Letter Parties

Around September or October (it's been so long now I don't remember) my daughter and I started having a letter party every Friday. I have wanted to do this for a while but put it off until last fall when the weather started to turn cold.

This is how they work:

My daughter is the planner of each party. She gets to decide how we are going to celebrate each letter--although I sometimes offer suggestions.

We have a little notebook where we list what we are going to do for each party. She decided that she wanted to go in alphabetical order so we started with the letter A.

For our A party we:
(remember these are all her own ideas)
Watched the movie Aristocats
Made mini caramel Apples
Played pin the tail on the Alligator

We keep each party simple so that they are doable each week and we don't get burned out. I'm proud to say that we've been consistent at having a party each week since we started except for during the holidays.

We take a moment each Monday to plan our party so when I'm out and about during the week running errands I can pick up everything, if anything, that we need for our party.

It's fun to have a party to look forward to at the end of each week. We have our parties each Friday afternoon while my son is napping. They usually involve a movie--because my daughter is the planner. This is also one of the reasons I waited until winter to start our letter parties. Sometimes curling up and watching a movie is the best way to spend a cold winter afternoon.


Some parties are more elaborate than others.
For example, for the letter P we:
Wore Pink
Had Pizza and Pears for lunch
Watched the movie Peter Pan and ate Popcorn
Played in the Playroom
Practiced writing her last name (since it starts with the letter P)

And then others have been ultra simple. For the letter N, my daughter's friend (whose name starts with the letter N) was coming over to play that day so I suggested that maybe playing with her friend could count as our N party. She agreed.


My favorite party was the letter F.  For this one we:
Read all our Fancy Nancy books
Dressed up Fancy and had a tea party
Went to Wendy's and had Frosties


My daughter says her favorite party was the letter S (probably because it's one of the most recent letters we've celebrated and it's fresh in her mind).  To celebrate S we:
Made Strawberry jam (this one I threw in since I needed to get this done before all my strawberries went bad)
Used Scissors to cut Shapes
Made Snickerdoodles (Dad's favorite) for an after lunch Snack
Watched the movie Stewart Little

These parties have been a great learning experience--although they weren't necessarily meant to be so. I simply thought they would be something fun to do during the cold winter months, but it has kept my daughter constantly thinking about words and the letters they start with.  I've been impressed with the things she's come up with to celebrate each letter and she has so much fun being in charge of planning her party each week.  And if she ever thinks of something she wants to do for a letter that is weeks away we simply write it down in our little notebook so we wouldn't forget.

We are now on the letter V and we should finish up the alphabet right around the time spring hits and we're ready to start playing outside (it doesn't happen until May around here). Once we finish our letter parties my daughter wants to have a letter celebration. I think it's a great idea . . . as long as she's willing to plan it.