Vocabulary

What Did You Say? Activity for an individual child Age group: 30-40 months Duration of activity: 15 minutes Enhance your child's listening skills and auditory discrimination with this silly activity. Review a picture book or magazine with your c...

Sharing Adventures: Reading to Your Two-Year-Old Two is a terrific age for reading to your child. Your toddler wants to build her vocabulary and will eagerly sit to hear stories that offer her new words to learn. But reading books to your todd...

Your Toddler's Development: Building Vocabulary One thing about most two-year-olds: You can't get them to shut up. Your toddler is constantly talking, talking, talking. Your child wants you to understand her experience, just as she herself is be...

Print out this list of nutrition vocabulary words and ask your children to define them. They can practice their research skills by using the dictionary to look up any words they do not know. ...

Dictionary Name Game Required: Dictionary Pen and paper What's in a name? A great opportunity for learning new words—with the help of a dictionary. During breakfast, snack time, or any time you and your child want to expand your vocabularies a...

Action WordsDirectionsIntroduce these words to your child and both of you do the actions together STRETCH, LEAP, SLIDE, RUN, CRAWL, FALL, SPIN, and TURN. Once your child understands what each word means and how to do the action, put on music and ...

Magic BagTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials Old purseSmall items that can't be swallowed, like model cars, playing cards, animal cookies, old key sets, little books Directions Your child will want to share the wonder of each discovery if you fill a...

Abbreviate ItTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials None Directions Teach the concept of abbreviating in a playful way. One of you thinks of two letters that the other has to turn into a phrase that matches the abbreviation. For example, FS could mean ...

Word ChainDirections This game requires two or more players. Think of a category, such as animals. The first player says a word that fits the category, such as cat. The next player says another animal name that begins with the last letter of the ...

BackwordsDirections Choose a word, then challenge your child to reverse the letters of the word (in his head or on paper) and say it backward. For example, tree becomes eert, car becomes rac, and so on. If you like, start with simple one-syllable...

Anagrams ActivityAnagrams are pairs or groups of words that use exactly the same letters in different order, for example: pills/spill and eat/tea. Directions The following games are fun ways to play with anagrams. They may be tough for beginning...

Round and Round the GardenRhyme and Actions Round and round the garden(Run your index finger around baby's palm.)Went the Teddy Bear, One step, two steps,(Jump your finger up his arm.)Tickle under there. (Tickle him under his arm.)Round and roun...

Flashlight Fun for ToddlersMaterials Flashlight Directions Shine a flashlight on different parts of a room: a wall, the door, the floor, and so on. Each time you shine the light on an object, name it: for example, "This is the bed." Show your chi...

I Spy Word RecognitionDirections This word game can help develop your child's shape and color recognition skills. As you drive or walk along, say "I spy with my little eye something that is orange," or "... something that is square." Your child w...