Building Your Child's Vocabularyby Tristi Pinkston | More from this Blogger 23 Sep 2006 08:55 AM I remember a day about four years ago when my then three-year-old son came up to me and said, "I think that animal is a nocturnals." I looked at him and blinked. "Do you know what nocturnal means?" I asked, not blatantly correcting his pronunciation. "They sleep when it's daytime," he told me, a very serious expression on his face. He got this information from watching the television show "Stanley." As a homeschooling mother, I do like to teach my children words and concepts, but I wouldn't have ordinarily thought to teach him about nocturnal animals at the age of three. Because he saw it on a TV show, he not only learned the word, learned the definition, understood what kinds of animals fall into that category, where they live and what they eat, all in one fell swoop. This opened the door right up for me to come along and show him where Australia is on the globe and talk about how hot it is there and what other kinds of animals live there. Because of "Cyber Chase", my children learned the word "factor" before I taught it to them, and it wasn't unfamiliar when time came for us to learn about it. Through "It's a Big, Big World," they learned about "molting." There are countless other shows that have increased the vocabulary my children carry with them in their day-to-day communications, and they aid and assist me as I strive to expand their horizons through speech. On the other hand, though, television can teach your children vocabulary words you would just as soon they not know. This is why I'm such a huge advocate of making sure that you know what your children are watching. Even a show where people are calling each other names in a joking fashion can be a detrimental show for your child - young children don't often understand the difference between teasing words and hurtful words, and they have a hard time understanding sarcasm. I encourage you as parents to seek out television shows that will increase your child's vocabulary. Their verbal communication skills are crucial for navigating the world around them and they can learn a great deal from uplifting, positive television programming. Related Blogs: Learn more about Tristi Pinkston  I've been a blogger for Families.com since August of 2006. Relevantmedia tags User Comments  Megan Bayliss (3586) 23 Sep 2006 01:41 PMTristi we have always played a game called "A word a week". I would pick a difficult/unusual/scientic word and we would practice it all week - repeating it, defining it, placing it into sentences, etc. My kids are fairly good wordsmiths and their general knowledge has always rated high in assessments. Wouldn't it be good if there was an emailed dictionary word of the day for kids. Any IT gurus out there - a kids dictionary word of the day is something I would have subscribed to.  Tristi Pinkston (10839) 23 Sep 2006 10:24 PMThat would be a fabulous idea, Megan. Why don't you do it? You can use words that have worked well for your family. I say go for it. :) Community Tags communication, education Discuss this article
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