Silly Bean ABCs

Letters are our favorite nowadays and we see them everywhere--books, magazines, signs in stores, traffic signs during our walks, collegiate sweatshirts, t-shirts, and even where they aren't intentionally (doors or signposts, sleepy dogs eyes, clothing racks)--literally EVERYWHERE.

Silly Bean started noticing letters about a month ago and becoming very interested in them, so I put up a few bubble letters that I cut out by hand.  He loved them and liked to touch them as he walked by and I said the letters.  After a while, I noticed that he learned those few I put up very quickly.

During this time he also really liked standing behind me, my husband, or my mom, and taking our hands, saying "choo choo" and chugging around with us around the condo.  So naturally, I made an alphabet train for his room, which he absolutely loves! Most days when he wakes up from his nap, you can hear him reciting his alphabet and see him pointing to the letters in the baby monitor.

the alphabet train snakes around Silly Bean's room (front of train not pictured)

Silly Bean was learning the letters quickly so I had to add more bubble letters! I also had to keep moving the bubble letters up every day because he would pull them off and rip them up.  He was also getting confused initially between letters and numbers, so we decided to simultaneously learn our letters too and make some bubble numbers. Silly Bean also learned those both in English and Chinese quickly, so 1 through 10 isn't enough anymore!

ABC books have also been really fun to look at. Silly Bean absolutely loved the Llama Llama Loves to Read book, as well as the Hungry Caterpillar ABCs book (not pictured). Having a variety of ABC books has also been helpful, as some have the alphabet in upper-case letters while others have the lower-case ones. Silly Bean mastered them rather quickly.

Another activity station that we set up for Silly Bean was magnetic lowercase letters with this metal box used to hold valentine cards that I had saved from my own childhood.  The letters stick on the box, and Silly Bean enjoys adhering the letters, saying them, and putting them back in the small basket where we store them. Unfortunately the letters get everywhere and many have gone missing at this point, but we still have it out.

What's next? We shall see! :)