Words with Cheerios

Tyler is a Cheerio Monster. It boggles my mind how many he can eat in one sitting, often requesting them after eating a full meal! The other day, as I snacked alongside him, I started fiddling around and making letters and words with him for fun. He was instantly intrigued and now asks for me to do this every time he eats Cheerios, which is at least three times a day. I'm okay with it! It's a bit better than asking us read cereal boxes over and over the way he did when he was an older infant!

His favorite word for me to create and spell out for him is "dog". He requests this one a lot. As I create each letter I talk about how I'm forming it and say the letter sounds several times as I go along. I start putting the sounds together to form the word once I have two letters.

Now if I ask him which letter comes next in the common words I "write", he can sometimes tell me. He is especially fond of telling me where "t" goes in "cat". While this may not be the best way to learn sight words, he finds it fun! I've created sight words with his Sandpaper Letters a few times recently and he wasn't as impressed. I think now would be a great time to try again though! He has shown interest in letters and words and knows so many sounds, but finding a way to really interest him is quite tricky!

I also show him how to put Cheerios around the circles on his placemat to form circles or the sound "aw"..

 And show him how if we give "aw" a tiny tail, it makes the "a" sound...

Then if we add a line straight up on the right side, it then makes the "d" sound...

And if we put a curvy tail on "aw" it makes "g"!

I don't really expect Tyler to start forming letters and words with Cheerios, but it is fun for him and it give him awareness on letter forms and letters combining to make words! I love snack and meal time as a period of learning. He is usually sitting still and is a focuses very well on whatever you're saying or showing him while he munches!