Boost your kid’s vocabulary by “narrating” drive time
Posted on November 21st, 2007 in Parenting
Keep talking to those babies! From Sara:
One of those inadvertent hacks is how we’ve taught Miss J. her over/under/though prepositions. Our daily and weekly drives include a number of highway flyovers that just fascinated her, so we started saying "going under", "going over", "we’re through" etc. as we drove along/over/under bridges, flyovers and exits. It made the drive more fun, and was an easy way to teach these concepts.
Sara’s hack reminds me of a sweet memory from my son’s early toddlerhood. We had just finished a long flight together, with me narrating everything, from the passengers around us on the plane, to the food, scenery, and even the sound of the captain’s voice overhead. I’m sure I irritated my seatmates to no end with my perky commentary, but I figured it was better than a screaming kid. After we landed, I sat back, exhausted, and an elderly passed by us as she got off the plane. She paused long enough to tell me what a good mother I was to teach my son about the world with such excitement. "He’ll learn to love the world as you do." It was such a warm moment for me, to have a compliment drop out of the sky like that when I was feeling so worn out.
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