Did you know that today is National Family Day? To celebrate, we’d like to share some of our favorite literacy-promoting activities that you can do with your whole family to encourage your budding reader and—well, to just have fun together! Remember, reading books is a great way to help your little one acquire literacy skills, but it’s not the only way!
- Play a Game
With a little creativity, you can make nearly any childhood game an exercise in literacy. Try rhyming hot potato, for instance. Get a ball or stuffed animal and have your whole family sit down in a circle. Pass the object around the circle and have each member of the family say a word that rhymes with “hat,” for example. The rule is that you can only pass the object once you say a rhyming word. If you can’t think of one, then you’re out! If your child is working on sight words, you might also try this printable game of sight word bingo from Education.com.
- Take a Walk
Spring is in the air, and taking a walk with your family is a simple pleasure that can give you the opportunity to not only enjoy the sunshine, but your family’s company as well. How can walking help with literacy? Well, with a little imagination, you can make nearly anything a learning experience. For instance, as you stroll along, ask your little one to point out things that begin or end with a certain letter. For example, if you ask your child to point out things that start with “s,” she may come up with “sun,” “street,” “shoe,” etc. This activity may be especially helpful if your child is a kinesthetic learner.
- Log In
While spending the day glued to the screen may not sound like a good way to spend quality time with your family, an hour or so of computer games can be fun and educational. Software that uses games to help children with phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension (like Red Apple Reading, for instance) can be beneficial because children have so much fun that they don’t even realize they’re learning! Plus, having you there as a cheerleader can really boost your child’s self-esteem and get him excited about reading.
Of course, sitting on the couch surrounded by books is a perfectly acceptable way of spending the day as well. If that sounds like a plan to you, then consider these books about family:
- Families by Ann Morris
- Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (this is our favorite!)
- On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman
Do have other ideas for fun literacy activities?
