Camilla and Roman: B is for Baby. 24 months old.

Letters for 2 year olds.

Color and shape recognition, sequencing and sorting skills, fine motor skills and imaginative play: our 2 year olds could not do these just several weeks ago. This is so amazing to watch them progress so fast and very visible! They are literally getting smart every day now!

We have started on "letter of the week" activities. I've been asking myself if Camilla is ready for her letters yet. Here are some points that helped me to realize that she is:
1. She is interested. She loves the Alphabet song and tries to repeat sounds from it. She would notice a single word written and start to point to one letter at a time and "name" it (nothing is correct, but she loves the process).
2. She recognizes and names the shapes: it helps to distinguish different shapes of letters.
3. She loves sorting and matching activities and is so into puzzles now. She can enjoy all of them while learning letters.

There are different approaches in learning letters: capital letters first, small letters first, or both letters at the same time. I think, for my 24 months old we'll do the capital letters. That way when we learn the small letters, we will be able to review all of them again (review is a key of learning ;) ). And she will be not ready for reading for some time anyhow.

We've decided not to follow the alphabet. We'll take a letter a week according to the theme of the week. This way it will be more flexible and according to our kids' interests. Also, Camilla is still behind in pronouncing the sounds. We will concentrate on pronouncing the sounds the most and will work with the sounds she can pronounce first.

According to the speech sound development chart I have:
1. p, m, h, n, w, b
2. k, g, d, t, ng
3. f, y (from 2,5 y.o.)
4. r, l, s (from 3 y.o.)
5. ch, sh, z
6. j, v, th
7. zh as in measure

B is for Baby

We are learning baby animals this week. It's not easy because they used to say "doggy", not "puppy"; "duck", but not "duckling". For Camilla, it seemed like using a foreign language: using a different word for an object you already know the word.

Our baby animals this week: duckling, chick, kitten, puppy, lamb, calf. Of course, puppy and kitten were the easiest ones. But saying "lamb and calf" instead of "sheep and cow" was difficult even for some adults.

We sang songs, read books, played games using these words. Then, we've got to see our first letter. It went OK - great start!

This one is a matching game. The baby says, "Where is my Mommy. Please, help me find my Mommy". After his Mommy is found, he gives hugs and kisses to his Mommy, and then to a child who helped find her. That was such a pretty activity! All the pictures are laminated print outs.

B is for Beads

This beads are from the set we bought in Michaels. Look at this happy smile when Camilla saw them for the first time!

And this is a delight of the new necklace! I love this picture!

B is for Banana

Out of 5 two years olds, Camilla was the only one who didn't manage the tweezers. She says "squeeze", but can't squeeze them tight enough to hold the object. The activity was to grab the bananas from the bowl and put them onto the letter - the two extremely difficult tasks! LOL. We also transferred bananas from a tray into the egg carton: one banana in each space. Camilla enjoyed this a lot, but it was difficult for her to understand "one at a spot". She does some of the spots correct. (sorry, no picture yet: too busy with the task on hands :) )

B is for Butterfly

The butterflies are the clips. Great for fine motor skills and way too advanced for Camilla. She loved the butterflies and practice to say the word in relation to the letter.