Esther Lim, CEO and Founder of LEAP Schoolhouse shares with us some tips on how parents can make language learning fun, from A to Z!
| Act it out | Dramatisation never fails to excite. |
| Books | Nothing beats a good read. |
| Connect text to real life | Just read a story on butterflies? Take a trip to the garden and find one. |
| Draw and tell a story | Instead of writing a story, draw one! |
| Excite | Create a climax in the story by not finishing the last page of the book till tomorrow. |
| Find and learn | Do a word focus game and look for a particular word in the book. |
| Gallery Walk | Keep track of the cover page of the books read. Make a copy of it and create a gallery of books read. |
| Hi-5! | Create a system of grading the books read just like how movie-buffs grade a movie. |
| I spy with my eye | Look out for sub-words from a main word. |
| Journal | Keep a little journal and jot down thoughts on what’s read. |
| Knapsack | Keep a bag of items that are associated to characters that you have read in books. |
| Letter of the week | Create a chart and look for words that are learnt that starts with the particular letter. |
| Model for a day | Are you Goldilocks or could it be Little Red Riding Hood? Be in character for the day. |
| Nip and tuck | Nip a little glue and tuck some bits of paper together to create a montage of a picture in your favourite book! |
| Orate | Stand on a “podium” and do a recitation. |
| Poetry | Reading need not be from books alone. Try poetry. |
| Quote | Share a favourite line in the book and try to use it within the day |
| Record a story | Listen to one’s recording reading a book. |
| Sing | Need we say more? |
| Treasure hunt | Write on little Post-Its parts of a familiar story and paste them all over the house. Piece the story right back! |
| Unique Me! | Be ‘invisible’ for a day and record a video of the happenings around. Tell an adult what you ‘see’. |
| Vocabulary building | Have a board to pin all new words learnt on it. |
| Write, write , write | Not with a pencil but try something else. Chalk, charcoal, doesn’t matter! |
| ‘X’ marks the spot | Create a spot that allows for all words jibberish and silly to be said. A real fun way to introduce phonemic awareness. |
| Yahoo! | Go online and learn a new word game to play together. |
| Zeal it up! | Have loads of eagerness and laughter even at mistakes made. |
By Esther Lim, CEO and Founder of LEAP SchoolHouse.
This article was first published in The New Age Parents e-magazine.
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