Learning Letters

"Hi everyone! I'm still here!"

It all started about a month ago with the letters at our mailbox. They sit in a whole row, A to G, right at the eye level of a certain almost 18-month-old little boy. We would go by the letters in the stroller, or walk down to get the mail and he would walk from letter to letter and I would say them out loud. I noticed how excited he got when I would say them and he would try to repeat them.

The mailbox letters that started it all

Liam's new favorite thing - taking the keys and trying to open the mailboxes

Distracted by people with a basketball

I thought, "well, I can encourage this learning" and got out a box of darling letter flashcards a friend gave me before Liam was born. Immediately they became one of his favorite toys and he would ask to play with his letters. In the past few weeks he has learned how to recognize and say "B" (his favorite letter), "L," "T," "D," "Y," "I," "S," "P," "E" and "O." All the letters have corresponding pictures on the back and he now knows "doll" and "owl" and "tree."

"S!" I hope he always looks this happy about learning!

"B!" "Z!"

Another favorite thing to do is take the letters in and out of the box.

The other thing we do for hours a day is read. We read, read and read some more. Favorite books involve of course, the alphabet. Any book that includes a book and the alphabet is a gold mine.

Our favorite way to sit and read books. Usually Liam climbs up and sits with his fingers in his mouth and his ankles crossed. Apparently that is a comfortable way to look at books.

I know I'm a little biased, but he's a smart kid. Allow me to brag for just a minute and say that we drove by Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day and Liam called out "B!" from his carseat.

I swear it's because of all the walnuts I ate when I was pregnant. Moral of the story = eat nuts and read a lot and you'll have a smart kid. Next up: working on numbers and colors. He currently thinks all numbers are three and all colors are blue.

Honestly though, so much of learning just happens in our daily life. Pointing out things to him as we walk or drive, asking him to repeat words we say; it just happens naturally. It makes me think of something our pastor told us one time - as a mother I have the opportunity to teach Liam the universe. I am the person he spends the most time with and at this age, the person he will learn the most from. It is a humbling responsibility and one I need a lot of help and prayer to take on.