Teaching Baby New Vocabulary

[Krista G]

Besides just learning how to read, babies are capable of learning all sorts of things from birth to age 5.  It is so much fun to see a little person not only using big words but understanding them.  When I first taught my children to read we would use common everyday words. After awhile, we needed to add some new words to keep things interesting.  I just love teaching them big words and uncommon words.  I found our an easy way to teach my children new vocabulary words was to choose some words that we use all the time and then look for synonyms for those words.  That made it so easy to remember what the words meant, instead of trying to master completely new words and new meanings.

I chose some words like tired, kiss, hungry and delicious.  I took and index card and wrote the word delicious on one side.  I flipped it over and listed some synonyms such as delectable, savory, ambrosial, and tasty.  I told the children the new words and told them that instead of always saying the meal is delicious we would use these instead.  It is just precious to see a two year old tell you that the meal was savory.  By teaching words in this way, you can increase your baby's vocabulary and understanding of words easily and rapidly.

When it was time for bed the children were no longer tired, they were tuckered out and bushed.

I also taught them that when they wanted to speak to me privately or alone that they needed to talk to me tete a tete.  Learning new vocabulary is just a game and it is fun.  I congratulate the children on their choices of new words.

I haven't done this for sometime with my little ones but the other day my oldest was playing school with my 2 year old.  She is learning the different bones in the body in health currently and was teaching my 2 year old the names of the muscles and the bones.  For several days she kept waving her fingers at me and saying, "Phalanges."  At first I didn't know what she was saying.  You know how 2 year old talk can sometimes be.  My 13 year old came in and showed off her students new knowledge of her body parts.  She could properly identify her phalanges, deltoids, triceps, biceps, abdominals and her gluteus maximus.  It reminded me of how much fun it is to teach little children. They are such eager and wonderful students as long as we make it fun for them.


See more articles like this on my blog at www.teachingbabytoread.com

[nhockaday]

That's a great idea. I used to use a lot of big words when I was little. I could definitely learn some more too!

[mother of faith]

The 'phalanges' is so funny. i can just see my 2 year old shaking his fingers and saying that. Good job! and ofcourse gluteus maximus is a good one to use escpecially in public, instead of others I have heard in public. We ourselves have a word box, and here they learn Biblical words, and names, and common words to, but mostly are fun words like you have done. We  have just now got into this ourselves, so sometimes it is so funny.t The way my 2 year old says motorcycle, he comes out like motodo, and bicyle comes out bikado. Sometimes he says it perfect so I think he says it just to make us laugh, and then he laughs in a weird way. Always a comedian around here.

[kizudo]

When I was teaching kgtn I'd always try to bring "adult" words into the classroom.  They thought they were being so sneaky by using these big words.  I remember one fall I got a thank you note from a parent with a story attached.  Apparently, they were outside in the heat and as the mom was reaching for a drink from their cooler she said "Boy, it sure is hot out here." and her 4 year old son emphatically replied "I completely concur!" 

[Krista G]

That is great!  How adorable.

When my baby sister was 3 years old she was sitting at the table eating.  She casually said, "I presume I'm done."  It cracked me up and we still don't know where she learned that.  Kids are way too cute:)

[ZaJa]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing Krista! Enjoyed reading your blog too. Been learning a lot from it too.

[kizudo]

So...this isn't a "big" word but I thought it was funny.  For the last few days on LR the term "old man" has come up as have other people words.  Today, I flicked on the tv which is so very rare in our home that my 18 mo. son stopped dead in his tracks thinking that it was time for "learning" as he calls it...anyway, Dr. Phil was on the channel that came up and he emphatically pointed, shouting "OLD MAN!  OLD MAN!"  I'm sure Dr.Phil would love that!

[Krista G]

That is what my young ones used to call Santa Claus.  We lived in an isolated area and they hadn't seen him before.  We took a trip to the US and they kept calling Santa "old Man".

He is right, Dr. Phil is an old man.

[Krista G]

One of the mommy's that use our Monki See DVD's wrote me and said that her daughter has learned some interesting things from our DVD's.  She said that her daughter is always talking about elbow pads.  She didn't realize it at first but when teaching the word elbow we show a child putting on her elbow pads.

By speaking to them, reading to them and watching television kids learned the funniest things.

[kizudo]

As I wrote to one of my new friends on this forum, I am beginning to rue the day I taught my child the word "problem".  It started with me innocently asking in response to his crying or whining "What's the problem?" or "Do you have a problem?"  Unfortunately, he now knows that "pwoblem" will get him attention so, lately the mantra coming from his room at bedtime is "pwoblem, pwoblem, pwoblem, pwoblem, pwoblem..."  You get the idea.  Over and over and over I hear this word in his pathetic little baby boy voice...  It was cute the first few times but now...oh no...not now...it is far beyond cute!

[nhockaday]

So...this isn't a "big" word but I thought it was funny.  For the last few days on LR the term "old man" has come up as have other people words.  Today, I flicked on the tv which is so very rare in our home that my 18 mo. son stopped dead in his tracks thinking that it was time for "learning" as he calls it...anyway, Dr. Phil was on the channel that came up and he emphatically pointed, shouting "OLD MAN!  OLD MAN!"  I'm sure Dr.Phil would love that!

Ha Ha!   

[Krista G]

Maybe it is time to teach him a synonym for problem. 

[Tanikit]

My husband taught my daughter (age 2) the word "sustenance" as a way to ask for breastmilk from Mummy as "nummies" was getting boring and wasn't even a proper word. She couldn't even pronounce it at the time, but she can use it now
We also had an agreement that when she could say "Nunitari" (the name of my husbands old cat) and "gynaecologist" then we could have another baby - needless to say she can say them and we have still not started trying (for reasons other than that we don't want to - we both do want to)
Recently we also started teaching her the less common words to describe body parts and she's picked them up very fast - we play a game where we "steal" a certain body part - this evening without me saying anything besides "I am stealing your heel" she added "No, I can't walk," which means she knows exactly what we are on about.
They are amazing at this age.

[Mary M]

interesting, thanks for sharing

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