It is time to practice fingerspelling three-letter words. The movement from letter to letter will improve the agility of your fingers. Later, you and your fingerspelling partner can practice the spelling bee game together. Haven't found a partner yet? Well, do your best to locate one, and remember: To teach is to relearn.

The instructions for the spelling bee with a partner are as follows. Working from a list, each person alternately and randomly selects a word to fin-gerspell. The receiver must correctly fingerspell the word back to the sender. Each word is then checked off. Continue in this fashion until you have fin-gerspelled all the words. Try making the game a little more difficult. Create a new list of fifty words. This time, these words should be four to five letters in length. You can continue playing the spelling bee game in this same fashion by simply increasing the length and difficulty of the words.

Take It to the Next Level

Next, try this twist on the game. This is similar to deaf/blind interpreting and is a terrific way to really adopt the feel of each letter. You can begin by using words from the same list, like the three-letter word chart presented here as a sample. This time, instead of looking at the letters, each person feels the handshapes of the letters. It begins by having your partner close his eyes while you fingerspell into the palm of your partner's hand. Your partner can use his free hand if he chooses to feel the entire shape of the letters.

This version can be a lot of fun, so give it a try. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you adapt to playing these interesting fingerspell-ing games. All the games suggested are a great way to practice mastering the alphabet. Don't forget that mastering the alphabet is an important first building block for the novice signer.