John Holt writes often about providing the materials and then leaving the children to their own devices. This is my basic approach to the preschool curriculum I bought. Following the lessons and order seemed somewhat silly to me, so I have taken to just letting Isaiah "play" with them in any way he wants. He seems to be making much more progress like this anyway. "A" is much more interesting when paired with other letters to make a word. Teaching the letters and shapes in isolation is just so much less exciting.
Today he wanted to learn letters (his phrasing) so he took out the box and then started putting letters together and asking what they said. I joined some letters to make words to help him understand how letters work together to make words and then he took over. He would decide on a word to spell and then look for the letters to make that word. I would show him the letter on another piece of paper so he could identify it in his pile of cards.
I can't wait until the Montessori wood letters come! I think he will have great fun making words with them. I love the idea of precut letters because he doesn't need the fine motor skills to write the letters, but can still read them and make words.
