Learning is FUN 1: Review of big and small letters

Before I got pregnant with the second baby, Gabriel and I used to have lessons on usual preschool stuff - alphabets, phonics, counting. He was such a fast learner that he already knew his phonics before he was 3yo.

During the first trimester, i was really having difficulty with the pregnancy - all-day vomiting and nausea - that i wasn't able to focus on our lessons anymore. I thought it was ok then since he's already going to school and that those lessons will be reinforced.

One night, a few weeks ago, just before sleeping, I just started asking him the sounds of his alphabet. I was so surprised that he wasn't able to answer. He was just mumbling different sounds, he was guessing! I learned later on from the Parent Teacher Conference that their lessons are still on recognizing the letters of the alphabet. I was really disappointed. I had high expectations since this was a Progressive School and their approach was supposedly individualized - meaning - they should personalize lessons depending on the child's knowledge and ability. Apparently, it still all depends on the teacher.

Hence, i resumed our daily lessons.

We first started with phonics. It was really very challenging at first, well - it still is!Gab has very short attention span, he gets easily distracted that i easily got frustrated too. As always, i was expecting too much. I had to remind myself that it's normal, that he's normal - he is just 3yo afterall!

After learning to manage my expectations - we started again. This time, since i was using big and small letters for his A,E,I,O,U , i had to check if he still recognizes big and small letters. I found a technique online (forgot to save the URL) to make it more fun and interesting.

I just made 'pots' and 'carrots' from paper cutouts and labeled each pot with big letters and the carrot with small letters. The idea is for him to 'plant' the small letter carrots into the big letter pots. I give him a carrot and ask him to identify the letter, afterwhich, i ask him for the sound of the letter - then he goes to plant the carrot in the correct pot. He just plants a few carrots at a time, even if i really wanted to, i stop myself from forcing him to do all 26 letters! :D Learning should be fun, afterall! So it took us the weekend to complete this task. But it's ok, atleast i learned he still knows his big and small letters. :)