water tracing

This is an activity stolen from first grade but one M likes a lot. We use our easel quite a bit and one side of it is a chalkboard.  I write letters on the chalkboard side and M traces/erases them with a foam paintbrush dipped in water.  M is pretty good at attempting a few tracings then he ends up washing the board but it's a fun activity for him with pretty simple set-up/clean-up if you have a chalkboard. 

abc book

M has been getting into the ABCs. We've always had a big foam alphabet mat on the floor in his toy corner of the basement. When our dog Skippy had back surgery and couldn't walk on our hardwood floors we had to use a alphabet mat to make him a path through the kitchen. M will try saying the letter names as he walks on it or he'll pull one right out and try to tell me what it is.

One of our first posts on this blog was about M's people book, a simple little photo album with pictures of his family and friends and labels of their names. That's always been one of his favorites. He loves looking at photographs and I've made him various other albums that are "his" that he can pull out to look through. Our newest book is an alphabet book of M's favorite things (and a few people). It's mostly people but also includes some coloring book pictures or magazine pictures (some of those letters are tough!). The most important part is that each picture is of something M can quickly recognize and say the word for. This way, when we look through it I can say, "Z is for..." and he can be part of the reading by saying "zebra."

I bought another cheapie photo album and a pack of scrapbooking letter stickers bringing the cost of this project to probably about $5. M loves it and even though its not done (X ideas welcome, as M doesn't know X-rays yet), we've "read" it several times since yesterday.

Here is a sample page, T is for Thomas:

magnetic letter tray

M's new magnetic letter sets came in the mail this week and he's had fun playing with them on the fridge. One of the teachers I work with uses cookie sheets with letter tiles for phonics activities.  This morning we tried a few letters on a cookie sheet.

Why we loved the magnetic letter tray...

baby: pulling the letters off

mommy: exposure to the alphabet, fine motor skills (pulling the letters off the tray), developing pincer grasp, and it gave the letters that have been on the fridge for a few days a more novel appeal

M's age when we played: 10 months, 2 weeks