The Letter A...Again.

I am still trying to figure out Miss Salean's learning style. She seems to pick up some things rather quickly, specifically dance moves (although she is to young to take classes), musical tones, and things she watches. Other things, she seems to not get at all, like talking, letter sounds, and the word No...but, she is only two! She is so mature on so many levels, a great helper, very generous and a loving big sister. But, she does not seem to get the alphabet. I know she is a bit young for knowing it, but she potentially will be starting kindergarten at age four and a half, because of her late birthday, so I want to get the talking and alphabet underway, We are still 'stuck' on the letter A, but I think I finally may be cracking her shell.

Since she seems to pick up things she sees on television, I signed us up for an American program called ABC Mouse. It is free for the first month and only 8 dollars after that, so I decided it was worth a shot trying. She always wants to play with my computer, so why not give it a go. We have played with the Toddler portion of the program 4 out of the last 6 days, and she does not seem to like it. She isn't the sitting type, I guess. She likes to watch me do the puzzles (she isn't handy with a mouse), but there are sections that just play music (no video); songs that relate to the alphabet, and she wiggles, wants up and down, and is just not interested. So this morning. I went over to You Tube and found a Sesame Street video about the letter A. She sat and watched the whole thing without moving, it was about 6 minutes long. She even said 'Ah' once with a character! 

Every Saturday, we go to Grandma's for dinner. This week, the cousins were not there, because they go away weekends during the summer. When there is no one to play with and she is hungry, Salean gets cranky and underfoot while the cooking is being done. I decided today I would pack up a little bag of As to take with us. Into her lunchbox, one of her favourite things to carry around books, I packed the following:

Our library book, Ten Apples Up On Top.

The Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set, with the letter A.

An Alien.

An ATV.

A flash card with apple written on one side and Telly (from Sesame Street) holding an apple on the other. 

A puzzle piece with the letter A on it, and an Ape.

A plastic apple from her toy food set (not shown).

An A I made from a pipe cleaner.

An A I made from pop sticks. 

I thought we had an ambulance to pack into it, but it turned out to be a mail truck, so the ATV had to do. I wanted to add an airplane as well, but we do not have one and I didn't get time to search through the bins at Grandma's.

I gave this to her while we waited for the food to cook, I let her just pick through it at first, but later at home I went through all the items.. I also managed to have her say the A sound twice! After going through them and talking to her about them, I read the book as part of our bedtime routine.

It is difficult introducing food as a part of our learning as she is so fussy. We can do apples, but she won't eat asparagus, avocado, or much else along that line. We did discover today that she seems to like apricot, though. There were some samples at the store, it was as we were checking out so I didn't think to purchase one. Maybe later in the week. I plan on using this bag for a few more days and maybe trying a test on her close to the end of the week, see if she is retaining the information. If she is, we will move on to a bag full of Bs! So for now, it looks like she may be hands on and a video learner, but we will see!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

~Natasha.

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