Early Learning

Narrate your day. Ask older children to tell you what they did today before they go to bed. With babies and toddlers, talk about what you are doing as you do it. The more you speak, the more words they hear and the larger their vocabulary becomes. Identifying everyday objects, animals, people, weather, colors, feelings, etc., helps children learn words and concepts.

Activity: I spy
Look out the window together and name everything you see. Can you and your child name things in more than one language?

Activity: Sensory 
Introduce words such as “hot, cold, wet, soft, sticky” through tactile activities such as water, sand, dough, or preparing meals together.

Activity: Rhyme time
Rhymes are a great way for children to begin to make sense of sounds, language patterns, and numbers.

Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock!
The clock struck one (hold up one finger) 
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck two (hold up two fingers) 
The mouse said “Boo!” 
Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck three (hold up three fingers) 
The mouse said “whee!”
Hickory Dickory Dock! 
 

Point out signs on the side of the road, point to and read labels on items in the store, and share lots of fun books! Reading aloud, signing, sharing pictures or tactile books helps your child become comfortable with books.

Activity: Snuggle and share
Look at picture books together and let your child notice the shapes, colors, seasons, letters, numbers, animals, and people in the stories. Share books that include children from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and experiences.

Activity: Repeat, repeat, repeat
Read favorite stories over again. Children build language skills through repetition and are comforted by reading familiar favorites.

Activity: Sing a story
Sing along to picture book versions of favorite songs such as “The Wheels on the Bus”, “Little White Duck”, and “Sol Solecito.”
 

Sing or say your favorite nursery rhyme with your child. Try making up a song with your preschooler! Singing, clapping, rhyming, and signing are fun ways to learn language skills.

Activity: Learn names
Heckedy Peckedy

All: “Heckedy Peckedy Bumblebee won’t you share your name with me?”
Child: says their name
All: repeat name
All: “That’s a very nice name!”

Activity: Learn numbers
Here is a Beehive

Here is a beehive (make a fist)
Where are the bees?
Hiding inside where nobody sees
Now we count them come out of the hive
One, two, three, four, five (release one finger at a time from the fist/hive)

…BUZZ-ZZZ (wiggle fingers)

Activity: Learn animal sounds
When cows get up in the morning

When cows get up in the morning they always say "Good Day!"
When cows get up in the morning they always say "Good Day!"
They say: “Moo! Moo!” That's how they say "Good Day"
They say, “Moo! Moo!” That's how they say "Good Day"

Repeat with other animals