Yes you can fit in letter writing, alphabetical order learning, and gross motor skills in one activity… With ABC Hop! This simple game requires no more than a paved surface and a piece of chalk.

We headed outside early before the afternoon summer heat sets in. I asked Travis to write the alphabet. This was fantastic practice to write the letters from memory, not following a tracing line. He faltered on only a few, like K, but had a firm grasp of many others.

I quickly realized his letters were going to be too small to hop on, though, so wrote out a second set for him. Once the alphabet was complete, we began to sing the ABC Song. With each note, he hopped from letter to letter.

Whoops, occasionally he had to run from the end of one line to the start of the next.

I thought he might get tired, but he hopped to the very last Z.

To make this harder, you could even try mixing up the letters or putting them in zig zags occasionally!