We did it!

We did it! We completed every letter of the alphabet. Some days there were tons of activity ideas, lots of fun foods to eat, and places to go. Other days we just did a few worksheets & a craft. My kids were really enthusiastic about it the first few weeks (while the letters were easy & there was lots to do). The middle third of the alphabet was challenging. We were all pretty burned out. After we came back from our vacation, the end was in sight.

It was a fun way for my 2nd grader to keep up some of his skills during the summer and my preschooler (who this whole project was geared around so that he could learn his letters) now recognizes letters on most everything he sees and he can write each of them fairly well. It was a lot of work for me but it gave us something structured to do during the long, hot, boring afternoons. This experiment just confirms to me that I am NOT cut out to do homeschooling, nor would my children's personalities and learning styles be conducive to that environment. I consider it a success, but I'm sure glad it's over and school is starting again!

Letter Z

Foods We Ate:

Zucchini muffins

Baked ziti

Other Food Ideas:

Zingers

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lower case Z

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about zig-zags (he didn't like my suggestion about writing about the zoo)

For our craft we made zucchini muffins (I was going to do a cute zebra craft, but my printer decided to stop working)

Other Topics/Outings:

Zoo

Zebra

Zippers

Z Movies:

????

Letter Y

Foods We Ate:

Yogurt

Other Food Ideas:

????

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lower case Y

2nd grader wrote and illustrated a paragraph about yellow

(No craft today - I was lazy!)

Other Topics/Outings:

Yahtzee (we were all set to play until we realized a dice was lost!)

Yarn

Yo-Yo

Yellow

Yak

Y Movies:

Yu-Gi-Oh

Letter X

This was the hardest letter of the whole alphabet!

Foods We Ate:

????

Other Food Ideas:

????

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lowercase X

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about x-rays

Craft - I couldn't find any good craft ideas, so I just got out a stack of old magazines and had the boys each find and cut out 10 letter "X"s and make a letter X collage. This was pretty easy for my almost-7 year old. It was pretty challenging for my 4 year old.

Other Topics/Outings:

Xylophone

X-rays (thankfully we didn't need any today!)

X Movies:

X-Men (if you have older boys)

Letter W

Foods We Ate:

Waffles

Whipped cream (with our waffles)

Water

Wheat thins

Other Food Ideas:

Watermelon

Whoppers candy

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lowercase W

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about walruses

Craft - paper bag whale - template HERE - this turned out really cute, but it took a long time to color the whole bag with crayon!

Other Topics/Outings:

Water

Whales

Wolf

Wagon

Wizards

W Movies:

Wiggles

Wall-E

Wallace & Grommit

Winnie the Pooh

Letter V

Foods We Ate:

Vanilla pudding

Vegetables

Other Food Ideas:

Vanilla anything (ice cream, wafers)

Velveeta cheese

Activities We Did:

Printable Activity Pages

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase V

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about my sister (his aunt) Vikki

Craft - made paper model volcanoes - template HERE

Watched VeggieTales video

Other Topics/Outings:

Volcanoes

Violins

Vultures

Vegetables

Other V Movies:

????

Letter U

Now we're getting into the final letters I've been dreading from the beginning...

Foods We Ate:

?????

Other Food Ideas:

?????

Activities We Did:

Printable Activity Pages

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase U

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about umbrellas

Did unicorn craft - templates HERE

We went to visit daddy at work since his company name starts with the letter U

Other Topics/Outings:

Unicorns

Umbrellas

USA

Underwear

Play UNO card game

U Movies:

Up (the new Pixar one)

Letter T

It was hard to get back in the swing of things after being on vacation for a week. Thankfully we had a pretty good letter waiting for us.

Foods We Ate:

Teddy Grahams

Tacos

Tomatoes

Toaster pastry


Other Food Ideas:

Tomato soup

Tortilla chips

Turkey

Tuna fish


Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschool practiced writing upper & lowercase T

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about a T-Rex

We made a train craft (very easy & cute, but it took awhile to color, cut out, and glue on) - templates HERE


We watched Toy Story movie

We played Trouble game

The tooth fairy even visited our house


Other Topics/Outings:

Teddy bears

Turtles

Tractors

Teeth (maybe visit a dentist?)

Trees

Turkeys

Trains (maybe take a ride on a train or go watch model trains)


Other T Movies:

Tarzan

Thomas the Train

Letter S

Thank goodness we are going on vacation tomorrow. I think we're all a bit burned out with this Letter of the Day stuff right now!

Foods We Ate (I had bigger plans, but I am trying to eat down things before our vacation):

Salad

Spaghetti

Strawberry yogurt

Strawberry fruit leather

Other Food Ideas:

Sandwiches

Steak

Soup

Strawberries

Smoothies

Squash


Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lower case S

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about smiles

Our craft for the day was baking sugar cookies (star & snake shapes) - sorry, I forgot to take a picture

We played Sequence for Kids (great game, by the way)

Watched Stuart Little movie


Other Topics/Outings:

Snakes

Snails

Spiders

Starfish

Stars

Sharks

Sheep

Sports

Go to the Science Center

Seasons

Scrabble


Other S Movies:

Scooby Doo

Spirit

Sword in the Stone

Snow White

Space Chimps

If you have older kids, maybe Spiderman, Superman, or Star Trek

Letter R

Foods We Ate:

Raisins

Ravioli

Raspberry yogurt

Raspberry fruit leather

Other Food Ideas:

Rice

Rolls

Roast beef

Ribs

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase R

2nd grader wrote and illustrated a paragraph about rhinos

Did Robbie the Rectange Robot craft (template HERE) - fun & easy craft, but it takes awhile if they are coloring it

Other Topics/Outings:

Rabbits

Raccoons

Reptiles

Rainbows

Radio

R Movies:

Ratatouille

Robots

Letter Q

I was dreading letter Q, but it turned out okay. Now I'm just dreading letter X...

Foods We Ate:

Quakes

Quesadillas


Other Food Ideas:

Quizno's Subs


Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lowercase Q

2nd grader wrote & illustrated paragraph about queens

Craft - we made queens to match our kings (king craft shown HERE) (queen templates are HERE - I didn't do the skirt - that would have been more challenging for my boys and they don't really care)

Other Topics/Outings:

Quail

Questions

Quilting

Quarter

Q Movies:

I couldn't find any appropriate children's ones

Letter P

We could have easily spent 2-3 days on letter P. So many foods and fun topics!

Foods We Ate:

Peaches

Pizza

Popcorn

Pancakes

Pudding

Popsicle

Pretzels

Pears

Plums

Pop-tarts


Other Food Ideas:

Peanuts

Pasta

Peas

Pumpkin pie (or any other kind of pie)

Pork chops

Pickles

Potatoes

Pineapple


Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages (sorry - I don't feel like including the link again)

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lower case P

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about pizza

Instead of a craft we played with playdough (which is quite a novelty around here since I HATE the stuff and it makes a huge mess)

We went to the pool

We played with a police toy set

Did puzzles

Ate pudding pops

Had homemade pizza

Watched a Pokemon movie

Other Topics/Outings:

Panda bears

Pigs

Penguins

Pumpkins

Plants (maybe visit a botanical garden?)

Picnic

Piano

Pirates

Princesses

Painting

Party

Pets (maybe visit a pet store?)

Penny

Park (maybe go to a park? we would have but it's too hot here right now)


Other P Movies:

Pete's Dragon

Peter Pan

Pinocchio

Letter O

Foods We Ate:

Oreos

Other Food Ideas:

Oatmeal (or oatmeal cookies)

Oranges

Olives

Activities We Did:

Printable pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase O

2nd grader wrote & illustrated paragraph about the ocean

We made homemade oreos

Craft - paper bag owl puppets - templates HERE (this is a very cute, easy craft but it takes awhile to color everything, cut it all out, and glue it all together)

Other Topics/Outings:

Ocean

Octopus

Ornaments

Otters

Origami

Old Maid - play game

O Movies:

Over the Hedge

Oliver (cartoon Disney one or musical)

Open Season

Letter N

There wasn't as much for letter N as I expected there to be. Good thing we had a busy day with other plans...

Foods We Ate:
Noodles
Nachos
Nutrigrain bar

Other Food Ideas:
Nerds candy
Nuts
Nectarine

Activities We Did:
Printable activity pages from links HERE
Preschooler practiced writing upper and lowercase N
2nd grader wrote and illustrated a paragraph about nails
We read about Noah's Ark
Craft - we made a necklace out of cereal


Other Topics/Outings:
Nose
Nest
Nurse
Numbers

N Movies:
Newsies
Nancy Drew
Night at the Museum
Or maybe just watch Nickelodeon or Nick Jr.!

Letter M

We're halfway done! This is really fun, but it's sure a lot of work (not the blogging, the actual activities)...

We could have spent a few days on letter M.

Foods We Ate:

Muffins

Milk

Meatloaf

McDonald's

Macaroni & cheese

Mango

Marshmellows

Other Food Ideas:

Molasses cookies

Mint (anything)

Meat (any kind)

M&Ms

Activities We Did:

Worksheets from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lower case M

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about macaws (he picked that topic!)

Craft - we made paper plate masks (there are lots of templates online that you can print out), I just chose to give them a plain paper plate and let them be creative. I told them they were supposed to make an animal that started with letter M (moose, mouse, monkey, Mickey Mouse) or a monster.


We went and played (and ate) at McDonald's

Watched Monsters, Inc. movie

Other Topics/Outings:

Monkeys

Moose

Mouse

Motorcycles

Money

Museum

Movies

Mailbox (or mail)

Mom

Music

Mall


M Movies:

Madagascar

Mulan

Mickey Mouse

Mary Poppins

Letter L

Another day that I had big plans for, but didn't happen - we were busy with "regular life" things...


Foods We Ate:

Lasagna

Life cereal

Lemon yogurt

Licorice

Other Food Ideas:

Lemonade

Lemon meringue pie

Lamb

Lobster

Lettuce

Activities We Did:

Printable worksheet pages (we usually do some coloring ones & a word search one)- links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lower case L

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about lions

Made a super cute and super easy handprint lamb craft - idea HERE

Played Legos

Watched Lilo & Stitch movie

Other Topics/Outings:

Laser tag

Library (our usual day each week is Monday and I didn't feel like making another trip)

Leaves

Ladybugs

Lions

Letters (maybe write letters to someone?)

Lincoln Logs


L Movies:

Lion King

Lady & the Tramp

Letter K

I honestly don't know how you homeschool moms do this, day after day. The time, the work, and the creativity are all way out of my league...

Foods We Ate: (another sugary day!)

Ketchup

Kit Kat candy bar

Kool-aid

Krispy Kreme donuts


Other Food Ideas:

Kix cereal

Kiwi fruit

Kentucky Fried Chicken

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages - links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase K

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about knights

King Craft - made with toilet paper tubes - instructions & templates (three different ones) HERE. This craft was very cute, but it took a lot of time to color everything, cut everything out, and glue it all on.

We watched a Kipper video


Other Topics/Outings:

Kangaroos

Kites

Keys

Koala bears


Other K Movies:

Kung Fu Panda

Letter J

It's usually hard for me to keep track of what letter we're on during the day, because I'm either preparing stuff for upcoming letters or I'm writing blog posts about previous letters! But today was letter J.

Foods We Ate: (they were pretty sugared up by the end of the day - I can't believe there's no healthy food that starts with letter J)

Jam

Juice

Jelly beans

Jello

Other Foods Ideas:

Jack in the Box

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lowercase J

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about the jungle

Craft - I couldn't find a craft online that I really liked so I just gave them pieces of construction paper we made jack o' lanterns!
Watched James & the Giant Peach movie

Our Monday family night we talked about Jesus & Jonah & sang songs that started with letter J (including Jingle Bells)

Other Topics/Outings:

Jenga game (it was in the plans for today, but never quite happened)

Jack & Jill

Jack & the Beanstalk

Jacks

Jungle

Jellyfish (I saw a great craft idea to use 1/2 paper plate and some crepe paper streamers for the tentacles, but I didn't have any)

Other J Movies:

Jay Jay the Jet Plane

Jimmy Neutron

JoJo's Circus

Letter I

It's a good thing I started this blog - it has created accountability for me to keep doing this every day, even when I don't feel like it! Not many food choices today, but at least they are all yummy...

Foods We Ate:

Ice Cream

In & Out Burger (my husband was really glad it was "I" day!)

Other Food Ideas:

Icees

IHOP

Activities We Did:

Printable worksheet pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing his upper & lowercase I

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about ice cream

Craft - Ice Cream Man (instructions & template HERE)
We went to IKEA (this is a WIN-WIN: I get to shop & the kids love the play area!)

Went to In & Out Burger for dinner

Watched Ice Age movie

Other Topics/Outings:

Ice Skating

Insects

IMAX movie

I Movies:

Iron Giant

Incredibles

Indiana Jones (if you have older children)

Letter H

Today was a much calmer day, so we actually got to enjoy a few more H activities than I thought we would...

Foods We Ate:

Hot dogs

Ham

Other Food Ideas:

Honey

Hummus

Halibut

Hash browns

Hamburgers

Activities We Did:

Printable activity pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase H

2nd grader wrote & illustrated paragraph about helicopters

We made Heart Hippos (double the H!) for our craft - instructions and template HERE

Played Hullabaloo game

Watched Hunchback of Notre Dame movie

Other Topics/Outings:

Hats

Hammers

House

Trace hands

H Movies:

Horton

Hercules

Home on the Range

Hannah Montana (we don't have it, but I'm sure some of you do)

High School Musical (again, we don't have it)

Letter G

I think the novelty of doing this every day is starting to wear off...at least for me. It certainly didn't help that I was dealing with a broken freezer all morning.

Foods We Ate:

Goldfish crackers

Graham crackers

Grapes

Granola bar

Grilled cheese

Gum

Other Food Ideas:

Grapefruit

Green beans

Guacamole

Gingerbread cookies

Grape nuts cereal

Gravy

Activites We Did:

Printable pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase G

2nd grader wrote & illustrated paragraph about ghosts

Ghost Craft - salt dough shaped ghosts (instructions & recipe HERE) -These worked great. My only recommendation would be to use cookie cutters and do flat ones if you children are young - it helps get the shapes to look better and they cook faster. Otherwise they turn into blobs.

Other Topics/Outings:

Gingerbread house (made with graham crackers)

Games (we were going to, but didn't have time with the freezer drama)

Grandparents - visit, call, or write letters (this was also something we were going to do)

Gifts

Giraffe

Goats

Gardening

G Movies:

Garfield

George of the Jungle

Letter F

Letter F had more than I expected it to. Not that we did very much of it, but maybe next year...

Foods We Ate:

French Toast

Frozen Yogurt

Fruit leather

Froot Loops

Fajitas

Fruit salad

Fishy crackers

Fruit snacks

Other Food Ideas:

Fondue

French Fries

Frosted Flakes

Fettuccine

Fritters

Fig Newtons

Fish Sticks (or real fish)

Fudge (I really wanted to make this but knew I'd end up eating the whole pan myself)

Activities We Did:

Printable pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase F

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about fireflies

Made Father's Day cards (this was our craft for the day but I won't post a photo so they're a surprise for my husband...just in case he sees this)

Went and bought Father's Day gift (again, no photo)

Other Topics/Outings:

Flags

Feet

Football

Flashlight

Flowers

Fishing

Farm

Frogs

Family

Firefighters (maybe a trip to a firestation?)

F Movies:

Finding Nemo

The Fox & The Hound

Letter E

Another letter that didn't have much for it...but that's okay because we had a very busy day with other things not E-related.

Foods We Ate:

Eggs

Enchiladas

Other Food Ideas:

Eggplant

Activities We Did:

Printable activities from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase E

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about eggs (he picks the topics)

Playdate with friend named Ethan

Elephant puppet craft (idea & templates HERE)

Other Topics/Outings:

Elephants

Eagles

Envelopes

Ear

Earth

E Movies:

Elmo

Emperor's New Groove

Letter D

There was surprisingly less for letter D than I thought there would be...especially foods. And I thought it was funny that my kids called it "D-Day" all day long. We didn't do as much as we could/should because we had several other activities scheduled this day, including my daughter's birthday.

Foods we ate:

Donuts

Del Taco

Other food ideas:

Ding Dongs

Dill pickles

Denny's

Duck

Activities we did:

Did printable activites (from the links HERE)

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase D

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about his Dad

Dinosaur craft (instructions & template HERE) - my recommendation would be to do them on cardboard. We just did cardstock paper and they are VERY flimsy.

Played Diego dominoes

Played Diego card game

Dot to dots

Did the dishes (me)

Other topics/outings:

Drums

Dolphins

Dogs

Donkey

Duck

Dragon

Museum of Natural History (to see dinosaur exhibits)

D movies:

DragonTales

Dora the Explorer

Diego

Dumbo

Dinosaur (the movie)

101 Dalmations

Letter C

Today was a much better day! Although there is so much for letter "C" we could have probably spent 2-3 days on it and still not have done everything. That's something to consider if we do this next year (spend multiple days on letters that have lots of things).


Foods we ate:


Cherries

Cranberries (dried)

Chicken

Corn

Cottage cheese

Chocolate chocolate chip cookies

Cheese

Crackers

Cheerios

Corn Dog

Cocoa Krispies

Candy



Other Food Ideas:

Coleslaw

Cupcakes

Cantaloupe

Celery

Cucumber

Carrots

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Corn Pops

Cream of Wheat

Cinnamon Rolls



Activities we did:

Printable worksheets from links found HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper & lowercase letter C

2nd grader wrote & illustrated story about cows

Played Candyland

Made caterpillar chain craft (instructions HERE)


Colored pictures

Went to a local weekly event called "Cookies & Crafts"

Made chocolate chocolate chip cookies (if you make them chocolate that's one more letter "c")


Played cars

Played computer

Watched "Curious George"



Other topics/outings:

Costco

Cootie

Chutes & Ladders

Connect 4

Clowns

Circus

Candles

Cows

Crabs

Cats

Caterpillars

Chickens



Other "C" movies:

Cinderella

Chicken Run

Chicken Little

Charlotte's Web

Cars

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Letter B

Today was a really tough day (you know the kind I mean...), so we didn't do as many "B" things as I wanted to. But I guess since "B" has so much that you could do with it, we gave it a nice effort.

Foods we ate:

Banana bread

Butterscotch pudding

Berry flavor yogurt

Bologna

Bagels

Bananas

Broccoli cheese soup

Biscuits


Other food ideas:

Blueberries

Beans

Brownies

Beets

BBQ beef


Activities we did:

"B" printables from website links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing upper and lowercase B

2nd grader wrote and illustrated paragraph about bees

Made bat craft (templates and instructions HERE)

Baked bread

Bubbles

Went to a local grocery store whose name started with letter "B"

Watched "Bedknobs & Broomsticks"

Watched "Bob the Builder"

Played ball

Read books


Other topics/outings:

Baseball

Basketball

Bell

Boat

Bike ride

Buttons

Birds

Bowling

Battleship

Bop It

Bingo

Make bookmarks

Balloons


Other "B" movies:

Blues Clues

Bee Movie

Babar

Barney

Bug's Life

Bambi

Letter A

Today was our first Letter of the Day adventure. I think it went well and the kids are really excited. It was nice to have some structured activities planned. Here are some of the things we did (as well as more ideas that we didn't do):


Foods we ate:

Apple Jacks

Apple Fruit Leather

Applesauce

Apple-Cinnamon Granola Bar (Nutrigrain)

Animal Crackers

Apples

Apricots


Other Foods Ideas:

Almonds

Angel Food Cake

Artichokes

Asparagus

Avocado

Apple crisp


Activities we did:

"A" coloring pages from links HERE

Preschooler practiced writing capital and lowercase A's

2nd grader wrote & illustrated a paragraph about Airplanes

Made paper bag apple craft (instructions for this and several other apple crafts HERE)

Played "Ants in Pants" game

Watched "Arthur"


Other topics/outings:

Go to aquarium

Go to art museum

Make paper airplanes

Alligators

Ants

Aliens


Other "A" movies:

Aladdin

Aristocats

Animaniacs

Alice in Wonderland

Letter of the Day

Welcome to the Letter of the Day!

I have a long summer ahead of me with three young children at home. In order to maintain my sanity, I had the idea a few months ago to do a "Letter of the Day" with my kids to keep a sense of organization and learning. My preschooler is just starting to get interested in letters, so I thought this would be a good time to do it. Since my 2nd grader obviously already knows his letters, I have created some additional activities to keep him busy and his school skills up as well.

I started this blog because when I went looking online for a good all-in-one resource for ideas and printouts, I couldn't find much. I have spent many hours thinking up ideas and finding links online for good activities.

Here are some of the great links to free sites where I got most of my printable activities and craft ideas:

Enchanted Learning

DLTK's Alphabuddies

First-School

You can search them for which printables would be appropriate for your child's age or what crafts or activities you want to do. I am not naturally crafty (and my oldest two kids are boys so they aren't really crafty either), plus I try to avoid craft stores, so all of the ideas I did are simple and cheap, and can generally be made with supplies already on hand at home.

I have included each day a list of ideas I gathered, what we did, and what could be done additionally. I don't have money or energy to drag three children to many "outings" so we didn't do many of those, but I have included them.

I hope this blog gives you some great ideas! I am using it as my journal for this summer as well as a central place to keep all these ideas. Maybe next summer we will do it again but modify it to suit my kids' ages then.

I would love any comments or additional ideas you would like to share.