2012 Projects – Letters with Nathaniel

Since 2012 will be my third year of doing a project with David, I wanted to take the time to do a project with Nathaniel this year, too. He will turn 3 in April and I think he’s ready for some Mommy and Me project.

I wanted the project to be something fun and useful and not super-hard to do. Crafting with David in 2010 was fun but it was also challenging at times and we didn’t end up following it through all year. So for Nathaniel I decided we’d do a project involving the letters of the alphabet each week.

I had an extra Moleskine Volant XLarge Plain Notebook in Blue which is the perfect size for my project.

My plan is to create a spread each week which will have:

– letter of the alphabet in capital and lowercase
– photos of objects, verbs, nouns that start with that letter
– a big letter for him to color
– a simple craft project that starts with the letter

Here are some sites I’ve found in a quick search:

actionalphabet
First School
The Crafty Crow

I will look for more. And here’s an initial list of activities I plan to do that correspond to the alphabet letters:

  • a – apple printing
  • b – blowing bubbles or making beads, boat, or balls
  • c – making cookies or cupcakes, clock
  • d – dancing
  • e – creating a paper envelope
  • f – drawing flowers or fingerprints
  • g – goldfish using glitter (and glue)
  • h – hand prints or hats
  • i – ice cream!
  • j – jumping
  • k – making a mini kite
  • l – collecting leaves
  • m – macaroni art
  • n – making necklaces
  • o – making an owl puppet
  • p – collecting pine cones, potato prints
  • q – some game with quarters or a queen crown
  • r – making a rainbow using ribbons
  • s – sock puppets
  • t – making a tissue paper tree
  • u – making an umbrella
  • v – creating a paper volcano
  • w – creating a windmill or wind chime
  • x – making a map with a X marking the spot
  • y – making a xmas tree using yarn
  • z – drawing a zebra

I might change my mind, add, alter as we go along. I’ve learned that being consistent but flexible is the biggest key to success in yearly projects. My goal is for Nathaniel and I to have some special “just us” time, to do some art/crafts together and for him to be familiar with the letters of the alphabet.

I will post our pages on alternating weeks with David’s Book of Good Memories pages.

If you have ideas on other crafts, things he might like to do, ways to incorporate the alphabet more, I would be very grateful for them.

16 comments to 2012 Projects – Letters with Nathaniel

  • Awesome project, Karen! Both my boys studied Zoophonics in preschool and it is what helped them really learn their letters. Each letter has an animal name and a little dance.
    http://www.rcs.k12.il.us/~title1/zoo%20phonics.html
    http://www.zoo-phonicsathome.com/

  • Wonderful idea Karen! I’ll be cheering you on and maybe be inspired as well as I have a 4 yr.old little guy who is so ready for this 🙂

  • dawn

    I love these ideas, letters/numbers are always my favorite. When the girls were pre-k age I homeschooled them and made letter books with them like you are. We would look thru magazines for things starting with that letter and paste it on our page. Some letters we used things as that letter my favorite was the letter “B”, I wrote the on a big paper then had them glue buttons down on the letter. They came out great and I still have those today.

    Your ideas sound great so far and pretty much what I did with my girls. So happy you will have this special time with him. Good luck and being flexible is the key indeed.

    If I think of more ideas will let you know.

  • Lezlee

    Woo-hoooo! Way to go Nathaniel for getting Mommy time next year! 😉 Sounds like an AWESOME project, miss! Just be VERY OPEN to rolling with the punches and going with the flow on this one (challenges for you, I know). You’ve got a great plan in mind – just follow HIS lead once you show him the basics. Don’t get frustrated if the “journal” venue doesn’t work for him. Large size = GOOD! You guys may decide that a big ol’ piece of construction paper or going with some watercoloring is in order for some pages/letters. He may be a computer kinda guy and you guys manipulate/play/do letter things on the computer together instead. He may be a big manipulatable kinda guy and like chunky blocks/letters. Love, love, LOVE the Leap Frog system and their letter magnets. They have an awesome starter alpha thing – put the magnetic letter in the holder and it says name/sound of letter. Works up to the Word Whammer where 3-letter word building happens. My girls and I STILL use ALL those letter alphas on the floor to make/play with words – kinda like the new Scrabble slam that’s out – “See how ‘cow’ becomes ‘how’ becomes ‘hop’ with a letter change” or, especially for the young set, “See all that rhyme or change with ONE letter – ‘bow, cow, how, now,….” – that sort of thing. Leap Frog has an AWESOME video set r.e letters/word building. Mostly, relax, go with the flow, have FUN, and don’t set yourself up to TEACH! 😉 “Play” = “Teach” to them – YOU learn to play and go with the moment, HE’LL (inadvertently as far as he’s concerned) be taught! You may be surprised how much (or how little) he gets into your original design for the project. Please DON’T GET FRUSTRATED. Build on what you KNOW he likes to do already and approach it from those angles. And he’s likely MUCH DIFFERENT than David – AND YOU! – in how he approaches the world! I can see it already in the blog posts of life. Don’t forget to hit up your darling hubby for ideas as Nathaniel may more follow his style of learning/doing things and may bring you different observations of how/what Nathaniel likes to play/do/work. And he’ll love that you ask him to help you and be a part of the project.

    Much love to you and Merry Christmas, my friend!
    Lezlee (BPC friend/student)

    • karenika

      thank you thank you thank you for all this awesome advice!! 🙂 I wil admit this is the one project I didn’t begin in advance. I plan to spend some time with him next week and see how he likes it 🙂 I will make sure to follow his lead and go with the flow 🙂

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