ABC Market

While Maren was off having fun with her Grandma, the boys and I decided to have some fun during school time.  Christopher's been learning his letters, so we played ABC market to help reinforce the letter sounds.

First, Joshua set up shop.  We pulled out our pretend food, balls, socks, anything we found lying around that Joshua decided to sell.  When he decided it was time to "open", Christopher came in and chose 3 items to put in his shopping basket he wanted to buy.  I gave him 6 or 7 uppercase alphabet cards.  He used these to "buy" the items.  So if he wanted to buy a muffin, he gave Joshua the "M" card.  I would help him figure out which card to use for each item.  This also helped me see which letters he really knows, and which we still need to work on.

After he bought his 3 items, he went "home" and ate his food, then came back to buy 3 more.  After a few turns, we switched, and Joshua got to be the shopper.  I laid out all 26 lowercase letters for him to sort through and find the right one.  It wasn't very challenging for him, but he still had fun.  Then
I had him show them to shopkeeper Christopher, and explain to him which letter he was using for which object, so he got to help teach Christopher a bit too.

Another way we played was I gave Christopher 2 alphabet cards, and he had to figure out what he could buy with those cards.  This was a bit easier for him, and I should have started with it first.  The boys had lots of fun and I'm sure we'll be playing ABC market again.