 
Building Vocabulary at Home
Our use of vocabulary affects everything we do in speaking and reading. Children and taught new words in school and vocabulary is something built with exposure and repetition.
At home discussions about any topic is an effective way to improve your child’s vocabulary. Children pick up new words in conversation with parents. In the preschool years," says Shane Templeton, the foundation professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Nevada, Reno. "It's more than just reading--talk about what's going on in the book. Ask questions like, "Have you ever felt like that?" Get them to make connection with their own lives."
Here are two homemade games suggested by The National PTA that are easy to construct.
Make a die by cutting off the tops of two pint-size milk cartons. With the bottom side up, push one carton inside the other. On each side of the cube, glue new words for your child to learn. Roll the die, and help your child use the new word in a sentence.
To create an educational checkers game, write words on small pieces of paper and tape them to the black squares on a checkerboard. Each time your child lands on a black square, have them say the word. For more game suggestions, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.pta.org/"www.pta.org.
Creating your own word wall is a productive activity. Put a large piece of paper or corkboard up on a wall. Write words on squares of paper and attach them using tape or push pins. Words can be grouped in categories on the wall such as words starting with the same letter, or synonyms and antonyms. See who can come up with the most words that fit the categories.
Finally, speak with your child about what they have learned in school. On average reading scores are higher with students who discussed their studies at home than students who never discussed their studies at home. (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2000)
Encourage your student to read at least 20 minutes a night, 5 days a week and turn in their reading minutes to the teacher.
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