Kids should learn new words every day to broaden their vocabulary. The more words a child knows, the more they’re able to see. It helps them speak to you and interact with the world around them – and it’ll also assist them when they go to school and start learning properly.
Most children will naturally learn some new words every day simply by listening to others. On that topic, here are some things you can do to help your kids learn at least one new word every day:
Read Books Together
From preschool books to books for older children, there’s an abundance of things you can read with your kids to help them learn new words. Pick a collection of books and get into the daily habit of reading a few pages with your kids. This can be done at night before bed or any other time during the day.
Don’t just read the books to your kids; be sure they understand what you’re saying and point at the words to explain what they mean. There will be at least one new word on a page per day for you to focus on – and some kids’ books are even designed with this in mind. They’ll include a feature word for every page, letting you go through the book with a new word each day.
Play Word Games
Kids love playing games, and it’s a proven way to help them learn new things. You’re more likely to get a child to learn words by playing games than you are by sitting them down and pointing at words on a board.
What games are the best for this? Options like Scrabble or Boggle are brilliant as they give your kids loads of random letters to form words. It teaches them to spell things using letters, and you can use a word unscrambler to reveal all the different words available. Pick one of the words from the possibilities and show your child how to spell it, then teach them about it.
Similarly, I Spy is a classic word game with loads of benefits. It gives you a chance to pick something in a location and get your child to guess what it is. Pointing at the physical thing will help your child associate the word with it. They’re more likely to remember the word and what it relates to when they actually see it.
Find A Word-of-the-Day Website
You should be able to find websites that generate a word of the day for you. This can become a great routine with your children. Sit down and load up the word to see what it is today. Then, teach them how to say the word and explain what it means.
The only caveat is to find a website that’s suitable for kids. Don’t use a proper dictionary site, as they’re normally way too complex. Consider the Sesame Street Word of the Day archive on PBS LearningMedia as a starting point. It has lots of great videos telling your kids the word of the day with explanations of what the words mean, etc. Plus, it’s visual, which means your child is more likely to take the information in.
Label Things At Home
Sometimes, you don’t need to take an active approach to teach your kids new words. Find a label maker and print labels to put on different things around the home. Your child will see these labels and slowly start to understand what they mean. It’s especially clever when they’re learning to read and can understand letters and sounds. They’re passively learning and developing a broader vocabulary without you needing to do much!
It encourages curiosity in kids as well. They may see a label and not understand what it says, making them ask you about it. This opens a new learning moment where you can sound out the word and point to each letter. Tell them how to say it, and they’ll know what the word means because of what it’s stuck on.
You can never teach your kids too many words. The more they know, the more it helps them in life. Understanding and learning new words can speed up their reading skills and improve their general communication. It’s something to focus on when your children can first start to communicate and talk to you in small sentences. Help them pick up new words every day and they’ll soon be babbling on about everything and anything. Plus, these ideas make learning feel effortless, so you don’t have to worry about them getting restless or losing concentration.
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