Learning new words is exciting for children. They have new ways to express themselves and new ways to have conversations and understand conversations with friends and family. New words are fun, and knowing how to spell them, in addition to how to say them, is crucial to any child’s development.
Today we’re going to go over four free ways you can help your child learn new vocabulary words and learn how to spell them, all in a fun way!
Kids learn spelling and vocabulary in school throughout the year. No kid wants to spend hours after school doing anything that feels like school. These ideas are great ways to add supplemental learning activities to your child’s day without feeling like extra school work! Plus, they get to complete all or part of them with you! Who knows what new words you might pick up while spending time with your children!
1. Printable Activities
First up, printable activities. These are great free resources because there are lots of them available, and all you have to do is print them!
We recommend focusing on activities that highlight words by category. That way, your child will be able to mentally prepare for the types of words they will be exploring rather than just a random bunch of words thrown onto a page.
To find a good category, look for activities that include words your child may already struggle with or that relate to something they enjoy doing or something they want to learn. Try to keep the categories fun and exciting for them!
Examples of good word categories could be:
- Sports
- Art
- Outdoors
- Vacation activities or destinations
- Holidays
- Seasons
- Animals
- Geography
We have several vocabulary and spelling word printable activities on our website, including crossword puzzles, word searches, and writing prompts. We also have activity sheet digital resources in our shop! There are also tons of great free resources online. We recommend Pinterest as a great place to start. There are a lot of creative ideas and resources from homeschool moms, teachers, and parents.
2. Play a Game
What child doesn’t love to play games? A vocabulary or spelling game doesn’t have to be boring. You may even have something like Scrabble already around the house.
You can find printable games online, or you can invent your own! Similar to the Printable Activities idea above, pick a category and write the words on index cards or pieces of paper. Add some stickers to make your own card game, or turn it into a scavenger hunt or charades!
We have a fun spelling game on our website. You can grab it here! If you want to add to the game, or create your own version, try messaging with your child. They’ll learn how to use a keyboard on a computer or phone, remembering where all the letters are, so their skills will increase, in addition to learning how to spell and make new words.
You can play by sending your child a word that is misspelled, then have them fix the spelling and send it back to you.
3. Observation Exercises
This is a great one for learning new words because you can do it almost anywhere!
For example, if you are at the park? Teach or ask your child to name each item they can see; a swing, a slide, a tree, grass, a ball, and so forth. Perhaps you’re at the beach, in the car, at the doctor’s office, at the grocery store, or anywhere else. Ask your child the names of different things they see.
You can do the same at home, or you can gather a group of items and place them around the table or floor. The bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and food items are a good place to start. Start with 5, maybe 10. Depending on their age, tell them the name of each item and gradually continue until they remember the name of each item.
To help them remember, ask them to bring you these items throughout the day, or print an activity sheet they can complete after learning their new words!
4. Reading Comprehension
This one has two parts. First the reading, then the comprehension exercise. Almost any book out there is going to have a word or two that are new to your child. As they read, ask them to write down any words they aren’t sure of. You can then find an activity to help them learn the words they don’t know or help them look on Google for the definition.
Reading comprehension exercises are also a great way for kids to learn and remember new words. Having to match a word or sentence to a picture or answer a question about what they’ve just read helps them to retain what they’ve read.
We hope you enjoyed these suggestions and that they will assist you and your child in growing and improving their vocabulary and spelling skills in a fun, new way!
