E day

Last Saturday, Michaela picked out the first letter for our alphabet challenge.  The letter was E.  I was worried at first that she was not going to have as much interest in this project as I thought, until she started saying things like..."I'm elated, Mom" and "ENOUGH!", all with a little smile on her face.  

EVERYONE

We started the morning with EVERYONE in our family sitting together, thinking of E things.  I made EGGS for breakfast.  We then EXERCISED at gymnastics.  When we got home Ryan and I taught Michaela about *EMAIL.  We had asked family to send some emails and we went some time reading through the ones that were sent.  Michaela LOVES to "type", so she was all too happy to send some emails back.  Later in the afternoon we EXERCISED some more by going to the pool.  When we got home we had an ENCHILADA dinner with EDAMAME.  Overall, I would say it is an EXCELLENT E day.
 
*Several years ago, there was a commercial in which a Dad created an email for his newborn daughter.  The commercial shows the Dad sending emails complete with photos and videos to his daughter as she grows up.  Ryan and I both thought this was a great idea and he followed through and created an email account for Michaela shortly after she was born.  E day was the first time it was really used.    

EMAIL

EXERCISE at the pool

 

Summer Alphabet Adventure - Prep

Back when I was a kid, my Mom had this great idea to entertain my younger sister during the summer.  She created an alphabet jar and allowed her to pick a letter out on special days in the summer.  Then, they would create a day filled with activities to match the letter of the day.  Fast forward about 20 years and I have my own preschooler who is starting to learn to read (not sure how that happened, one day she was all of a sudden reading me an "I Can Read" book), the summer is quickly approaching and I feel like we definitely need some type of structure to survive!  So, I pitched the idea to my two girls and they got on board right away.  

I started the prep work by purchasing a smaller Project Life album and page protectors from Michaels so we could document all our adventures. This way, Michaela and Avery have an ABC book filled with great memories when we are all finished.  Pretty shortly after getting those supplies, Michaela woke asking if we could work on our special project, so we started right away.  First, I had her write all the letters onto a big sheet of paper (this activity already got her practicing writing and remembering her letters) and then she did her favorite part, cutting out all the letters into strips.  Finally, she folded them up and placed them into our letter bowl.  We have also been brainstorming some of the letters ahead of time so that we have a few ideas before we get stuck with a letter and have no ideas.  Can't wait to see where this summer alphabet adventure takes us!