Scooter Board Letter Find

I KNOW I can’t force him to learn something he’s not ready to learn, and I refuse to try.  I KNOW he has to be ready to learn.  I KNOW he will show interest in his own time.  But sometimes, just sometimes, the teacher in me gets the best of me.

He doesn't know his letters.

He can’t write his name.

What’s going to happen when he starts school?

I have to say that every time, without fail, my son teaches me that what I know in my heart is truth.  He is 4 and just started showing interest in letters about a month ago – and now he knows them all – wow!  Now, when I say that he just started showing interest I mean that before then, he would often walk away from any fun activity (including a simple sensory bin) that incorporated letters in any way.  I never pushed the issue, I just tracked his play – “you have the letter H” – and even that was enough to turn him away (ha – that rhymed).  This idea of allowing children to do things in their own time doesn't just apply to academics.  Check out this video of him swimming – he’s barely 4 and started swimming out of the blue one day this past summer (at age 3).  No pushing him, no coaxing him, no lessons….just always being there to make him feel safe in the water until HE decided he was ready to swim.

INSERT PROUD MOMMY MOMENT HERE:
CLICK HERE

With his new found love for letters, as well as his scooter board, I thought I would combine the two for a fun game.  There are so many perks to the scooter board – it improves strength, coordination, and reflexes.  It also stimulates the vestibular system (sensory) and improves balance and equilibrium.  

Here is what I used:

Scooter board

Letter decals

Magnetic letters

I placed the letter decals on the floor all around our kitchen/dining room areas and put the magnetic letters on the fridge.  My son would pick a letter and then scoot on his belly to find its match.  He LOVED this game!

Letter Decals

Letters on Floor

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Weeeeee!!!

"I found the H!!"

**There are so many ways to modify this game.  You can do number match, match numbers to amounts, match upper case to lower case, match letters to pictures for beginning sounds, etc etc etc.  And you don’t have to use a scooter board.**

Check out RLs Letter Find post HERE.