The Alphetbet one letter at a time

I've been feeling a bit guilty about not teaching Edin letters and sounds. I've had the intention to work on/talk about a letter everyday but by golly, I just haven't done it. It seems like a lot of work. But in all honesty, we don't' really do anything everyday and I think I should be feeling more guilty about THAT!

So yesterday I jumped in and started with the letter "H." I plan on going through all the straight letters like his "work book" does: H, L, E, F, T, I. Then the diagonal straight letters: A, M, W, K, X, V, Y, N, Z. Then the Curvies and circles: Q, O, C, G, R, P, S, D, U, J, B.

I started by talking about the letter while we were playing. We'd think of words that start with H. "Horse, House, Hot, Hat, Heavy, Hi, High, Heart...." and so on. I wrote the letter H and put it on the wall. Plus, as we thought of words, I wrote them on the paper with the Big H. (Not to be confused with the restaurant with delicious burgers and root beer.) For lunch we had "hair," (noodles) hot dogs, and hot chocolate. Yeah, I'm clever. After rest time, we played on pbskids.org and played letter games. Our favorite is alphabet falls from Word World.

Today we worked on the letter "L." Lizzie was excited to talk about the letter her name starts with. Again, we started by talking about the letter while we just played in their room. (This is part of my new routine. I need to spend more time on their level, doing what they want to do.) Then we practiced writing the letter and this time drew pictures of things that start with L. I drew a Lady bug and a Lion. Edin drew a lady bug and then drew me with Long Legs. It cracked me up. Just before rest time and while William was already asleep, we made origami lady bugs and colored the dots. We've started Laundry and had Lettuce and a few Leaves of spinach at Lunch time. I didn't have any Lemons or Limes on hand but I'll make Lime-Lemonade after rest time. (I'm really getting into this.) We're also going to color a Leprechaun mobile after rest time, too.

Tomorrow will be the "E." Edin is so exited to be talking about "his letter." We might decorate eggs or eat them or something. I doubt they'll be interested in eating egg plant and I don't have any. I think I'll make fruit empanadas though. (I have apple pie filling and cresants from a tube in the fridge. Easy.) They'll probably think that's pretty cool. Too bad we ate all the pop tarts.

I can't wait for the letter "C" so we can make cookies. I also think I should skip to the letter "P" because I have Pizza with Pineapples and Pepperoni, Pears and Potatoes in my fridge and we could do Puzzles and Play Play dough and take pictures and read the Panda book.

One of the best parts about doing "a letter a day" is that is gets me playing with them and off the computer. I don't have so much time for facebook and reading blogs anymore. That is a major bonus for me. I want to give them the gift of my time.

I know there is always the possibility that I'll poop out after only a few letters. That's my greatest fear with this whole thing. It takes a lot of forethought and planning and I'm not always reliable with that sort. But I WANT to do it. And I can!

Do you have any websites with kid's stuff you like?