ABC's in the Kitchen

I started teaching my kids the ABC's, their name, and sight words before they could talk.  I was that crazy mom that was showing them flashcards in the highchair at 6 months old.  It worked!  All of my kids were reading before 5 years old.  I remember my son reading to me from a college text at 5 years old.  He didn't know all the words, some were really big.  But he could read.  He could read really well. They all still love to read.  My kids are not geniuses.  They just have a love for learning.

Having a 5 year old who could not read his name was uncharted territory for me.  Where do you start?  We started at the basics.  I will show you some of the other things I did later.  Today I will show you just this one.

Being 5 and constantly attached to my hip, I needed something for him to do in the kitchen.  I got a leap frog fridge phonics toy.  I had one of these for the kids when they were little.  So much fun.

Well, toys get old after a while.  How do you make it fun again?  With chalk.

I'm so glad I painted my fridge with chalkboard paint.

I wrote the alphabet - a few letters at a time - on the fridge.  When he could match the magnet with the letter on the fridge, there was a reward.  This particular time, it was adding eggs to the (cold) water in the pot.  We were making egg salad - very slowly.  This was how he helped.

This game worked for several days.  Then I had him say the letter as he was placing it.  After every game, the door was cleaned and the letter were rewritten for every game.  This way they were always in a new order.

The plan:  I had planned to start writing in lower case letter.  Just never got that far before they left.  

There is another toy - same company - that lets you spell 3 letter words.  I couldn't find it on their website, but Amazon has it if you want to spend $100.  Ouch.  If anyone has one, and wants to sell it.  I am looking to buy a working one :)