Category Archives: Learning Vocabulary

Simple & Motivating Activities to Encourage Language or Learning

We all know how motivating lollies or toys are to get our children to clean their room up or behave themselves when out somewhere but have you ever thought to use them in games to encourage the development of language and learning? Children who are having difficulty learning basic concepts or sounds sometimes need extrinsic reinforcement until the ‘inner proudness’ kicks in. As the task becomes easier the extra rewards can be slowly replaced with words of praise. Always keep the toy...

How To Help Your Child Learn The Alphabet

Any new skill takes time and repetition to learn and it is no different when it comes to ABC’s. So we put together a few ideas on how you can help your child learn the alphabet, especially if they need a lot of repetition because they are having difficulty. There are many reasons why a child is having difficulty learning the ABC symbols. – the maturation level of the child in order to concentrate, – the child’s cognitive abilities to enable them to link verbal sounds...

Avoiding the Homework Tantrums

Children learn new things naturally  – just like breathing. The most natural way to build in any learning is by following their interests. We all learned new concepts as young children by exploring through our interests. Then as adults our interests have generally led us to our careers where we continue to learn new information and skills. Learning is a life-long process. If your child is having difficulty learning new concepts try delivering it through their interests – what toys...

Teaching Maths Language with Food

This list of ideas can be used for lessons within a classroom or during preparation of snacks or meals in the home. They are designed to help you teach or make it easier to explain some of the language that mathematics concepts are built on. Apples… Cut the apple crosswise to find the star… Count the points and count the seeds. Cut the star out with an apple corer — it’s a cylinder. The hole in the apple leaves a circle. Continue cutting the apple crosswise into slices to...

Before Shopping With Kids

Before shopping with kids discuss with your children what is needed by going through the cupboards or pantry at home and see what is missing. This a great way to involve them in avoiding the regular tantrum disasters that quite often are associated with taking children shopping with you. While they are retrieving vocabulary of various food items missing in the cupboards have your child write or draw the list of items they want to look for at the shops for you. The sense of responsibility is...

Learning Through Play

The opportunities we see as ‘play’ are actually the vital foundations of mathematical and language concept development. Most parents are now both working and choosing other care options for their child. It is very important when choosing the carer for your child they understand what playtime represents and offer a daily routine that is filled with times to explore with a variety of materials that are child directed and not just teacher instructed sitting on the floor or at the table...

Had enough of beading???

Next time you need to help your child learn patterns, instead of getting the beads and thread out, why not have ready different coloured pieces of fruit and wooden scewers? This could help motivate your child to try different fruit and you prepare a dessert or snack for later. Other language that could be covered while learning patterns with this activity is the description of some of the pieces of fruit, eg soft, hard, mushy, juicy, , round, red, etc…