iSpy

This school year, they have been working with the kids to recognize and write letters and numbers. Troy does okay spelling and writing his first name, but we noticed that he’s not as confident with most of the other letters. So, my wife and I have each employed different methods for practicing letters with Troy.

She got a magnetic board for her office that has magnetic letters in the shape of animals. Every time Troy wanders into her office, she’ll go over to the board and spell something with him, usually his name or three-letter words. She’ll practice both uppercase and lowercase letters with him until he gets frustrated or bored.

I on the other hand decided to make it a game at story time. Every night we read a book before bed. Before we open the book, I’ll say, “I spy with my little eye a…” and then I’ll pick a letter in the title of the book. He has to point to the correct letter. If he’s stuck, then I’ll show him the answer. I then will pick a word in the title, and we’ll phonetically sound out each letter in the word and then read it all together. The idea is for him to both practice recognizing the letters and figure out how to put them together to form words. Then, to be able to apply sounds to the individual letters to learn how to sound out whole words.

He actually looks forward to the game. If I skip it one night, he’ll make me close the book and do it first. He has even started to call out letters for me to find. I really can’t wait for him to start reading and writing. I know it will open up a whole new world for him.