FYI: Be forewarned that this is a long post.  Lots of words.  Quite a few pictures.

Over the weekend, I held a digital alphabet hunt with some of my adult children and their spouses, some adorable grandchildren, and my husband.

(See?  I told you that my grandchildren were downright adorable!!)

I learned something from the experience and thought that I would pass it along to you, Gentle Reader, so that you can benefit from my vast (ahem!) wisdom.

But first though, a bit of foundational information. I put a half hour limit on the activity.  This added a bit of pressure but I think it was good and made it fun.  That meant people had to think quick and not dawdle.  It wasn’t about taking National Geographic quality pictures.  It was more on getting pictures of all of the letters and getting back to ‘home base’ within half an hour.

I wanted to have some sort of award to give but my little pea-brain couldn’t come up with anything.  Well, actually, I did have a few thoughts but not the time to get the stuff and create it.   Sigh.

Even though I had told everyone to bring a digital camera, one couple forgot theirs.  No problem!  I gave them my camera and used my sweet little iPhone as my camera. (Thought: you m might want to have a spare camera in case something like this happens on your digital alphabet hunt.)

Each couple was a ‘team’ and went out together to take pictures.  I think this helped because you had two sets of eyes and two brains going.  I was extremely grateful for my husband’s creative eyes because he ‘saw’ some letters that were very creatively formed.  You’ll see what I mean in a moment.

Now, here’s what I learned.

I learned (and everyone agrees) was that it was very difficult to keep track of the letters that we had taken pictures of.  My daughter suggested that we have a paper with the alphabet written down on it so the letter could be crossed off when the picture was take.  Great idea!!!

Not only would it be easier to keep track of the ‘letters’ that you have pictures of, you wouldn’t have to spend time going back through them (like I did) to see what you got because you couldn’t remember.

After half an hour, we gathered around to show the pictures that we had taken.  Here’s the other thing that I learned.  It was difficult to scrunch around small camera picture viewers to see the pictures.  It would have been nicer to be able to see them on a bigger screen — either a computer or TV.  So, next time, I’ll make sure that we have appropriate cables to hook to the computers.  (We had the computers.  We had a huge HD TV, too.  Just not the cables.  Rats!)

Here are some of the alphabet letters that we found.

The letter A. Two couples ‘saw’ this letter.		The letter G.
The letter N.		The letter P. EVERYBODY got this one.
The lower case letter R. Can you see it? My husband found this one. He is so clever.		The letter W.
The letter D.		The letter K. I put a circle around it in the picture because the K was difficult to see. (Tip your head to the left.) My creative husband found this one, too.

Afterward, we also brainstormed about some variations on this idea.  They were terrific ideas so I wrote them down to share with you here.

1. Take pictures of the alphabet in the correct order — from A to Z.
2. Give the teams a phrase.  They have to take pictures of the letters IN THE ORDER that they are in the phrase.
3. To make it even more difficult, tell them that if another person takes a picture of the same thing to represent the same letter they can’t count it.  Like in Scategories.
4. Do a photo scavenger hunt.  They are given a list of things to find and take pictures of like a garbage can, a flip flop for the right foot, a hamburger, stairs.  Adjust the list according to where the scavenger hunt takes place (a park, mall, etc.).  If you do this at a mall, you might want to stipulate that you can only get one picture per store.
5. Do ‘faces in places.’  Take pictures of things that created a face.  Then, when you gather back together, have them ‘submit’ their 3 best faces.  Vote on which is the best and give some prize.
6. If you have lots of grandchildren, have some of them lay on a lawn and spell out a letter or word with their bodies.  Little grandchildren could form the letters while the older ones could be the picture takers.

Whew!  This was a long post.  (But I warned you in the beginning!)

Every once in a while, I realize that many of the activities and ideas that I share are more appropriate for little grandchildren.  It’s rather hard to come up with ideas to do with tweens and teens.  But, I think that this activity would be one that would be fun and challenging for your older grandchildren.  I call it the Digital Alphabet Hunt.

This is a great activity to do on a crisp fall day with a grandchild.  Grab your sweater (well, at least grandma might need a sweater . . .) and a digital camera for each participant and head outside.  The idea is to take pictures with your digital camera of things that you see that form letters of the alphabet.

For example, the crook of a branch in the tree forms the letter Y.  The rails of the monkey bars in a park playground could be your H letter.   A telephone pole could be an I or a T.  A car tire could be the letter O.  Do you get the idea?

Look at the cracks in the sidewalk, the bricks of a building, the clouds in the sky, bike racks, doorways, or vines climbing a trellis to help you find the different letters.

(By the way, can you see the letter B in the picture I’ve shared here?)

When you get back to grandma’s house, print out your pictures and compare and enjoy the creativity that was used in ‘discovering’ the alphabet letters.  You could staple the pages together into a booklet form or put in plastic sheet protectors and a binder to create an ‘alphabet’ book. If you are really technologically daring, you could post them in Facebook (you ARE on Facebook aren’t you??), to your blog, or to Flickr.

You might want to consider making (in advance) this yummy little treat to eat afterward along with a sip of apple cider.

Granola Snack
2 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup Cherry flavored Craisins
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, stir together the rice cereal and oats and Craisins. Set aside. Grease a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Combine the brown sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat just until boiling, then remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Pour over the cereal and oat mixture, and mix well. Press into the prepared pan using the back of a large spoon. Allow to cool, then cut into squares.