Alphabet Playtime

We found out we were moving to Germany right around this time last year, so I knew that Christmas presents would have to be adjusted due to limited shipping space.  I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to buckle down about the alphabet.  This had been an issue for us due to Brady was so active and never wanted to sit down and focus for even a few minutes.  Alphabet toys are relatively light and thus were perfect to fit in both the suitcases and the air freight.

I thought Brady might just be bored enough to settle down and let me teach him, but he remained the extremely active kid that he's always been.  He would much rather run around in circles than sit still and listen to me talk.  I think another problem we had was that when I would pull out one of the alphabet toys, he would have a set way he wanted to play with them.  So, when I started on my agenda, he flipped out.  He's very methodical when he plays and doesn't like it when someone tries to "mess it up."

Another great Christmas gift from fellow teacher, Aunt Leecie.  It has several modes, but of course, Brady would rather move the switch to change the modes than listen what it has to say.

I got him this really great Fisher Price alphabet zoo, that came with the tree mat that you see above.  It has an animal for every letter of the alphabet, and the mat has all the letters, that will either say the animal name or that animal's noise.  It even has a quiz mode for older kids.  Of course, he would rather drive his cars through the arch in the tree and press the M for monkey over and over just to hear the monkey noise.

He also likes to carry around the animals in their plastic bag.

This Leap Frog fridge alphabet seems to be a pretty popular toy and most houses we've ever been to has one.  It sings a little song for the later you place in the main unit and says what sound that word makes.  Brady likes to line up the letters and not put them in the main unit to sing.

I spelled out his name and then tried to switch it up by sorting the letters by their colors, but you can see the expression on his face.  He wasn't too happy that I moved them out of his perfect lineup.

I try to do some alphabet learning in the tub with some foam letters that stick to the side of the tub.  He prefers to swish them around in the water and sometimes even chew on them.

As a teacher, I know not to benchmark my kid against others his age, but sometimes it's harder than others.  I know girls are more verbal, so that usually doesn't bother me, but when I meet boys his age who are talking in full sentences, it kinda irks me that Brady doesn't speak more.  He's definitely in there, since he understands everything we say to him and will follow multi-step directions.  He's always jabbering on, but most of the time we don't understand half of the words he says.  We know he knows what he's saying, but they're not coming out in real words yet.  He's so physical, it's hard to slow him down long enough to get him to learn.