Learning to read with a bag full of bananas
Last year, while teaching my pre-K son to read, it was a playful game rather than a chore or lesson plan to be executed. Our family homeschool style is inspired by Charlotte Mason, and as I continue to read her volumes, I wanted a box of ivory letters for my youngest son, who was learning his letters and how to read. Our family loves our version of Charlotte Mason’s ivory letters, which happen to be stored in what looks like a banana.
“As for his letters, the child usually teaches himself. He has his box of ivory letters, and picks out p for pudding, b for blackbird, h for horse, big and little, and knows them both.” Charlotte Mason, Home Education pg. 201
As I looked through Amazon and Etsy for ideas that could be something similar to what Charlotte Mason was talking about without breaking the bank, I was at my mom’s house. I spotted a bag of letters in a banana: Bananagrams. The boys have always loved playing with them at her house, and it occurred to me that it would be the perfect equivalent to Charlotte’s “Ivory letters.” The only problem was that they were all capital letters, and the lowercase letters were absent. Lo and behold, I discovered Bananagrams has a bag of bananas with lowercase letters. Problem solved! The great thing about this investment in 2 packs of bananas is that not only can my 4-year-old learn to form words Charlotte Mason style, but we can play word games as a family even after he has learned how to read. Our entire family enjoys playing the actual Bananagrams game, too. It is a win-win for educational purposes, fun, and well-spent money. If you are looking for a fun way to help your child learn his or her letters, we have found that using Bananagrams is one of the ways we love to learn our letters.
“The first exercises in the making of words will be just as pleasant to the child. Exercises treated as a game, which yet teach the powers of the letters, will be better to begin with than actual sentences. Take up two of his letters and make the syllable ‘at’: tell him it is the word we use when we say ‘at home,’ ‘at school.’ Then put b to ‘at’-bat; c to ‘at’-cat; fat, hat, mat, sat, rat, and so on.” Charlotte Mason, Home Education pg. 202