Toddler Tuesday

It's Toddler Tuesday here at Penny Pinching Parent.

Right now my daughter loves to "touch and feel." She loves touch and feel books, to feel clothes, things around the house, etc. Being 15 months old, she is pretty tough on books. She loves to gnaw on them when she's teething, to rip flaps off lift-a-flap books, throw them in the bathtub... normal toddler activities. Therefore, we try not to spend too much money on her books right now, we typically pick-up board type books in the dollar bins at Target and at the dollar store.
I thought it might be neat if I made her a personalized touch and feel book. Not only would it be inexpensive and fun to make, but she is sorta possessive of items that are hers so I thought it might help teach her to "respect" or take care of books. I have been looking online for inspiration and for some ideas. While I was looking I found some really neat ideas for alphabet books. My little one is still a bit young to start learning the alphabet, but I think I will incorporate the "touch and feel" design into an alphabet book. I will update as I get time to work on the book and hopefully share some pictures of the process.
Anyhow, I thought I would share the places that had some great ideas for alphabet books and some alphabet themed toddler activities.
Alphabet Book Resources:

PROJECTalphabet™ is a very cool site that lets you lets you make your own calendars, alphabet and counting books with digital pictures, then print them out yourself. You can upload your pictures and add your own captions and then print the pages out for your very own, very personalized book.

Enchanted Learning has some great alphabet book pages that you can print out. They have several different ones to choose from.

First School has a ton of printable coloring and activity pages that are alphabet related. They even have puzzles and flash cards.


Alphabet Crafts & Activities: (some of these ideas are from about.com & I added to the list as well)

• Have alphabet cereal for breakfast or maybe pancakes cut into letters.


• Makes letters out of clay or play dough


• Do an alphabet crayon rubbing using letters cut out of sandpaper.


• Cut out felt letters to use is any of the shared crafts just for a little variety.


• Gather a few kids together and see how many letter shapes they can make with their whole bodies.


• Lunch time? Have alphabet soup and Jello jigglers cut into alphabet shapes.


• Finger paint your letters... Instead of finger paint, why not try using pudding or shaving cream?


• Go for a walk and look for things that start with whatever letter you are studying.


• See how long of a sentence you can make using as many words that start with the letter as possible.


• Decorate your sidewalk with the alphabet by using sidewalk chalk!


• Snack Time? Why not make alphabet shaped sugar cookies! Or, cut something healthy like cheese into alphabet shapes.


• Practice the alphabet in a sandbox. Use a stick to write letters. No sandbox? Fill a dishpan with sand.


• See how many letters you can form by using a pipe cleaner.


• Make an alphabet collage.


• Use alphabet magnets on the fridge to spell out words, you can even make pictures of items by using magnetic paper you can find at craft/office supply stores.


• Use card stock and some yarn and make alphabet lacing cards.


• Play with alphabet blocks.

Hope you have a great Toddler Tuesday!