My oldest developed a huge interest in photography when he was 4. We had given him my old Canon point and shoot right before his baby sister was born (it was on its last leg... but it then lasted a couple more years for him). Surprisingly, he was a pretty natural photographer. While he was in kindergarten, I decided to focus our next ABC summer on photography. I thought it would be fun to try finding letters in everyday items, so we took his camera everywhere we went that summer. Most of the letters we found were around our house or yard, or in area parks. Here are a few examples (I'll share more when I get to the individual letters).
Yes, some letters were more difficult than others. Obviously, the "A" is from our step ladder. That letter "B" from my sunglasses was a bit of a stretch, but we never found any other "B"s anywhere. The "C" was from a bag holder I had clipped on our stroller. At the end of the summer, I made my son a digital scrapbook of all the photos he'd taken of found letters. Then I used mpix.com to print the letters of his name on 8"x8" square pieces of foamcore and hung his name over his desk as a surprise for his birthday that fall. There are companies that sell framed names or words from found letters. I was just introduced to alphabetphotography.com this past spring when I was looking for a unique wedding gift for my brother-in-law. They sell artwork made from found photographs (mostly in architecture); I ordered the happy couple a framed piece featuring their last name. This company does beautiful work.
I have already decided that the summers after #2 & #3 finish kindergarten will also be photography based. For my daughter's ABC summer photos, we are going to create the letters using objects that begin with each letter. We think it will be fun to make an A from apple slices, a B from buttons or beads, a C from crayons, etc. She brings up this idea every once in a while and we brainstorm different things we can use for the letters. Should be fun! The idea I have for our youngest's ABC photography summer is to find the letters on distinctive signs at popular places or landmarks around our metro area. I plan to make them each a digital scrapbook and hang their names above their desks, as well.
The summer after #1 finished 1st grade, we focused our ABC summer on books. We made lots of trips to the library and hunted down several books that started with each letter of the alphabet. Some were trickier to find than others (Q and X, for instance), but we found at least two for each. I will try to include a few titles that we used when I post about individual letters. This was a fun way to become more acquainted with our library's offerings and to read a variety of books that we likely would not have otherwise selected.
I do have plans for the summer after #2 finishes 1st grade (are you really surprised?) and yes, even for the summer after #3's 1st grade year. We will spend #2's summer trying foods that start with each letter of the alphabet. Again, this will be a challenge for some letters, but I'm confident that if we search hard enough, we can do it. Thank goodness for Google. Hopefully this will be a fun way to get the children interested in trying new foods. My oldest two have always been good eaters and really very brave about trying things. My youngest is a different story. Perhaps he will change a lot in the next year and a half. If not, he may despise this ABC summer idea. The year he finishes 1st grade, we're going to have a geography theme. We will make road trips to towns around here that start with different letters. We'll also talk about all the different states and we'll discuss countries that start with each letter. Knowing my oldest, he'll be making maps for us that summer.
The big question in my head is whether we will stop after that summer or not. I'd kind of like to do one more major ABC summer. My children all have the little National Parks passports that you can buy in any of the park gift shops. I think it would be fun to see how many of those pages we could get stamped that summer (of course, by attempting to hit at least one place for each letter of the alphabet). That may require a lot of traveling, but we do all enjoy taking trips together. It's just a thought for now, but I like the idea of it. Now if I could just turn off my brain for a bit and relax...
*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*
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