P'Tater, our 5 year old, is still learning his letters and sounds. I have tried Hooked on Phonics, flash cards, Kindergarten reading books and workbooks, and even let him watch way too much Sesame Street. None of these things have really helped with this yet. (I am patiently waiting for it all to "click" in his little brain, as it is foundational and we really cannot move forward until he gets it.)

Lovey came up with something today that seemed to work! She is really handy to have around.  She is so smart and creative, that one.

Here's what happened. This afternoon at lunchtime, while eating their Alphabet soup,(I'm telling youu, I am trying everything!) she started singing a round of the "Name Game". (*I took at guess at this being its formal title and it turns out I was right! Gotta love Google.) 

You know the one where you use your first name and make it into a sing-songy rhyme.... "Hannah, Hannah, Bo-Banna, Banana-Fanna-Fo-Fanna. Fee Fi, Mo-Manna.... Hannah!"

For more info check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_Game 

Anyway, Lovey decides to do it with my name, but with a twist. She added each letter of the alphabet to my name (Since it begins with A, it was easy.) and then continued from there... Throught the ENTIRE alphabet. (It would have been annoying had it not been an effective teaching tool for her brother,)

 So it went something like:

For the letter B: "Bandrea, Bandrea, Bo-Bandrea. Banana-fanna....etc." Then on to C and then D and so on. P'Tater joined in and before I knew it, he was singing along to, shouting out the next letter in the alphabet as we came to it. Then, he would listen to her start the song with the correct sound and joined in.

This is homeschooling at its finest.  

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