Alphabet Adventures - A Month of Adventures and Fun Inspired by the Letter D
Ever since my son turned three, we have chosen a Letter of the Month. We do all sorts of activities, listen to music, eat food, pick colors, all around the letter we pick. I thought it might be fun, but it has turned out to be my best parenting idea ever. Here's why:
1. It keeps our daily focus on what we DO not what we HAVE. I am trying to raise minimalist kids by putting my energy into experiences, not things, because toys are just going to be a burden of waste for them as adults.
2. It reinforces letters and sounds without banging them over the head. We are playing with words in a game-like way, that I hope will help with literacy when it's more developmentally appropriate.
3. It keeps me from getting bored. Stay at home parenting can be an exercise in stamina when you do the same monotonous tasks every single day. It is way too easy to get complacent, let your boredom take over, spend hours on screen time, etc. I feel like this motivates me to stay creative.
4. It's really fun. Can I sell anything as exciting if it starts with the letter of the month? Do we make chores and errands into adventures? Oh hell yes. We have a great time!
This month, we were all about the letter D! At our house, that meant we were all about dinosaurs. My kids freaking love dinosaurs. I try not to reflect too much about why these long dead things have such deep appeal to them, but we had a blast this month! These are my best ideas from it:
D Foods
Other D foods I thought of were Dates, Dumplings (so many options for this!) Dirt (chocolate cookies and pudding mixed together, or Durian (if your little one is REALLY brave, because this fruit smells terrible).
Activities Inspired by D

Dance Party. We have these all the time, but this month, it was totally on theme. If you are at a loss and out of ideas, turning on a good dance jam and moving around never hurts. 10 minutes of cardio for you, 10 minutes of getting energy out for them! Plus, I love seeing my kids' dance moves.
Making with D
Dye. We had one really good snow in February, so we filled cleaner bottles with food coloring and cold water, and got out there and sprayed the snow. If I did it again, I would have dug up another bottle so we had a few more colors going on, but he was tickled to just get to use the spray bottle.
D-Inspired Books

More D Ideas
Donkey, Dirt, Ducks (Wish we had gone and fed them), Deer, Drums, Dog, Dolphin, Doll, Dominoes, Dress, Dandelion, Daisy, Drink, Doodle, Door
How To Come Up with Your Letter and Ideas
1. Look at your Schedule- I do not recommend going in alphabetical order. Instead, pick each letter based on what is already on the schedule for the month. We are doing M for the month we go to Disneyworld. We did B for the month we went home for a baptism. And we did P the month we dove into potty training. Think what you want to be doing, and tie it in.
2. Think about what is local to you. If you are in a region with intense seasons, think about what is great to do in the time of year you are in. Have concerts in the summer where you live? Pick M for music or B for band.
3. Every so often, pick a hard one. Pick those letters worth LOTS of points on Scrabble, or you will get to them all at the end and it will be miserable. Just saying.
Want more inspiration for alphabet adventures? Awesome! First, go follow us on facebook, where we document our adventures and experiments almost every day. You can also check out the Green Families page, which has tons of ideas for raising minimalist kids, throwing green celebrations, and being good stewards for the holidays.
2 comments
Looks like fun
ReplyDeleteWhat great ideas! I will have to do that once my son understands letters.
ReplyDelete