Revealing Words and Shapes

Joe and Jake both wanted to paint. So I took two pieces of plain white paper and, with a white crayon, wrote words from Bob Books 1, 2 and 3 on one sheet and drew shapes on the other. I spread some newspaper out on the table and grabbed the water colors. I gave Joe the hidden words and Jake the shapes along with paints, brushes and tiny cups of water. I’ve learned that a full cup encourages water fights. Joe smiled and squeaked after his paint revealed the first word. I was really happy with how well the words showed up. I’ve seen this idea used for various purposes, but it was still pretty cool how well it worked. After revealing a square, Jake swapped the paintbrush out for a pom pom. After making a mess all over himself, he saw the play-doh and made a “birthday cake” with blue play-doh and bananagrams. He sang “Happy Birthday” over and over again while Joe finished painting his sheet. After Joe had painted the ENTIRE sheet blue, I got the flashcards out for Books 1, 2 and 3 and asked him to point to the matching word on the painted sheet and then sound the word out. I lost him after a few words and, honestly, I got a little frustrated that things weren’t going “my way”. Then I heard the little voice in my head saying, “Hey, don’t push it” and checked my heavy sighs of frustration. I had to remind myself that, even though things weren’t going according to my plan, he was still getting exposure to letter sounds and words. Pushing too hard might do more harm than good. By the time we’d cleaned up the paint mess and the play-doh/bananagram cake mess it was time for lunch. After we were all at the table, the boys asked the daily lunchtime question:”So how’s your day, Mommy?” I smiled, glad I didn’t give in to my frustration. “My day is great, boys.”