them. So, I'm on a mission to find new ways to make this exercise fun for her.
She also really likes singing about stuff. Anything. And the other day, I'm not sure how it came up, but I started singing this old verse that we used to jump rope to as kids:

Allie allie allie-o!

Listen to the radio,

I like the radio,

and I like (__insert letter here__)

(__letter__) is for (__name__)

Pretty, pretty (__name__),

All the boys for (__name__),

Kiss her(/him) goodnight,

Sleep tight!

Run out!

     She has completely latched onto this, in only the way a three-year-old can, and we sing it on repeat. Over and over and over. However, I have used this to our advantage and have begun asking her to figure out the first letter of whatever name we are using (this includes but is not limited to people names. We have sung for Road, and Chair, and Window, and pretty much anything else you can see from your carseat.) And of course she likes the alphabet in song form, as well. Whoever came up with that idea knew what they were doing.

    We have also made a game out of eating Earth's Best Organic Letter of the Day cookies, which are found in the health food section at the grocery store and come in the form of small letters. If she gets it right, she gets to eat it, if she gets it wrong, Mommy gets to eat it. ;)

   One of our older tactics is using a rotation of a few foam letters in the bathtub and just practicing maybe 4 or 5 at a time. We should probably get back to this, actually, because it seemed to work pretty well when there wasn't an overwhelming amount to learn.

    Hopefully these tactics are successful, and I'm open to more suggestions. Then again, this may all be in vain, because if Laura has taught me one thing, it's that I, in no way, can force her to do things she is not ready for/ does not want to do. I guess we'll see. :)

For now, I'll be spending my evening laminating Disney flashcards with colour-coordinated cardstock backing Laura helped pick out.