10/05/2024
1) BOOKS! We never go to bed without reading together. Sometimes we read it straight through (Dr. Seuss is a favorite!) and sometimes we take a dialogic reading approach - a more interactive, conversational approach to reading where opportunities to dig deeper into elements of a story, expand my child's vocabulary, or relate a story to her own life, present themselves.
2) RHYMING GAMES! My 4 year old loves to come up with words (and non-words) that rhyme. I love it when she not only says what the rhyming word is but tells me what that word MEANS - even better if she hears it and tells me TWO meanings (like tonight, the target word was "feet" and she said "meet like I meet someone, but also meat like what you can eat")!
3) GUESSING GAMES - Another favorite of my oldest. We work on semantic skills where I describe something by any of the following categories: what category it belongs to (i.e. it's an animal), a part of the whole (i.e. it has fins), location (i.e. you can find it in the ocean), what it does (i.e. it swims), or its appearance or composition. This last activity works on her verbal descriptive skills.
Best of all, she LOVES all three activities and looks forward to them every night. Having fun while learning is KEY to retention!
