Letter Cube Spelling

My daughter loves word and letter games, (thank you Leap Frog Letter Factory!), but we seem to play the same word games over and over. I was going through our board games cabinet (board games...you know, those things you used to have time for before children?), and found the Boggle game my aunt gave me for my 12th birthday. I knew I could use the letter cubes for a fun learning activity.

If you don't have Boggle cubes to use, you could tape a bunch of letters to the sides of blocks.

I asked my daughter to think of a word...any word...and we sounded it out together. To add more of a "game" aspect, I set a timer for two minutes to complete the word spelling.

For the word "paper", I asked my daughter:
"What letter makes the sound "p-p-p-p", then she'd search through the cubes for a P.
"What letter makes the sound "a-a-a-a", after which she'd find an A. And so on and so on until she spelled the word.
She had fun searching for the letters, and even pretended she had to "rescue the letters from the letter monster" before the timer ran out.

This activity helps children visualize letters with their corresponding sound, as well as letter recognition. But, most of all, it's fun. Learning should be fun, and by finding the kinds of games and activities your child enjoys, you will put him or her on the track to being a lifelong learner.