Preschool learning

I bought the expensive "Learn to read" Pre K set for my son but have barely used it (since he also goes to preschool). I see that he learns the phonics from there (which I find hard to teach), but I want to make his base stronger. So I started on the yellow book from the set and made him color (A and B so far). The book had good ideas like - color letter B with colors that start with B (blue, black, brown) and we tried to identify things that started with B in the room.

That set me on my next idea - taking a newspaper and identifying all letter A's (in the big print, that is). Once he did that, we read each of those words. This helped him identify words that used the letters but didnt start with A.

And lastly, I made him cut shapes from a crate and barrel catalog. It develops his cutting skills, and its a good way to recycle. He's been so happy, and doesnt know he's learning...