Last night my girls and I had a magical moment. One of those times that I know I’ll cherish as they grow older. A moment where the stress of life just disappeared and we just spent time together enjoying each other’s company.
Hubby had a work dinner and the kids and I had been out to eat with my parents. We returned home and I was still hungry so I decided to make it an ice cream night. Dessert is a special treat for our kids and usually consists of a cookie or small piece of candy. We hadn’t had ice cream in a very long time.
I scooped up the ice cream (peppermint for Sugarplum and peanut butter cup for Honeybun and me) and let the girls adorn theirs with the sprinkles of their choice. The girls began to wander towards the couch and I gently reminded them we have to eat ice cream at a table. Instead of sending them to their small kids table as I usually would, I asked them to come sit at the kitchen table with me.
As we sat all together, everyone happy and calm for once, I suggested we play a game while we ate. We went around the table, taking turns going through the ABCs, naming the next letter and a word that starts with that letter. We made up a little song (actually I stole it from Dr. Suess’s ABCs):
I started: “A is for Alligator. A, A, A.”
Then Honeybun: “B is for ball. B, B, B.”
Then Sugarplum (with coaxing “what letter is next, AB…”): “C is for car. C, C, C.”
We went around, taking turns until we reached Z. I was amazed by how well my girls did. Her first few turns Honeybun tried to cheat by looking at the alphabet we have hanging up (see “Letter Learning”) but after I asked her to use her own head she came up with the letters and words all on her own. Sugarplum needed a little help with figuring out what her letter was (I sang the song up to her letter for her) and needed help with thinking of a word about half the time.
Letter sounds and words that start with each sound is something I’ve been working with Sugarplum on during our morning together. It doesn’t seem to be something she easily understands as Honeybun did. I remember shortly after moving to Dublin, walking around town with Honeybun (not yet 2 years old) and talking about “What begins with B?” And my little one who has just begun to talk would respond “B is for ball! And bear! And buggy!” Letter sounds and their uses just seems to be something Honeybun “gets” whereas Sugarplum does not.
I got Sugarplum a game for Christmas called “Fishing for Letters” (it was at the dollar store but could easily be made at home). The game consists of each lower and uppercase letter on a card. It’s supposed to be a memory game where you match the lowercase letter with its uppercase pair. I find memory games take too long so we always leave them facing up. When she first got the game I would have her tell me all the letters as we are still working on letter recognition with her (especially lowercase) but recently I’ve added in the “what word starts with that letter?” element to the game. She tells me the letter, if she can’t come up with a word then I will give her the sound and help her come up with a few words.
Sugarplum loves playing games and I figure any game where I can added in an educational twist is double the fun!
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