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Having Fun with Vocabulary at Home
By Lisa Mazinas

Your child’s reading a new book from school for English class and she can’t connect the meaning between certain words and asks you. It seems harmless. You tell her. But, knowing vocabulary and having a large one plays a critical role in your child’s reading development. As a parent, it’s important you know the strategies to help your child know gain the vocabulary you always wanted.

One of the best ways that children develop vocabulary skills is through reading and deriving word meanings from context, not by memorizing definitions from a weekly list of words. For children that do not read regularly, the chance they will fall behind in vocabulary development is high. Any reading that your children do is helpful, as long as the text is on their reading level. It can be the latest Harry Potter book, the newspaper, or even the back of a cereal box! Taking time for a daily parent/child read aloud will also strengthen those vocabulary skills. It’s a misnomer that once children know how to read they no longer want to be read to. Children of all ages—and even adults—love listening to stories, and it’s a wonderful experience for both parties.

For many adults, the word vocabulary conjures up memories of studying flashcards, memorizing definitions and writing words in sentences. And those memories aren’t good ones usually. This traditional approach has little effect on a child’s long term retention because the words are studied in isolation. Sure, your child might be able to learn 20 new words in one week, but will he remember them two months later? And will he be able to make sense of those words if he encounters them again? The philosophy that less is more also applies to vocabulary. It is better for a child to study and thoroughly understand five new words than to memorize definitions for 20 that he will soon forget.

The instruction in today’s classrooms is often a mix of traditional and new approaches to vocabulary instruction. Many kids do get weekly lists of words to study, some from context and some not. As a parent, you might be wondering what you can do to help your child at home. The first thing is to make sure that your child gets daily reading time. Next, choose some of the strategies and activities below and get started today! 

A strategy is something that a child can use during reading, to help with word solving. The idea is for kids to learn strategies that they can use again when reading independently. An activity is something to try later (possibly with words chosen from the reading) to enrich vocabulary development. 

Strategies

1. Notebook: As your children learn new words while reading, encourage them to jot them down in a notebook. (A sticky note works well too and can be transferred to the notebook later). 

2. Use context: If your children are stuck on a word, teach them to reread the sentence or paragraph and look for clues that will help.

3. Synonym: Similar to using context, have your child replace the difficult word with a synonym. Reread the sentence with the new word to see if it makes sense. If it doesn’t, try again with a new synonym.

4. Connections: Teach your children to connect words that they know to other words. For example, she might be unfamiliar with the word “longevity” but she does know the meaning of “long?” 

5. Prefixes, Suffixes and Roots: Have your child look at prefixes, suffixes and roots to derive word meanings. For example, the prefix im- means “not” so impatient means “not patient.”

Activities

1. Word Map: Write a word in the middle of a page. Add the following items (one in each corner) to describe the word:

     Definition                        Synonym

     Not often, infrequent                            rarely

               Seldom

     Antonym                     Picture or Sentence

     Often                          It seldom snows in Florida.   

2. Discussion: Encourage your child to discuss words with you during and after reading.

3. Word Sort: Write several vocabulary words on index cards. Have your child sort them into categories based on word meanings. There are two kinds of sorts: In a closed sort, you guide your child by providing category names; in an open sort, your child decides how to sort the words.

4. Wordstorming: Have your child brainstorm a list of words on a given topic, for example, storms. Next, have him sort the words into categories, with labels for each. This can also be a great review for other subject areas, such as math, science and social studies.

5. Is/Is Not: Write two columns: Is and Is Not. Choose a word and write synonyms for the word in the first column and antonyms in the second column.

Lisa Mazinas is a freelance writer.