I have loved reading since I was young. My mom was a voracious reader and she instilled that in my sister and I. I rarely go anywhere without a book in my purse. If I get stuck at the doctor’s office or in the car pool lane, at least I have a good read to keep me busy. My daughter is the same way. She always has her nose in a book. Being an avid reader, you are usually building your vocabulary at the same time. By doing this, you gain better communication skills and the ability to express your ideas and thoughts. My son is not as big of a fan as reading as Caitlin and I. Getting him to do his vocabulary homework is like pulling teeth. To make it more fun, I have found a few tricks to get him to build his vocabulary skills
6 Fun Ways To Improve Kids Vocabulary
- Be A Good Role Model: Ever since the kids were little, we have communicated with the kids as if they were adults. By that, I mean, if we say a word we know they may not know the definition to, we will tell them what it means in terms they could understand. When they got older, we would send them to the dictionary to look up the unfamiliar words.
- Find Synonyms and Antonyms: Another great way to build your child’s vocabulary is to find synonyms and antonyms. If you are talking about how big something is, ask the kids to tell you 2-3 words that mean big. To make it fun, make it a game. Kids love to play games!
- Get Physical: As kids learn new words, get them to act out or draw a picture of the new word. This helps cement the meaning into their little brains!
- Don’t Go Overboard: One sure fire way to have your kid forget their newly learned words, is to teach them too many. Young brains can absorb a lot, but they will shut off when they are overwhelmed.
- One Up Each Other: As kids get older, they will want to increase their vocabulary with harder words. Every Sunday, have a game at the dinner table with who can stump who. I know in our house, the kids are always looking for ways to show up their mom and dad!
- Play Games: We love to play word games in our house. Scrabble is a huge favorite as well as Scattergories. One of our new favorites is UpWords, which we just received from Winning Moves.
I have been a huge fan of Winning Moves for many years now. In my recent post, Ideas To Connect With Your Family Without Breaking The Bank, I wrote about Boggle, another fun word game. You see, I am always looking for ways to improve kids vocabulary! With UpWords, you can build words on top of words your fellow game players have created. We usually pit the boys against the girls, and so far, he score is tied 4 to 4. With Rack-O, you are in a race against time to get your cards in sequential order…another brain building habit!
Winning Moves Games was started in 1995, bringing together talents from such big wigs as Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers and they are also tight Hasbro, Inc. They are exclusive maker of the award winning games from Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Winning Moves Games carries cards, to board games to puzzles. Want to win these two games from Winning Moves? They are offering one of my USA readers UpWords ($20.45) and Rack-O ($13.45), with a combined ARV of $35.
What is one of the ways to improve kids vocabulary you use in your home?
