Alphabet Adventures - A Month of Adventures and Fun Inspired by the Letter D

by - Friday, May 18, 2018

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!

DInosaur Toys for Alphabet Adventures

 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

A Cut Dragonfruit

D month was not as fun for food as other months. We did use it as an opportunity to try dragonfruit, which we all loved looking at but we definitely did not finish it. 

QFC Top Pot Doughnuts

The other amazing D food? Doughnuts, of course! We sometimes get a Top Pot doughnut at the end of our grocery trips (trust me, we all deserve it). For our D month in quarantine, we went to a donut drive through as a fun, socially-distanced adventure!

Other D foods I thought of were Dough (we made play dough, pizza dough, bread dough and more) 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


Burke Museum Dino Days

Dinosaur Days.  Most natural history museums have neat dinosaur sections or events- so much fun for little kids! The Burke Museum does Dino Days, where you can dig for fossils (or make your own), look at dinosaur bones, draw dinosaurs, and more! You can even earn a paleontologist hat! Obviously, it doesn't get much better than dinosaurs for D month- if you don't have anything like thiz, you can still make your own dig for fossils or learn about dinosaurs. 

Downhill Sledding with Dad Alphabet Adventures

Downhill Sledding. This month, we started a new tradition- Super Bowl Sled Day! We took advantage of everyone else being busy with some fancy sports event and headed to one of the best sledding spots up in the mountains. We were one of maybe 5 families there that day, and we had a total blast. My husband's genius idea is definitely getting repeated from here on. 

Drawings of Our Day with Toddlers

Our Day. I get a lot of questions about when it is, what we do now, etc. so I made a schedule of our day that the Bub could decorate and add to as he wanted. It worked CRAZY well! I was shocked! But seeing it drawn out really helped it click, and we added more color and ideas as the month went on. Depending on your kids' ages, you can make it more complicated as well.  


Need more fun D adventures? Dance Parties, Disco, Dump Trucks, Delivery Trucks, Daniel Tiger, Dirt, Dandelions, Ducks, Drums, Dogs, Dominoes, Daisy, Drink, Doodle, Door



Making with D

Dinosaur Preschool Art Project

The bub did my favorite project from D month at school- more dinosaurs! These dinosaurs were cut out of butcher paper and stapled together, and then the kids painted them. This poor stegosaurus has been drug around our house over and over, but I love the paint job he got, and he is just too cute to me. 



Drips- We learned about Jackson Pollock's dripping technique by watching the famous documentary footage of him painting. Want to make your kids excited about art? Offer to let them watch a video. We also read Jackson Pollock Splashed Paint and Wasn't Sorry. Then we got outside and started doing our own drip paintings! The key is to water down your acrylics and not stress about mess.  

Want more D art ideas? Dyes, Drawing (have you done the drawing lunches with Mo Willems? We did that this month and it was a blast), and Dots.

D-Inspired Books


This month, all of our books are all about dinosaurs. We read our all time favorite Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, How Dinosaurs Say I Love You, Little Kids' First Big Book of Dinosaurs (this turned out to be a big winner), Dinosaurs Bite, The Atlas of Dinosaurs, and the Bernstein Bears' Dinosaur Dig.

The Dot Inspired Art Project

I also tried doing an art project based on one of my favorite books- The Dot. We read the book, and then we tried painting our own dots (I drew the dots and then he painted with gouache). The paints were too diluted, so it's not the greatest final product, but I liked building the connection between the themes in the book and my kid's own making. 

Toddler Playing in the Dirt


Alphabet Adventures Activities for Kids Inspired by the Letter D



Want more inspiration for alphabet adventures? Awesome! First, go follow us on instagram, 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. 
Homeschool Ideas Inspired by the Letter D

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