Alphabet Days Summer Curriculum

If you have young children and are blessed with the opportunity to stay at home with them all summer long, you may be craving for a way to entertain and educate your child all while having fun and saving money. When it came to the summer when my boys were turning 3 and 2, I decided to come up with a schedule of sorts that did all of the above things. I was able to use this curriculum, with slight changes in activities or food, for three summers.

Since I was still teaching, I only had about 80-90 days to work with, which is around 12 weeks. I always try to give a buffer of at least two weeks after school gets out and before school lets back in. I needed time to decompress from 180 days of constant educating, and I would need a few weeks before school started to get geared back up, finalizing lesson plans, making copies, setting up my classroom, etc. So when I decided to do "Alphabet Days" with my kids, that gave me about 5 weeks, Monday-Friday of little activities. Most of them were either FREE or inexpensive. I focused on going to places around my area of Charleston, South Carolina. I also tried to include making something {food or crafts} at least once a week. I also try to make my first week around the Fourth of July, so we can do something with "F"lags.

So if you need some ideas, please see my list. If you are from Charleston or the surrounding areas, this will apply to you. BUT if you are not from this area, please use this list as ways to create your own list of places and activities in your area.

Each day we focus on a letter of the alphabet. We started this week (June 29th) and will be doing this on the week days. Each day is focused on an activity (whether we go some place or do something at home) and then focus on a food that starts with that place. If you would like to come or have ideas for letters (keep them local and cheap, please), let me know. 

A: Angel Oak Tree, applesauce
B: Bee City, banana split
C: Chalk drawing, cookies
D: Dip in the pool, donuts OR hot Dogs at Perfectly Franks 
E/F: Fourth of July Events and crafts, Exercise Fun
G: Cypress GARDENS, grapes 
H: House of Bounce {This is one of those bounce castle places} 
I: In-house movie, make your own Ice cream 
J: Jam day (pick blueberries and make some jam)
K: Kites and Krispe Kreme
L: library and making Lemonade
M: Children's Museum and Moes
N: Northwoods Mall play area and nuts {Make nut butter, almond, peanut, etc}
O: Outside all day (probably the park) and oranges
P: making Pizza, make Pottery {out of playdough}, make Pancakes  
Q: quiet time and Quiznos 
R: Racoon (I have a friend who raises them) and raisins
S: Swamp (Beidler Forest) and Spaghetti
T: Turtles at Charlestowne Landing 
U: Umbrellas in sprinklers 
V: sounds of Violins, make onion rings out of Valdalia onions, study Venus fly traps 
W: Water and watermelons
X: Pirate Cove (for X marks the spot, thanks, Kim for the idea) and making Xylophones
Y: York Town 
Z: End it with the ZOO!!

Here are some pictures of the kids doing "Alphabet Days" through the summers: 

Making "H"ouses 

Homemade "D"onuts 

Reviewing "K"

"P" shaped "P"ancakes with "P"inapple pieces 

Making "P"izzas 

If you noticed with the "K" day, I also had worksheets for them. I have two sites I LOVE to use when looking for worksheets. Please check them out: 

1. Hubbard's Cupboard 
2. 2 Teaching Mommies