Summer activities
to support your child’s language!
Hi parents!
Finally summer has come! Here come weeks of heat, icecreams and… school holidays!
Although children will be super excited of not having to wake up at dawn for the next few, a thousand questions arise for parents, and one of the most important is: “How can I support my child’s language as they do at school?”
Here I am to the rescue!
Today I will tell you about some very fun activities that can be used in the summer (especially at the beach – but with small variations you can use them wherever you are on holiday).
I have chosen activities that can be used by children of all ages, so I have also included some variations to make them easier (to use with younger children) or more difficult (to use with older children).
Are you ready? Here they are:
# 1 Shell Hunt
One of the funniest activities of the summer is looking for the most beautiful and particular shells.
I remember when I was a child, I used to put them all in the bucket and take them home as a souvenir of a wonderful day at the beach.
But it is possible to transform this activity to allow you to support your child’s receptive and expressive language while having fun!
This is how:
Ask your child to look for shells with certain characteristics, for example:
– “Find a big smooth shell”
– “Find a small shell”
– “Find a shell with a hole”
Make it easier:
To make this game easier, try to give one clue at a time. You can also search for shells together with your child.
Another strategy useful to use this game with younger children is to have them choose between two shells, for example “Which is the big one?”
Make it harder:
Older children can also enjoy this game, especially if it is presented in the form of a challenge with other peers (for example, who finds more shells that match the description)
To make it a little more difficult and interesting, you can insert more elements in the instructions, for example “Find a large, white and wrinkled shell”, or give two or three instructions at a time “Find one large and brown and one small and white”
Make it more fun:
To make each game as fun as possible, we must play it ourselves with our children.
In this way, even with the shell hunt the fun will be guaranteed!
Let’s make the game more fun by:
Taking turns, once you give an instruction and your child searches, and once they give you an instruction you search!
Do you want to adapt it to a lake or a mountain destination? Then look for stones instead of shells!
# 2 I Spy
This game is great for supporting attention and language.
Here’s how to use it in the summer holidays version:
Describe an object you see on the beach… your child has to find it as quickly as possible.
For example:
– “I spy, with my little eye… something orange in color”
– “I spy… Something you spread to protect yourself from the sun”
Make it easier:
To make it easier and to be able to use it with younger children, keep the instruction simple, use words your child knows, for example “I spy … a bucket”.
To teach new words, direct your gaze to the object in question and point at it with your finger while you name it.
Make it harder:
To make it more suitable for older children, put more elements in the clues, for example “I spy, with my little eye … something you use to dig in the sand”
Or, have them look for two or three elements at a time “I spy … a round and red toy and a toy that is used to build castles”
Make it more fun:
To make the game more fun:
Take turns, once you give an instruction and your child searches, and once they give you an instruction you search!
# 3 Simon Says
This is one of the most adaptable games in the world, and can be used at all ages, with the whole family!
One person in turn takes the role of “Simon”, he has to communicate to everyone the actions they have to perform, saying for example “Simon says … make three jumps!”
The other players must do what “Simon” says, but only if they hear the two words “Simon says…” before an instruction.
If, on the other hand, “Simon” does not pronounce those words and directly says the action to be done, no one will have to carry it out: whoever does it will be eliminated.
Make it easier:
To make it easier, keep the instructions and actions to be performed simple, and demonstrate the action if your child doesn’t understand the instruction.
Make it harder:
To make it more difficult, include more elements in the instructions, for example “Simon says… stand on one foot”.
Or two things at a time “Simon says… go get water with the bucket and pour it on grandma’s feet”
Make it more fun:
To make it more fun, introduce it as a challenge! Children need to focus on the speaker, if they hear “Simon says” they have to perform the action, otherwise they have to stand still.
Play around with this by alternating the times you say it and the times you don’t say it!
I hope you enjoyed finding out games that can be used during the holidays!
Should you want to find out more, you can contact me here
