ABCs and I23s

I feel like I've been swimming in alphabet soup the last month.  Emily is 3 1/2 and attends a full-time preschool while Matt and I work during the day.  From 8 weeks to about 2 1/2 she was in an in-home daycare.  The in-home daycare only kept children until they were 3 years of age and didn't have an extra spot when Lindsay was born so I pulled Emily out.  I've always been a person who believed that children should be children and they will learn when they are ready.  The thought of homework or studying with her never crossed my mind.  Now I'm not one of those mothers who just lets her kid run like a banshee outside with no discipline or sticks them in front of the TV every afternoon (I don't believe there is anything wrong with an occasional Disney movie or some TV.  Heck I even learn a few things after watching Nick Jr.!)  I just didn't focus on education and let her play.  After being in preschool for awhile, I noticed that most of the other students were familiar with their letters and numbers.  Emily knew a few but honestly could care less when I asked her the difference between a "W" and a "D".  I don't want to be a mom who get anal about their 3-year-old doing alphabet drills and then the kid winds up resenting school, dropping out of school, going goth, and married to some skater dude they met less than a week ago.  Aaaahhh!  Okay maybe that's a little extreme but I want her to like going to school and like to learn.  I don't want her to fall behind though so I decided to try "pushing" a few of the more educational toys we own instead.  Such as, "Let's play with LeapFrog instead of with the Disney Tangled doll".  Last night I found the holy grail of fun education toys and I just had to share.

Leap Frog's Go Fish game is awesome!!!!  She really enjoyed playing a game that was one-on-one with Matt or I.  She could practice matching, recognizing the different forms of a letter and she definitely showed me her skills when it came knowing her letters.  Some of the other things that have worked for us are alphabet flash cards (she realized that those were more homework than fun though and now doesn't like to do those) and alphabet puzzles like the one below. 

Each week her school has a letter of the week.  The Sunday before that week we do a collage on the letter and talk about the sound it makes and if she is feeling randy then she will actually practice writing the letter.  This usually doesn't last long but at least its a start!