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Friday, January 11, 2013

Learning our ABC's

Izzy was an early talker, there's no doubt about that. I'm pretty sure she started saying "Mama" and "No" at around 6 months. She picked up sign language pretty well, too. She's always had a fascination for reading and letters, and she prefers to pretend to write over coloring most of the time.

I've often heard that children shouldn't be expected to start formal education until they are 5 years old, but my brothers and I learned to read when we were three, so I know that there is no "one size fits all" approach when it comes to teaching our children.

Shortly before Izzy turned two, she started recognizing names and letters, so I decided it would be a good time to start intentionally working on teaching her the alphabet. After all, if she has and inclination for it, why not?

I've been using a curriculum called "Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve",  and we've had a lot of fun with it. Each week has a Bible verse, a Bible Story or character, and several activities to do regarding the letter of the week.

This week, we are learning about the letter "G", so we've read the Bible story about Gideon putting a fleece before God and our memory verse is Psalm 122:1 - "I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord."

It's fun teaching her simple Bible verses. We do motions to go with them, and I'm surprised at how quickly she picks them up.

Izzy has done fairly well learning all of her letters up to the letter G, with the exception of F. She has a strange mental block on F, so I decided we'll move on and pick that one up later. It might be because E and F look too much alike.

The curriculum is full of fun activities to do that involve the letter of the week. This week, we are:

1. Making "Glorious Goulash"
2. Going to the grocery store to get some green grapes to make grape juice
3. Playing "Green means go"
4. Painting a glowing galaxy with glow in the dark paint on construction paper
5. Giving Grandma a call

There are lots of ideas to pick and choose from each week, I try to do five a week, about one every week day. Sometimes I make up my own because of something we're already doing (like grocery shopping...just add grapes and it's a learning activity! I'm so sneaky, am I not?)

I ordered the digital version because it was cheaper, but I'm wondering if I'll wish I had a hard copy when we get ready to go through it again with Korban. I definitely plan on using this again because it combines keeping me accountable to do activities with Izzy, it teaches her some letters and phonics, and  it even has a Bible study/scripture memory element.

The curriculum was designed by the author of this really popular blog and she also has a degree in elementary education, so that's good to know.

Also, you should know that I liked this program so much that I signed up to be an affiliate. If I can ever figure out how to work it, I will add a link for you to use if you want to order Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve and Raising Isabella will get a commission from your order. Even if I do not figure it out, you should still think about ordering this program because it's so great!


2 comments:

  1. This sounds great! Isaiah is the same way you say Izzy is. He started recognizing letters, pretending to draw letters, and singing part of the ABC's with us well before 2. Aside from random little activities with him, I haven't done anything consistent with him as far as him recognizing all the letters. He does recognize some of them, but others he has no clue. I feel like he's ready though. This sounds like just the thing. Plus we were talking the other day about how we needed to start him on memory verses since he has become so good at song lyrics. Thanks for the suggestion!

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    1. It's fun, and it helps hold me accountable to doing crafts and activities with her. We skip a lot of it because she's not quite old enough, and it would be time consuming to do all of it each day, but I'm glad there's more than enough to choose from! I hope ya'll have as much fun with it as we do!

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