So I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that my tiny, tiny little baby is growing up and is a full-blown toddler!

Because I wanted to really savor and enjoy my last few months of it being just Lucas and Mommy before little brother (still to be named) arrives, we decided not to enroll Lucas in preschool this fall.  But, I still wanted to make sure we had some “structured” learning (yeah right with a 2.5 year old!) and socialization.  I’ve signed us up for a few classes we are really enjoying and I decided to add a bit more structure to the Letter of the Week activities I started earlier this year (that took a brief hiatus during that nasty first trimester).

I try and do a few things with each letter:

• A Letter Craft – you know, making that letter into something
• A Sensory or Fine Motor Skill
• A “Math” activity – more like counting, sorting, measuring, etc.
• A Cooking Activity – L loves helping in the kitchen and we keep it really simple
• A Coloring Page or Another Craft if I can come up with something.

I want to share what we’ve been doing with all of my mommy (or mommy-to-be) readers because we really are having a blast.  I also wanted to say that we don’t put a lot of pressure on ourselves with this (sometime I don’t follow the above list because I can’t come up with things that fit – I try to make it fun for both of us and not something I worry about too much).  I get that my kid isn’t even 3 yet!  This really helps me plan things for us to do during the day (so I don’t go crazy or rely on the TV too much).  Instead of creating a new post for each letter, I’m going to do 2 at a time (I think we’re far enough along at this point).  We started with the letters in L’s name but I’m going to just go alphabetically (so your kids aren’t learning how to spell Lucas right off the bat!).

LETTER OF THE WEEK – “A”

We had a lot of fun with the letter “A!”

We made an “A” Alligator.  I just cut up bits of construction paper and Lucas glued them on (this was one of our first letters, so I was stilling trying to be “perfect” at this point instead of letting him just have at it).

We also did Apple Paining (but I forgot to take pictures – oops!).  This was really easy – I just cut a few apples in half and let him dip them in paint and then onto paper.  This kept him entertained for quite a while.  I worked counting in my counting the apple seeds!

We did some coloring pages as well – I like Education.com for free printables!

We also made Applesauce with Daddy!  This one was a ton of fun!  I did most of the work but Lucas LOVED mashing everything up!  And it was really easy – I just added about 3/4c of water to 4 peeled and diced apples, 1/4 cup of sugar and a dash of cinnamon  and cooked on the stove until soft.

Once that was cooked Lucas went to town with the potato masher! It was a tad chunky but we loved it – and Lucas loved that he helped make it.

LETTER OF THE WEEK – “B”

**I’m going to preface this by saying Lucas is REALLY into butterflies but there are LOTS of other “B” things out there!

We made a Bumble Bee out of the letter B.  I used yellow construction paper for the B and cut out wings from black.  I used a pipe cleaner for us make the antenna.  I gave L a black marker to add the stripes but you can see that wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do.  By this point I had stopped trying to be the “perfect Pinterest mom” and just went with it!

We also did some Pom Painting on a Butterfly.  I found the butterfly at Walmart in the craft section for like $0.49.  A few clothespins, poms, an egg carton and paint and we were in business.

Our counting activity was counting butterflies (see the pattern).  My mom found some plastic butterflies on Amazon a while ago and we would line them up and count them.  It was super simple but I can tell he’s really stating to “get” the point of counting (and can actually count things pretty high – not just say his numbers).

For our food we made Banana (or Blueberry for Daddy) milkshakes!  Lucas loves helping with the blender and he LOVED his milkshake!  We drank them while we watched a Bubble Guppies episode as a family!

Like I said, I’m keeping it pretty simple and trying to incorporate it into our daily routine.  I am starting to see it paying off for sure.  Just the other day Lucas told me “D” is for Dinosaur and “E” is for Elephant and I was really impressed.

Are you doing any preschool activities at home with your little ones?  I’d love to hear what you’re doing – I’m always looking for fun new activities for us so make sure to share!