*Disclosure:  I received compensation in the form of products for the purpose of this review.*

I remember those first few days home with Charlie, adjusting to life with two babies.  The hardest part for me, was that I suddenly had no time for just Maggie.  I remember one night as I climbed into the tub with her, I started crying as I realized that for the first time since bringing the having Charlie, that I was actually spending time with Maggie alone.  No distractions, at least for the moment.  I vowed in that moment, that I would always find ways to do something with her that she loves, without her having to think about or include her brother.  Both of my kids deserved one on one time with me, so I began figuring out ways to do it.  While I want to foster their love and support for each other, spending time with me individually is something I feel is important for us both.

Plan a date night, each week, month, every other month, whatever works for you.  I don’t leave my kids very often, but just this last weekend, Maggie and I had a date night at the children’s theater.  We had so much fun together!

Find an activity they enjoy and dig in.  For Maggie, that is quite often reading books.  Or, going on magic carpet ride adventures.  Those are the best!  I love where her imagination takes us.

Let them help you cook.  Both of my kids like this, and not always at the same time, so this gives me a chance to involve them in every day life things.

Ask silly questions.  We ask questions that can be anything from what is your favorite vegetable {which is what she asked me during lunch the other day}.  We take turns asking questions, it leads to giggling almost every single time.

Bedtime.  The kids actually have separate bedtimes at the moment, and even when Charlie refuses to sleep and is still awake, he goes into his crib or the pack-n-play unless John is home so that I can have a few minutes with Maggie as I tuck her into bed for the night.  We talk about our day.  What made us happy, sad, mad, or anything else.  We say our bedtime prayers and kiss each other good night.

Take 10.  Or 20.  Fit in the time when you can.  For us, there is usually a short period of time between when Charlie goes to sleep and when Maggie’s nap time is.  We have started playing games together.  Chutes and Ladders, Hi-Ho Cherrio, Memory, and, one of the new games we have been playing is the Take10 Alphabet Cookies game we received from Learning Resources for review.

I love games that help the kids learn in fun ways.  Maggie has really been interested in letters, whether it is identifying them or writing them.  While she doesn’t have all of the letters down yet, she is doing well, and this game is a ton of fun for her to play.  We spread out all of the letters, spin the spinner, then find that letter.  She can find the right letter almost every time.  We even play that you can steal the letter from the other person if they have it already, she is really good at that.  In fact, if you see us play, it seems as though she memorizes what letters I have because those are the ones she finds the fastest.  We just play this way until we have all of the letters.  There isn’t really a declared winner, but then we practice saying the letter names as we put them back into the bucket.

Yep, the bucket.  The storage bucket.  I heart toys that come with their own storage container!  This makes this a good toy for us to take with if we are going out to eat.  We can play it as we wait.  It is the perfect amount of time to fill this gap, and still keep her attention.

And while this post is about spending one on one time, and this game is great for ages 3+, Charlie loves to play it with us sometimes.  We just change it up.  We take turns calling out a color and then try to find a letter in that color.  It’s a fun way to teach Charlie colors, and they both get so excited about it.  The colors on these lifelike looking cookies are an added bonus.  Not only are they the fun colors that Learning Resources offers on all of their products, but it can help out when Maggie gets stuck on a letter.  I can give her a hint about the color of the cookie.  Then, she can narrow it down a little bit.  Another thing I noticed, is that all of the vowels are red, making it easy for them to learn the difference between vowels and consonants.

Take10 Alphabet Cookies comes with game suggestions like the first to collect 5 letters, name something that starts with that letter, or find the letter with your eyes closed.  Or, you can just make up your own games too. We practice spelling out simple words, which works good for simple words with no double letters.  Although, we ended up with two of these because our first set was faulty and had 2 of 2 letters and was missing 2 other letters.  Learning Resources shipped out a new set to us immediately when I contacted them about it.

If you are wondering if this would be a good game for younger than 3’s, my answer is yes!  When I use to teach, I had a few 2 year olds who could identify every letter because we practiced every single day!

There are endless games you can play with the Take10 Alphabet Cookies game.  What game will you play?

Buy it:  Visit Learning Resources and pick up your Take10 Alphabet Game or any of the other fantastic letter learning games, or buy it on Amazon.

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Win it:  Learning Resources is giving one of you lucky readers their very own Take10 Alphabet Game!

Open to US only.  Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on February 13, 2014.  Good luck!  ******Giveaway closed******