Do you have a child as eager to do homework as I do? I am not talking about the child who actually gets homework, I am talking about the younger sibling chomping at the bit to be a big kid too. I am lucky because my son’s homework is very short, and since he must do it before he can even ask for screen time he gets it done without argument. I ask my daughter to play quietly or to go upstairs when my son is doing homework so she was overjoyed when I moved my laptop and set up some homework for her right next to where her brother does his every day.
I chose a beginning letter sounds game for her “homework” because his homework was word work as well. The other reason I chose it was because she needs little to no help with this skill and I was hoping my son would offer to check her work if she asked. You could easily do this game without the homework spin just for the benefit of early literacy skill development.
Gather your materials. You will need 1-2 cookie sheets, letter magnets, some magnets with easily identifiable items like animals, plain paper, and markers.
Start by choosing the right magnets. For this activity you want to make sure your child knows exactly what the pictures are. If you are doing this as a free choice activity in a class what I like to do is use the items first in a circle time or just with the child using them so I am certain they know what each item is.
Write out the words without the first letter.This may act as a scaffold for children more advanced in their literacy development but I wrote it out so that after my daughter matched the beginning sound I could go over the full word with her. She is presently obsessed with spelling and writing and I knew for HER this would grab her attention and make the activity more meaningful. 
Set the trays up with the items next to their word and place the letter magnets some place off the trays.
She saw the set up as we were leaving to pick her brother up from the bus stop – look how excited she was!
Homework time.
He got busy with this word work and she started saying each animal name and grabbing the corresponding letter for the beginning sound.
I kinda love this picture of the two of them hard at work. 
She kinda loved feeling like a big kid and I managed to sneak in learning too.
Emma Henderson says
Great idea, I love using everyday items for education, very smart.
Amanda says
Love it! Thanks! 🙂
Dominique says
I will definitely be trying these activities with our 4 year old. What great ideas!
Tonya says
this is inspiring. I think I can use the mini toy animals I have along with magnet letters. Thanks again.
Heather says
This is great! I made one as soon as I saw this & my 4 yr old loved it! Thanks for the great idea!
Allison McDonald says
That’s awesome!!
Sakina says
I would love to get the letters & animals. Can you tell me where I can get them from?
Allison McDonald says
Sorry busy week – yes here they are ( affiliate links) http://amzn.to/1NbxUGU <-- animal magnets and letters --->http://amzn.to/1Nby0hz . I hope that helps!