Success with our letters!!!!

I am so very excited. Homeschooling has been going great but I was getting really discouraged trying to teach Zi and Niya their ABCs. I have been reading blogs and trying to see what other people are doing. I learned some really valuable things like - don't teach them in alphabetical order, don't use upper case, read lots of books - and I was doing all of these things. We read loads of books. We don't have TV so books are our best friends.
Well I had lunch with a friend today and I expressed my concern to her and she told me what she did to help her daughter and her nephew learn their letters. She gave them names. Yeah. I was not hopeful. She explained that she would say for example "this is Z. This is Zion's Z and this is S. This is Syniya's S. Well I had some lowercase magnetic alphabets and I took them out this evening and they immediately came over to the table and began to play with them and ask me what they were. Well at first I was just telling them what each letter was and then I remembered what my friend had said and I tried it. We had mommy's M, Zion's Z, Syniya's S, Amarion's A, Bibleman's B, Gracie's (dog) G, Kameelah's (my sister) K, Pam's (their aunt) P, Larry's (pam's husband) L, and C for the baby.
OH MY GOODNESS. THEY REMEMBERED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. IN 10 MINUTES OF PLAYTIME.
We had to stop for dinner but after dinner I quizzed them and both of them remembered each letter. I would ask where is mommy's m and they would get it. Where is Syniya's s and they would get it. I almost cried I was so excited. so then we moved to the kitchen table and I switched from the magnetic letters to some cards from a game that I had and they still got them all right. Oh boy. I just wish I had a family member for each letter of the alphabet lol. Although we are quite lucky to have a Z.
I tried to call my friend and tell her about our success and apologize for doubting her, but she didn't answer (which means she forgot her phone in her car again. lol)
I didn't get a single picture but I can always get some tomorrow. I have got to come up with something for the other letters now. This is too exciting. This is more progress with letters in 10 minutes than I have had since we began in October. Praise God.
We are slowly getting our numbers and colors. I made a matching game for the colors and a counting game for the numbers. I think that with the repetition of both of those they will eventually get them. I am always searching for new ideas though. I will get pictures during tomorrow's school.