In the previous 2 Tots & Teens posts, I discussed reading to your little one & how to get your teenager interested in reading.
What I am going to tell you to do in this week’s post, you will probably think I have completely lost my mind. What can I say? It’s the elementary teacher background in me.
Are you ready?
Here it is.
Label your house.
Not your actual house, but items in your house. When you walk into my kitchen, for example, here is what you’ll see:
There’s more, but you get the idea. Once your child shows interest in what words look like & how things are spelled, they are ready for this.
When Sweetie Pie was about 3, he started being really interested in how words looked. He wanted us to write names on his doodle pro. Then we had sheets of paper with every. single. Thomas. train. friends’ name on it. And believe me, he knows them ALL. We’ve now moved on to him wanting me to type out names—especially when I’m tweeting. So, if you notice weird tweets from me containing random names, you know what is happening at my house.
The labels are just another way to show your child that every word they hear can be written. It serves as another way to immerse them in words.
So, go. Make labels with your child & put them up all over your house. You’ll love the response you get from people when they come over.
Awesome idea!
ReplyDeleteMy 16 month old LOVES his books. It's his #1 go to "toy", we read books everyday for a couple hours, and his car toy ... books!! I don't know if its because of our reading, but he has a vocabulary of 100+ words. Used correctly. I like to think he's a genius, haha, but I think its the reading. Obvi I'm a huge fan!
The labeling ... awesomeness, I'm going to start now, he's already curious about words.
Maegan :)
My friend used to have English/Spanish not ecards on everything in their house so they could practice for living abroad. I learned so much, I'm sure your little guy will too!
ReplyDelete