Two friends and I took our children to the Hughes Library in downtown Greenville to experience Laugh’n’ Learn Reading Readiness at the beginning of the summer. It was six interactive centers set up to share ideas on helping your child learn pre-reading skills. We had a great time exploring each of the centers and seeing what each of our children gravitated towards. I decided to share what I learned and how I set up activities for each skill in my home.
Today will begin the first of six installments in the Setting Up a Literacy Center series. We will be looking at vocabulary development and the tools we are using to work on them.
Ways to Work on Vocabulary Birth to 2-years old
- Talk to your baby or toddler about what is going on around you.
- Listen carefully and respond to your baby’s babbles or your child’s talk.
- Ask questions even if your child does not have the words to answer.
- Read together every day. Name the pictures as you point to them.
2 to 3-years old
- Talk about everything! The more words your child hears, the more they will know.
- Be specific. (use the word “rose” rather than “flower”)
- Add more detail to what your child says. ( the “red” rose)
4 to 5-years old
- Talk about feelings, ideas, and how things work.
- Speak in a language that is most comfortable for you.
- Learn by reading nonfiction books on subjects your child likes.
Here are some of the tools we are using: Grocery Store We put together a store using a shelf in the pantry. It contains the following
-
- Empty food boxes
- A shopping basket
- Reusable shopping bag
- An old calculator ( The calculator is used as a scanner and register.)
- Play money
- A grocery store name tag JDaniel was given while taking a tour of a local grocery store.
I am usually the shopper. I ask JDaniel for products and he bags them after scanning them. He loves making the beep sound for the scanner. We talk about what he has available and what he thinks I should buy. JDaniel also loves to shop and sell to himself.
We have two old cell phones that he chats with on his own or we chat with together.
Old Magazine Picture Walking
What fantastic ideas!!! You rock! Reading is so important and serves you so well your entire life. Plus it’s awesome!
That sounds like a fabulous plan – and it’s always good to make things into games. Your grocery store looks great 🙂
awesome tips. thank you for sharing
Hey there! Love your blog – your ideas are so creative! 🙂
The name tag is too cute.
My 4-year-old twins don’t need old cell phones . . . they use hair brushes! It’s the funniest thing to see them walking around the house, shouting at each other through their “phones.”
Great ideas, all!
Great ideas! Love the grocery store. 🙂
I’m really loving these ideas! We have tons of play food, but I’m never really sure what else to do besides pretend to cook with it. The grocery store game sounds like fun! I also really like the pre-reading ideas.
Those are awesome ideas. You are such a great mama. The grocery store is my favorite.
I love your grocery store idea. We were at Whole Foods today with my little one and stopped to play in their play market for the little ones. My daughter had a blast. We should try this at home.
Such practical ideas! I especially love the old cell phone suggestion!