CLEVELAND — Sitting in front of a Zoom class about letter sounds, my 4 year old was doodling instead of practicing her writing.
I felt like the teacher who just busted a kid for passing a note in class or something. And I realized we needed to step up the active learning in the house.
Luckily, our playroom in the basement is full of tiny random toys. All I needed was a muffin tin and papers to come up with a fun "game" to get back on the learning track.
I wrote some of the consonants from the beginning of the alphabet on the bottom of the muffin papers. Then put those muffin papers in the tin.
Her directions were simple: Fill the tin with toys that start with that same letter sound. She had to find them on her own.
Millie raced off to the basement, excited to start. Right away, she found a bunny for "B" but then found a piece of bread in the play kitchen and switched it out. For "c", she found a cup. For "d" she found a tiny dog. I was floored when she found a tiny little guitar for "g."
She beamed when the tray was filled and was asking for more letters and sounds to search for.
Millie even asked to send the pictures to her teacher. Maybe she realized she was caught doodling during Zoom class, but my hope is that she truly loved the game.
MORE FROM MAUREEN KYLE:
