Building vocabulary with your child

Building Vocabulary with your Child
All parents want their child to do well in school. One way to help your child is to help them build their vocabulary. Children use knowledge about words to help them:

•   understand what they are reading
  
•   make writing interesting
  
•   help understand new ideas taught in school
  
•   talk with their family and friends in a clear way
  How can you help?
  Reading: the Number 1 way to Expose Kids to a Richer Vocabulary
  

•   Read stories to your child every day!
  
•   When your child comes to a word they don’t know, give them a quick kid‐friendly definition and continue reading. At the end of the story go back to the word and ask if he remembers how to say it.
  
•   Talk about the words from the books you read and relate them to everyday life. Use them over and over to help your child learn them.
  New Words are Everywhere!
  
  •   Take your child to new places and expose her to different ideas.
    
  •   When you visit the zoo or take a walk, have your child describe what she sees.
    
  •   Take your child with you to the bank, grocery store and see what new words you can discover.
    Encourage Talk at Home:
    
  •   There are many ways to help your child be interested in words around them. Playing with words through games, songs and humor can be powerful.
    
  •   Encourage your child to recognize when they come across a new word and not to skip over it.
    
  •   Use your child’s interests to have conversa ons rich in words. 
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    Categorizing Words:
    

•   To be good word users, children need to know how they connect to other words. Why do apples and oranges go together? They are both fruit!
  
•   Have your child help sort groceries to put them away. Find all the fruit, pull out all the breakfast foods, find all the things we drink...
  
•   Putting away toys. Start with the toys that make noise, toys that are games, toys that are for building etc.
  Teach your kids that learning new words can be fun!