Jumbo Fun With The Alphabet

To view sample pages from this book, please click here.

This book has got to go down in history as having the most misleading possible title. I would typically walk a mile to avoid a book called "Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet" as is sounds to me like the worst sort of time-wasting workbook. It is a good thing that Evan Moor insisted on sending us a copy. This marvelous book is a complete preschool or kindergarted phonics, drawing, and early math program!! Just add some great books and nature study (or our favorite, Five in a Row), and you will have a wonderful, engaging, highly enjoyable year.

This book is laid out to introduce one letter of the alphabet a week. For each letter you get:
-a list of great books (Please note that we have not read every book suggested in Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet
and do not personally endorse them all.)
-a snack recipe (easy and yummy!)
-a drawing lesson
-a very fun craft project (all made from reproducible pages in the book)
-a coloring and letter writing page (skip the letter writing if you are doing this with a very young child)
-a page to select pictures that begin with the week's letter and glue them into a scene
-a dear little mini-book with lots of words starting with the week's letter. (Most children will easily memorize these mini books after a few readings and take enormous pride in "reading" them to anyone who will listen.)

The crafts are a terrific way to inroduce basic scissor, blue, and cutting skills and grow more challenging as the weeks progress. Dot-to-dots are introduced after several weeks and grow more challenging with time. (Dot-to-dots are the perfect way to introduce counting with written numbers.) At the end of the books there is a treasure chest of additional resources - phonics games, writing games, reproducible letter and picture cards, and tons more. This resource will provide your beginning phonics, drawing and art skills, early math, eye-hand coordination, and kitchen skills!

I am working through this book with 3 year old David and almost 5 year old Timothy. They always want to "do school" like the older ones and this book has been a lifesaver! They each have a notebook in which to store their pages and projects and they absolutely love showing Daddy what they have done. Working through this book together with me is their favorite time of our homeschool day and I love it as well because I never have to spend time coming up with creative appropriate activities to do with them. When Timothy is ready to start a more formal phonics program in a year or two he will already be way ahead of the game as he will know all of his letters, their sounds, and how to write them.