Motivating a munchkin to practice letters is no trick when the medium is so yummy. Mix up a batch of chocolate pudding, put a couple of spoonfuls onto a big plastic plate or container lid and write away. Licks are allowed.
While you are mixing it up, you can take advantage of having close attention and work on letter sounds: “Pudding starts with the sound ‘puh’. If I say pudding and pineapple, do those words start the same? How about pudding and milk? Do pudding and pink start the same or different?” The skill of dividing words into their sound bites (pardon the Pun) is called phonological awareness and is critical for learning to read. Not all children learn to do this on their own and such word games help them develop this crucial concept. The pudding is probably all prepared to pop onto a plate and practice. YUM!
Another of my favorite books to share with kids is the I Spy Alphabet book. I must confess that I am not very good at finding the hidden pictures but I love to spend a few minutes searching. I feel so clever when I do locate a few. And kids enjoy the books, too. This is a good book to take in the car because kids can use the book independently. They also like to share this with a friend and play I Spy together. Appeals to all ages. What letter is part of the face? The letter I (eye).