Story time for the whole family is an important activity that helps the family to bond and learn new things from each other. Set your family story time at an appropriate time like after dinner when you are all present. Make the activity lively by giving each family member an opportunity to tell a story. Telling stories from your personal experiences using good vocabulary helps the children learn pronunciations and more vocabulary. Your story should accommodate each family member; that is, the story should be easily comprehensible and entertaining.
Hangman is an educative game in which a person thinks of a phrase or a word that the others are supposed to guess through assembling individual letters the word contains. This game is interactive and enables children to improve on their spelling and learn new vocabulary. Letters and Sounds Bingo is also an interactive literacy game. This game allows you to learn pronunciations and spell words correctly. Look, Cover, Right, Check is a literacy game in which the player is required to look at a word and spell it on his own after the first glance. This game increases alertness and helps your child improve his grammar. Number games are also available to enable children to learn numbers and work out simple arithmetic functions like adding and subtracting. These games use photos of common items like fruits and toys to help the children understand.
Reading books with your child helps to boost her self-confidence so they can help her understand new vocabulary. Reading stories to them enables you to understand your children better and their reading interests. Make reading an everyday activity for them so they can accustom themselves to it. For toddlers, picture books are entertaining and educative at the same time. Writing is important to effect communication and improve literacy. You can show your children how to write by forming letters using modeling dough, mud or sand. You can engage your children in writing letters to friends or family or by allowing them to help you make the shopping list. You can use alphabet magnets on the refrigerator or alphabet cereals to help children master the alphabet and spell words.
You can take your kids on a nature trail. Outdoor activities allow your children to experience a new environment and encounter a different environment from the usual city activities. Teaching your children new words and enlightening them about plants and animals and their habitats is helpful. Collect different interesting items from your nature trail and paste them into a scrapbook with fitting descriptions for each to make it easier for children to remember the ones they have come across. Researching items that you are not sure of through the Internet or at the library can help both obtain information about them and instill a habit to do the same in the future. Such activities increase your child's overall intelligence and literacy about the environment.