Let me say how awesome the alphabet summer has been for the kids so far. We've REALLY been enjoying reading so many books together! When I have a plan to read certain books on certain days, it's easier to keep up reading to the kids every day! Even with Kaylen having swimming lessons every day last week (and will again this week), we've been taking a bag with a few books to keep us busy. Sometimes it's hard to keep their attention with kids swimming there, but we've found a more quiet corner of the bleachers near the deep end to read our books.
I have been VERY impressed with how the kids are doing with their letter recognition. When we work every day at noticing certain letters on the pages of books, on signs as we're driving down the street, and other objects where ever we are, they are really noticing that there's a reason for those things we call letters!
The other day, Josephine found a random book on the book shelf in the play room, and brought it to me, saying, "Mommy, Mommy, look! I found letters!!!" She was so excited, almost surprised. She'd point and I'd ask, "Oh, yes, what letter is that?" She knew most of them. Her biggest issue right now is she's really mixing up the lower-case letters. She's not noticing the tiny details of the letters. She'll point to "a"s and "e"s and "g"s, like they're all the same. But I'm glad with the progress she's making in the upper-case letters. :)
Elijah has really surprised me this week. I think he's starting to get what some of the letter learning he did last year in a preschool room at daycare means. He is getting both the upper case and lower case. Tonight when we were reading "G" books, he was pointing all the "g"s - even if they were different fonts and looked a little different than the ones we practiced on paper. I think the only lower-case ones he's pointed out the wrong ones were when we did "b" and "d". But that's a pretty normal thing for 4- and 5-year-olds.
Both Elijah and Josephine are doing better with their coloring and with their letter-writing practicing. They're also learning to spell/write their names, since we try to write our names on each page they do. Josephine struggles with the coordination to do the letters, but she also pushes so hard with a crayon that she has trouble moving it freely, so we're trying to get her to write more gently with her crayon - and maybe will try pencils soon too. Elijah struggles a bit, but has surprised me with this as well. He's confused about how to spell his name though. Sometimes we let them try to write their names themselves, and sometimes we help them. The other day he told me his name was spelled, "E, A, O" - and that's exactly what he'd written on his paper. So funny! I think we've corrected it so he's starting to practice writing "E, L, I". We'll see how this goes. Today he told me, "My name, no 'O'. Only Josephine." :)
Coordinating the foods with the letters of the alphabet has been a lot of fun. Some letters we've struggled with or have had to get really creative with them, but that's OK.
Doing a letter about every two days isn't ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely giving them a good start to learning their letters. When their preschool curriculum starts in the fall, they'll be doing about one letter each week, so they're just getting a really quick overview for a head-start!
And not to leave Kaylen out, she's been reading a whole bunch as well! She's been loving our trips to the library. She got her own library card, and squeezed me REALLY hard when I helped her put a hold on a library book she's been wanting to check out for a few weeks now. So fun! Also, when the little kids are sitting at the table coloring or practicing their letter-writing, she's been working on math worksheets that I printed for her. She's not all that excited about the math, but I've told her that her teachers will be happy that she's worked some on her math during the summer. I also just tonight heard a learning center owner talking on the radio about just how much students lose over the summer in their reading and math skills, and shared that with her - she actually seemed to switch her tone to kind of proud of herself that she's working on stuff during the summer. :)
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