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Play games like Scrabble, Lexicon, word games like Hangman
and Anagrams, and do crossword puzzles together. Make up
a quiz game with one of the really cheap quiz books that
are now available.
Play ‘Categories’. The basic idea is to have a
list of categories like animal, plant, city, country etc
and then choose a letter of the alphabet at random. Each
member of the family has the same list and tries to think
of an example for each category beginning with that letter.
Read, read and read. Encourage your child to experiment
with a mixture of types of literature.
Have a dictionary at breakfast time and pick an unfamiliar
word and see who can create the best sentence containing
the word.
At least once a month, ask your child to explain a topic
they have learned at school.
Play Consequences. Someone starts a story and then every
member adds one sentence at a time in turn.
Pick out a news story a day from the paper and summarise
it for her.
At least once a month, encourage him to write a story or
a poem. You can get a CD-ROM called Story Book Weaver for
just £10 which lets him create background pictures
for his story and bring in sound effects.
Write a family song or limeric — or if you are really
ambitious an epic poem!
Ask her opinion on a current topic.
Discuss the characters in a TV film or video — why
they did what they did, what we learned about their characters,
etc.
Enjoy a joke book together, puns and tongue twisters.
Deliberately foster descriptive visual language when you
are making up stories together — "the powerful
car screeched to a halt, with smoking tyres." "His
azure blue eyes sparkled with pleasure as he reflected on
the compliment."
Play a game in the car where you take an everyday activity
like shopping at the supermarket and have to describe it
as if it was a scene from a thrilling film. Exaggerate everything
and use over-the-top descriptions.
Encourage her to argue her point of view in a reasoned way.
Keep asking questions like "Why exactly?" or "How
exactly?" to make her clear up woolly thinking.
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