Letter Hunting and Matching Game

In case you're looking for a fun use for your amazon.com box...

Why not turn it into an alphabet box?!

Fill it with paper shreddings and hide some alphabet letters (you can purchase both the paper shreddings and plastic alphabet letters at The Dollar Tree):

And write out the alphabet on an accompanying piece of paper:

And viola!  You have a letter hunting and matching game!  

Tracing Letters in Colored Salt

We've been slowly working on having Monkey J trace his letters.  The way that has worked the best for him so far is by tracing the letters in salt:

I decided to try making the salt look more appealing by dying it blue.  It actually was extremely easy even though it seems it will not work while you're doing it!

Tracing letters in blue-colored salt

Simply put in a couple of drops of food coloring (I used a neon blue here) and about 5mL rubbing alcohol (of course this will depend on how much salt you use.  I used roughly 1 cup) and start mixing it in.  You will notice that at first the color will simply clump together.  But don't be discouraged!  Let it sit in the container uncovered for a couple of hours, mixing it every now and then, and you will be left with some really neat colored salt!

Provide some construction paper with a letter on each one, ask your child to trace the letter on the paper with his/her finger and then ask him to trace the letter on the salt:

It's truly one of Monkey J's favorite activities!