Helping Your Child at Home with
Vocabulary Building (contd.)

If distant family members have cassette players, send "letters" on tape. Each family member has his or her "say," and then the tape is mailed to the distant relative to listen to on his tape recorder. That person then adds some comments and either returns it or passes it on to another family member.

Play games with homonyms - words that sound alike but are spelled differently and mean something different, as in "sun" and "son." For example, on the versatile refrigerator door, post train rain- or "reign-rain" or" pray-prey" or "flower -flour." Ask family members to add to the list. You'll be surprised at how many homonyms they will uncover

Another way of encouraging vocabulary development is the penny game," which can be played even if your child is having difficulty with reading. You might use a comic book, the comic strips or sports pages in your local newspaper, or a magazine article- To play the game, the child must know that some words start with a consonant followed by a vowel-for example, "say, look, go, pay," et etc. that other words begin with two consonants (called a blend) such as "grow, plate, tray, brush," etc. (Note: Some words do start with two or three consonants but are not true blends because one letter is silent, as in "white". gnat, pneumonia," etc.) Tell the child you'll give him a penny for every word he underlines that starts with a blend.

A follow-up to the "penny game" is to list words in "teams," such as fog/frog, bake/brake, pay/play, say/stay," et cetera.

A guessing game can be fun. "I'm thinking of a word that starts with "br" that is something you use to paint a house." (Brush) "I'm thinking of a word that starts with "tr" that is something we do to the bushes when they get too large." (Trim)

A traditional game that most children enjoy is "My father owns " Example: "My father owns a grocery store, and in it he sells something that begins with the letter B. " If the child does not know the alphabet, letter sounds can be used.

Revolving blend- is another family game in which someone gives a common blend-for example, "tr"--and, in sequence around the table or room, everyone must think of a word that begins with that blend-"train, truck, truffle, try, tray, trumpet, truce." et cetera. When the list is exhausted, the last person begins another blend, such as "st"--"stay, start, stick, stuck, star," etc.

Word origins or facts about words can be fascinating family fare. For example, the word "salary" had its origin in "salarium," which is Latin for salt. Roman soldiers received their pay in salt. Ask your librarian to help you find books that will provide other interesting examples of the origin of common words.

Suffixes are clues to word meanings. For example, "er" or "or" at the end of a word suggests "one who." Example: conductor-one who conducts; trainer-one who trains, etc. Each week a new suffix can be selected to create words.

The "Take a Walk" game is an activity that brings family members together in an enjoyable, relaxing way. It takes at least two people. A walk is taken around the neighborhood or perhaps around a local shopping area. On one trip the thrust may be, "Let's name everything we see that begins with the letter B." On another walk, it might be naming everything that begins with the letter G. Or everything that is the color purple. You might add an element of fun by saying, "We'll get one point for every word we name. Let's see how many points we can get." (Involves arithmetic as well as vocabulary.)

A rhyming game is always fun, particularly for young children because they can say any "word," nonsense or sense. Start with things the child knows, such as parts of his body, and say, "I'm thinking of something on your face that rhymes with (sounds like) rose." From this point, once your child gets the idea, you can play it just by saying words, such as "what's a word that rhymes with car?" (jar, bar, star, far, et cetera) "How about a word that rhymes with junk?" (bunk, skunk, trunk-but even runk lunk zunk as nonsense words). Nor only does this quick little game build vocabulary, but it also teaches the child some fine-tuning for the sounds of words.

Children listen, then use words, then read them, and, finally, write them. What they team at home about words supports success in school. A great deal of the learning that takes place at home is effective because it isn't a repeat of school. Once it becomes too formal and too "school-like," it will lose its appeal.

Parents who talk to their children, and who encourage interaction win lay a healthy platform for academic success. And children will quickly realize that words need not be drudgery but can be exciting and interesting,

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