Thanks to Social Media, I now feel pressure to make sure that my 3 1/2 year old son knows the alphabet before he turns 4. This, in my opinion, is absurd. It seems that children are being asked to know so many things before they even enter Pre-School. Pretty soon, they’ll be expected to write an entry thesis for Kindergarten! Oye.
Anyway. Garrett, my son, is a typical three year old boy who only wants to play. And when I say “play”, I mean dump all of his toys into piles, roll around in them, and then walk away. So, to sit down and try to teach him anything educational has been a nightmare…until now! He is absolutely obsessed with watching people open “egg prizes” on YouTube. He also enjoys receiving and opening egg prizes here at home. So, I found a very fun educational game that involves none other than the plastic Easter egg! I went to my local dollar store and purchased 30 eggs (I only needed 26, but they came in pre-packaged bags). I also purchased some magnetic letters and numbers from Toys ‘R Us. I tried making a magnetic board using a baking sheet pan, but didn’t realize that the pan was actually aluminum and not metal. So, I’ve been using an alphabet mat from Melissa & Doug – but anything with the alphabet on it will work!
To play the game I place the letters in the eggs (I do the capital and lowercase letter together in the egg to make it easier). Then, Garrett opens each egg and tells me what the letters are (the ones he remembers) and then places the letters on top of the mat. That’s it – that’s the game. So simple, yet so entertaining to a child who loves “egg surprises”. He asks to play the game over and over again, which is great (and somewhat annoying too). Now, to find a way to get him to brush his teeth…
damonamaesdays 