Magnetic Alphabet Letters

What is it about little ones who love to follow you wherever you are?  Near the end of a long day when I’m starting to prep dinner, I love how Patrick and Alice want to be literally at my feet while I’m in the kitchen.  Last year when we were living in a condo, it wasn’t as easy to maneuver around them in my small galley kitchen.  I found that bringing out a toy they hadn’t played with in a while would entertain them as I chopped and started cooking.  One toy that captured their attention was magnetic alphabet letters.

This was a perfect toy because I could ask them what color the letter was, was it lower or upper case, or which letter they were holding.  The only thing that I really disliked about the letters were that they were attached to the fridge in an area I needed to get in and out of as I was cooking.  I was thrilled last year when we moved into a house and had a much large space to cook and entertain.

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As you can see from the picture above, there are only magnets attached to one section of the fridge.  Yes, that’s right, only the top left part is magnetic.  When we bought our home last year, we had to redo everything from plumbing to flooring to roof to doors.  Everything was taken out of the house and I made every decision as to what would be put back in.  I suppose I didn’t have the time to check the details such as having magnetic doors because I had assumed that they always came that way.

Now I had magnetic alphabet letters and numbers with no place to live!!  The kids really wanted to play with them as I cooked but I didn’t want the mess of the magnets on the floor.  I considered installing a piece on the wall that would hold magnets, but I was afraid to ruin my brand new walls.  It occurred to me a few days later that a drip pan might be able to hold magnets, and low and behold, it does!

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I really enjoy having the letters and numbers on the drip pan as it’s easy to store and the kids aren’t sitting in front of the fridge which is where I need to be sometimes as I cook.  We are now using letters to make words and we also point to a certain letter to practice what sound that letter makes.  We even get our silly Elf on a Shelf involved in the fun!

Hopefully if you need a distraction for your little ones as you cook, this will be a great help for you and learning toy for them.