Literacy Tips

Here are some useful and engaging expert-approved ideas to help you teach your child to read, and have fun doing it!

Vocabulary Building
Teach your kids new words

1. We have many vocabulary-building features on this Web site including Word Play and Synonym Sam's Lab. Our Printables area also has some original word games.
2. Comment on new words as they come up in stories, on TV or on the radio.
3. Introduce synonyms - words that mean the same thing. If your kids talk about "the day after today," introduce the word "tomorrow."
4. Correct word errors with simple examples or corrections. If they say "We runned home!" you could say, "Wow! You RAN home?" Or, more simply, "You could say that you RAN home."
5. Find books that your kids like at the library. You can then use subjects they're interested in to add new vocabulary to their conversation.
6. Open a dictionary and pick a word they probably know. See if they can guess the word by reading them the definition. Help them understand that some words have several meanings, like 'watch.' Check out our tips in "The Big Book of Words."
7. Write out pairs of opposites on bits of paper and get your kids to match them up.
8. Introduce a new word and ask them to guess which definition is right? Is HALIBUT a fish, a game or a President? They'll want to learn more when they're having fun!
9. Include kids in your conversations with other adults by using words they can mostly understand. Then they will be able to learn any new ones by getting the meaning from the surrounding sentence.
10. Pick a new word every day and teach it to your kid. Use it so they hear it in context. Encourage them to use it, and use it yourself. Even over-using it will be fun. Pick a word like 'outstanding' and use it whenever something is 'good.'

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The Land of Make-Believe
Make up stories—it's easy

1. Start with stories you know, and imagine what happens later, after the story has finished. Most of the stories on this site would be great to extend. Have your kids imagine themselves in these stories.
2. Write down WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY on a piece of paper, and add answers to these questions as you try to create the plot for a story, which you can then make up together.
3. There are 26 Watson's Word Walls in the Printables area. Each has 24 printable words to use in story-starter games.
4. Our Printables area also features the Word Worms game—a printable domino game with lots of fun words. At the end, each player must make up a story with their words.
5. Make up stories about the people you see around you - passing by in cars, walking in the street, waiting at the bus stop. Are they secret agents? Super-heroes? The next President of the United States?
6. Think of something you all use every day, and make up a story where it doesn't exist. What if there were no electricity? Or worse, no candy?
7. Take turns making up sentences with another player by saying just one word each. Think about what the next person might say, and help them keep the story going as it bounces between you.
8. Print out a whole bunch of pictures from your kid's favorite magazine. Pick six pictures at random, and tell a story.
9. Take turns to make up stories. Everyone playing must add a sentence to continue the same story.
10. Play our printable game Destination: Library. It's a game of making-stuff-up with different initial letters. The winner is the one who gets through the alphabet. There are lots of sparks there for stories.

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Errands and Chores?
Turn kids' errands or chores into fun with reading and writing

1. Help them write a To Do list of things they have to get done.
2. Help them write a Ta Da list of things they did get done. Ta da!!
3. Create a calendar or write on a regular one. Note their regular chores, and offer stickers as each task is completed.
4. Write grocery lists together, then look for the matching words on labels and receipts when you're out shopping.
5. If they have special or one-time chores to do, take some time to make a Special Helper certificate on colored paper. Write their name, what they did, and make it look like a fancy certificate.
6. Combine kids' duties with a literary reward. If they clean their room, read them an extra story at bedtime.
7. Use a list format to spark their imaginations. What ten things would monsters do on a weekend? What ten things would pilgrims buy to take back home if they time-traveled to today? What ten things would change if you were the new President of the World?
8. Talk about any chores they've done. Do they like the responsibility? Did anything surprise them? Was it too hard? Remember to praise effort.
9. Read books about kids doing chores. Curious George, Madeline, Toot and Puddle, George and Martha, and the Berenstain Bears all have chores to do and errands to run in their adventures. So do many others.

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While You Wait
Play games while waiting in line

1. Check out the Anywhere Games on the Between the Lions Web site. These are great games with a literacy theme that kids will love to play. Meanwhile, here are some more general ideas of how to approach unexpected downtime with your kids.
2. Talk to them about their lives— not just what they've been doing, but how they are feeling.
3. Talk to them about your life— not just what you've been doing, but how you are feeling.
4. Take turns making up a story or silly rhyme. You say a sentence, then they do, and so on.
5. Plan a fantasy weekend trip or your kid's next birthday celebration.
6. Play "I Spy." Here's how: Look for objects around you and give the other players its first letter. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... T!" They have to guess, and the one who gets it right goes next.
7. Talk to them about what they might like to be when they grow up, and ask them why they've chosen it.
8. Tell each other jokes. If you don't know any, make up silly reasons why chickens cross roads, or what people in restaurants might say to waiters about unwelcome things in their soup. "Why is there a cat in my soup?" "It was trying to get the mouse."
9. Get them to imagine being you. Ask them to talk like you, and say the kinds of things that you say. You should be them. Have fun!
10. Talk about a friend or relative you've not seen for a long time—maybe even someone they knew who is no longer alive. Plan what you would say to them about what you've all been doing that would make that person proud.

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Bath Time
Discover reading activities for the bathroom

1. Keep books and magazines available in the bathroom. Your home should have reading matter everywhere. Show kids that you read and that books are available all around them. Help kids read the words on the toothpaste label and the instructions on shampoo.
2. Sing songs together at your kids' bathtime. Be as loud as you can be! Make up new songs.
3. Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a shark? A mermaid? A pirate?
4. Try bath crayons. They let kids write on tile and it washes right off.
5. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.
6. Chat to your kids in the bath. Can you think of a better time when they have your attention? Conversation is really important as your kids learn to read, write, listen and speak. You are their primary model.
7. Write with your finger on steamy windows.
8. Use the bathroom mirror to experiment with reading mirror-writing.
9. Take that one step further, and try to write in mirror-writing so that you can read it in the mirror.

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Danger
Teach your kids how to read warning labels

1. Kids can learn important words with flashcards. Learning to read this way isn't usually as good as the more-involved learning we have across this site. Teach your kids how to identify these words, and tell them what they mean and why they're important.
2. Make a game with these flashcards: Danger; Poison; Do not enter; Keep Out; Fire Alarm; Stop; Exit; Hot Surface; Help; Information. Ask them to say when you might need each one.
3. In a new place, like a mall, railway station or movie theater, look for words like Exit and Help or Information, so that kids can find help if they get lost. If there are symbols (like an i or a ? for Information), point these out.
4. In traffic, look for Stop signs and practice crossing the road when the Walk sign says it's OK.
5. Look for signs and labels, especially ones in your neighborhood, to show that reading for meaning (not just for fun) is important. Talk about the "environmental print" (the words around you) whenever you travel with your kids.
6. Teach your kid how to dial 911, and how to speak their name and address clearly. If you have a portable phone or cell phone, show them how it works. There are usually more buttons to press, and these phones can be very tricky for little kids.
7. Get kids used to reading signs around them. One game to play is to look for store signs with "king" or "queen," or stores with people's first names in the title. Make up silly or rhyming last names for them.

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