Do you know what’s your kid’s favorite letter? It’s the first letter in their name!

That is a letter that they usually recognize even before they fully know the alphabet. We can use this for an activity that will increase vocabulary and sharpen their reading skills even at an early age.

All you need is a set of 3” by 5” index cards, a box to store them, a book and something to write with. If you are reading to multiple children with different initials you will need to keep separate sets of flash cards for each of them. If you are raising bilingual kids you may also want to keep separate sets of flashcards for each language, and you will need a bilingual book or books.

1. Pick a book that your kid is familiar with. As your read the story, point out all the words that start with her initial by saying something like this: “Mira, ardilla empieza con A, como Andrea” when reading in Spanish, or “Look, apple starts with A, like Andrea!” when reading in English. Then write the word in an index card if you haven’t done so and put it in the box. If your kid is old enough she may write the word herself.
2. The next day repeat the exercise, but rather than finding words in a book, find objects around the house that start with your kid’s initial.
3. On the third day, ask your kid to pick any five flash cards from the box and ask him to come up with a story using all five. If he is old enough to write it, ask him to do so. Do this throughout the day. Every set of five flash cards that he picks will trigger a different story, greatly developing his imagination.
4. If you want, repeat the activity for other letters, maybe the initials of other family members.

I think that you will find this activity far more effective than traditional flashcard-based methods that rely on rote memorization and repetition. The words in your flashcards will be fully contextualized and will not be just random entities. They will all start with letters that your kids can readily identify and, by using them as building blocks for their own stories and not just in isolation, these words will come alive and gain an additional layer of context that will help your kids incorporate them into their vocabulary.

I hope you and your kids enjoy and learn a lot from this activity.

Click here for the printable version of this activity.

Special thanks to Heritage Language for providing this activity. Visit their site for bilingual books and resources.

Photo credit: stevendepolo

When I heard about Ingenio, and the great bilingual toys and games they’ve created, I got extremely excited. You can probably imagine, then, just how much the excitement grew when this Spanglish mami witnessed her son putting Spanish words together.  No fuss, no saying “but mom” or “do I have to?”  Did I mention the words he was putting together where in Spanish?!?  And that he was having fun?!

Any company that helps a mamá make learning Spanish fun by making educational games like Spellable gets a G-R-E-A-T in my book.

Spellable is a new puzzle game created to help your child learn the alphabet, beginning sound words and spell three letter words in both English and Spanish. With its bright colored letters and fun picture cards it was an instant hit in our home.  My son is a proficient reader in English, but Spanish is still a work in progress for us.  Making it exciting to learn can be challenging.  With Spellable he was able to focus, look at the pictures and choose the correct letters to spell the words.  He was SO  happy when he spelled the words right that he soon started spelling more difficult words he found around the house.

What I love the most about Spellable is that it grows with your child, starting with the alphabet and working its way up to a reader.  Ingenio has it going on, specially with the very affordable price.  Go on, hurry to La Tiendita and get your Spanglish baby a new Spellable …. did I spell that right?

All of Ingenio´s bilingual toys are available via Amazon.  Of course, the best way to get them is via La Tiendita.

Today’s find, Spellable, was reviewed by Marcela Beatty, bilingual mom of a boy, a baby girl and two German Shepherds. Their cuteness is chronicled by Marcella on 8 Year Old & Babies.

The Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to our winner:  Susan Smoaks!

Ingenio, the first educational bilingual toys and games brand in the U.S., has chosen you to be the first to get a chance to win every single one of their ten toys.  Today you can enter to win Spellable, winner of a Dr. Toy Best Vacation Product 2009 award, simply by leaving a comment telling us why you would like to win this.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends tonight, Wednesday, August 26, at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.