5 Ways You Can Support Language Arts Development
5 ways you can support language arts development for your child at home.
You are your child’s first and most important teacher. Language Arts covers the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Here are 5 ways you can step into your role as first teacher to help your child develop these skills.
5 Ways You Can Support Language Arts Development
Parents support language arts development when they…
- Read daily from a variety of literature genres. Including rereading favorite books.
- Sing a wide variety of songs.
- Engage in conversations with your child.
- Model correct grammar, articulation, and vocabulary.
- Provide opportunities to memorize a variety of rhymes, including chants, poems, and nursery rhymes.
Read daily from a variety of literature genres. Including favorite books.
My best tip for accomplishing this is to utilize the library. We tend to have specific types of books we like best, and we tend to mostly buy these types of books. By using the library, you can expose your child to so many types of books- whether it’s your favorite or not.
Sing a wide variety of songs.
Even if you don’t feel musically talented (hello, it’s me!), singing songs with your children is so powerful. Songs can teach academic lessons such as rhyming or counting. They can teach steps for accomplishing a task (such as a hand washing song). Some songs teach important family principles. And sometimes songs just bring some fun, lighthearted, silliness into the normalcy of day to day life. So try singing something today. Your little ones don’t mind if you have musical talent or not, they love you for you and are excited about the life you are creating with them.
Engage in and encourage pretend play.
Engaging in play might look like:
- Pretending to drive a car in a race.
- Cheering your champion bull rider on at his rodeo. (From the comfort of your couch)
- Eating warm cookies at the play table while enjoying a tea party.
- Cleaning the house as the momma fox.
- Putting your phone down and just watching your kids play while you cuddle in a chair.
Being a part of your child’s play can look so many ways. It is up to you to push yourself to be as involved as you can, while also having grace for yourself when maybe you are showing up in what feels like a low-key way.
Engage in conversations with your child
Intentionally have conversations that go deeper than “oh yeah?” “uh huh” “that’s so cool” and yes or no questions. Practice actively listening to what your child is telling you about and getting curious about it. Model what engaging conversations feel like.
Model correct grammar, articulation, and vocabulary.
Your example is your most powerful tool as a parent. Which is really awesome, because you have full control over what you do and how you work on yourself. Whereas you have no guarantee of how your child will react to any of your interactions, strategies, or plans.
Provide opportunities to memorize a variety of rhymes, including chants, poems, and nursery rhymes.
The number one way to encourage this is repetition. Read, sing, or recite poems and rhymes many times. Even better if you are able to memorize it yourself, so you can model reciting it.
By incorporating these 5 simple strategies into your everyday life, you will be creating an incredibly rich learning environment. In preschool aged children, this is what homeschool language arts class looks like.
Check out my early childhood 101 course to take a deep dive into teaching your child in the everyday moments of life.