Who has done Letter Of The Week?

[tnaallen]

My dd is just over 2 1/2 and I wanted to start the LOTW cirriculum on Monday. No big pressure or goals, but just to add some routine to our days while learning. She has a large vocabulary already and latley has been saying htings like "This spells my name M-O-P." Obviously not having a clue what the letters are or their meanings, but she's trying and loves to "spell".

What has been your experience and what age were your kids? Any daily suggestions (activities, etc...)?

Thanks!

[Punkie]

I did it last year when my kids were 3 and 1 (turning 4 and 2). They both already knew all of their letters by sight. We were verrrrrrrrrrry relaxed with it. So, for example, during the A week, I did the songs, we did lots of A crafts, we made foods that started with A, we went and picked apples, etc, etc. I also made up posters and fun decorations for the letter and surprised the kids each Monday with the new stuff hanging up.

I worked to point out the letter during our day and shaped our activities to be letter-related. It was a really fun time for all of us :) I didn't want to be anywhere near as rigid as some of the suggestions, but I think it was great and introduced both of my kids to their sounds and reinforced their letter knowledge.

[Amber]

:popcorn

[joystrength]

We plan to start this very soon. My kiddos are 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 and they are asking what this "spells," too.
i think we're ready for something like this, and to be relaxed, as well.


So, Punkie, did you do Sound of the Week first? Isn't that the precursor "course"? I've thought about it and just wondered if it's recommended/necessary or if I don't do it will my kiddos be missing a phonics base? Thoughts?

[Punkie]

No, I kind of worked them in together. :)

[DogwoodMama]

I tried to do Theme of the Week, but when the theme was Cows she wouldn't read the cow books I got but wanted to read about rabbits. :scratch I think I'm actually going to wait until closer to 3 before really trying anything like that again. :O It felt a bit "forced" for me... maybe letter of the week would work better for us than Themes....

[Mama Calidad]

We did it for a while, but I didn't really like it. I'm more into unit studies and it drove me bonkers that nothing was related, except by the beginning letter. Really more my issue than the program. :grin

I switched to asking DD what she wanted to learn about in the next week and did a theme based around that.