Today is brought to you by the letter E

Teaching your kids their letters is both easy and FUN!

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

I love making abc books with my kids (see other post) but every time we add a new letter to our alphabet book, we do other things to reinforce that new letter.

Before vacation, we had gotten up to the letter "F"

However, Adelyn seems to call both E and F "F" so today we decided to go back and reinforce the letter E before we learned any new letters.

Our favorite activity is the scavenger hunt.  Get a sharpie and your child and work your way around your kitchen, writing on any "E" they can find (capital or lowercase).

Adelyn found an E on her vitamin container

 The cool thing is that although your kids might be different ages, they can all do something.  While Adelyn and I scavenger hunted, Charlotte practiced writing, a skill that is completely appropriate for her age!  Also, she isn't giving away all of the answers to Adelyn :)

Charlotte is busy writing E

Adelyn decided she needed to do the writing

 Never ever did I let Charlotte write on the boxes herself when she was learning letters, but your 2nd child thinks they are capable of doing anything and, well, it wasn't half bad writing for a 2 1/2 year old.

We've never tried writing, but obviously we should!

 If you didn't know, Vis-a-Vis pens are erasable with a wet paper towel.  They are what our teachers used to use on overhead projectors.  They are great for writing on the fridge to help remember and practice in a really central place in your home.  Then, when company is coming over, you can erase :)

Of course Charlotte finished writing and joined!

This morning we had been stringing chocolate cheerio necklaces, so we decided to write the letter E with cheerios.  I didn't realize how much fine motor coordination this took, so it's a fabulous one to do!

This is Charlotte's E

To layer in support, I wrote an E on the board and Adelyn "covered" it

Another one of our favorite things to do is "stamp" playdough with letter cookie cutters.  This is fun and again, functional for more than one age.  Charlotte us busy making words while Adelyn just punches the letters she knows!