Expanding Vocabulary: at the car

Our car is our main mode of transportation, helping us to go about our daily responsibilities; whether it be for work, school, and shopping or leisure time. We could use the time spent in our cars to teach our kids new words making the commute fun, entertaining and educational as well as a bonding experience. How? You may ask, here I give you a couple of ideas on how to.

You could start by asking your child to: “OPEN the door”, next describe cars you see on the road: “look at the GRAY car” “That car is BIG/SMALL” “the car goes bruuum bruuum bruuum, beep-beep-beep”

On your way to school or day care you can say: “look! The SUN” “the HOT sun” “Look! a TRUCK”

When you reach a stop light: “the light is GREEN, YELLOW or RED” “It is GREEN, let’s GO” “the light is RED, it means STOP” You can also describe how the weather is “It is a SUNNY or RAINY day”

We don’t all have the chance to live near farm houses, but if you do, take advantage of this; especially if there are animals near the road you are driving by. “Look a cow” “the cow goes moo moo” “a pig, oink oink” “look sheep, they go baa baa baa”

Singing! Kids love to sing, and let’s be honest, so do we, this a perfect time to sing along to some tunes we probably sang growing up. One great classic song is “The Wheels on Bus”:

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round.

The wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town!

The people on the bus go up and down, up and down, up and down.

The people on the bus go up and down, all through the town!

The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep, all through the town!

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish, all through the town!

The signals on the bus go blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink.

The signals on the bus go blink, blink, blink, all through the town!

The motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom.

The motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom, all through the town!

The babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa, waa.

The babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa, all through the town!

The parents on the bus go shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

The parents on the bus go shh, shh, shh, all through the town!

The mummy on the bus says, I love you, I love you, I love you

The daddy on the bus says, I love you, too, all through the town.

Another short and sweet song you can sing along to is “Oh, Mr. Sun”:

Oh Mister Sun, Sun.

Mister Golden Sun.

Won't you please shine down on me?

Oh Mister Sun, Sun.

Mister Golden Sun.

Hiding behind the tree.

These little children

are asking you.

To please come out

so we can play with you.

Oh Mister Sun, Sun,

Mister Golden Sun.

Won't you please shine down on me?

The important thing here is to enjoy these moments, and to always remember anytime is a great time to learn with your child, even if it’s a 15 minute car ride. Try these and let me know your experience by commenting below.

*Translated by Valery Martinez

Expanding Vocabulary: at the park

With this great weather, who wouldn’t want to take the kids to the park so they can play and run around until they get tired? You might ask yourself, how can I make play time a learning experience as well? Easy! Here you will find useful tips to incorporate playtime to your child’s vocabulary lesson.

We can begin our lesson from the get-go, the car ride. “Look the sun, HOT”, “It is so HOT”; simultaneously integrating the hand gesture for “HOT”. Once you arrive at the park, let’s use our surroundings, for example, “Wow! Look at the GREEN grass”, “the BIG trees, they have GREEN leaves”, the objective here is to provide your child with descriptive characteristics of the objects surrounding them, such as plants or animal you might see as you enjoy the park. Always making sure to point and clearly identify the object you are describing and that the child is paying attention. Important! Allow your child to touch, smell and play with these objects, if possible. Using their 5 senses increases their capability to associate the new words to tangible objects, therefore making the learning process faster. Talk about the sky: “the BLUE sky”, “it is UP with the clouds”; if it’s a rainy day: “the sky is GRAY or BLACK”. The key here is to talk, talk and talk in complete ideas and sentences to your child.

Try these ideas and come back and share your experience with me in the comment section of the blog.

*Translated by Valery Martinez