Lesson 1
Materials:
Magazine pictures
Glue
Solid colored sheet of paper
Encourage your child to choose a magazine picture and paste it to a solid sheet of paper. Ask the child to create a story based on this picture alone. What
does he think is happening in the picture? Why are certain things arranged as
they are? Where are people going?
Lesson 2
Materials:
Any book of your child’s choosing
Read through your child’s favorite book once. Ask your child
what would happen if you change the ending. Encourage him to retell the story
with the alternate ending.
Lesson 3
Materials:
Family photos
Ask your child to look through a stack of family photos with you. Allow
him to choose any picture that strikes his fancy. Encourage him to retell what
happened during the time the picture was taken. If the child cannot remember
ask him to make something up based on the clues in the picture alone.
Lesson 4
Materials:
Any book of your child’s
choosing
Dress up clothes
Read through your child’s favorite book once. Ask your child
what it would be like to actually BE his favorite character. Encourage him to
dress up like that character and pretend to be him. You might remind him of the
character’s accent or subtle nuances of the character’s personality.
Lesson 5
Materials:
Tape recorder
Sit in a chair facing your child. Set up a tape recorder on a table
near you. Tell your child that you are going to interview him. Ask your child questions and record them. Question can range
from his favorite color to what he would like to do tomorrow to what he wants to be when he grows up. After you are finished interviewing him ask if he would like to interview you.
Lesson 6
Materials:
Paper
Markers, pencil or crayons
Talk to your child about what a super hero is. Read books about various
kinds of super heroes such as Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman etc. Encourage
your child to make up his own super hero. Ask him to draw his super hero and
explain a bit about what kind of hero he is. Be sure to copy down his dictation
of the hero.
Lesson 7
Materials:
2 stuffed animals
Ask your child to gather two of his favorite stuffed animals. Help
him to create a story and dialog between the two toys. Are the toys friends or
enemies? Do they like to spend time together?
Doing what?
Lesson 8
Materials:
None
Begin by creating a story to tell your child. When you get to a turning
point in the story as your child to take over and finish the story.
Lesson 9
Materials:
Handmade or store bought puppets
Chair or table
Blanket
Provide your child with a few puppets. If you don’t have any
help him make them with paper bags, old socks, paper plates and Popsicle sticks or any other items you may have on hand. Throw a blanket over a chair or table at your child’s height and encourage him
to have a puppet show. If he’s not sure what to do show him how to make
the puppets talk to one another. Don’t expect him to properly move the
mouth of the puppet; the idea is to encourage the dialog. If he’s stumped
offer to put on a puppet show for him.
Lesson 10
Materials:
Paper
Pencil, crayons, markers etc.
Encourage your child to create his own book with pictures. Help him
to put one picture on each page to tell the story in chronological order. Ask
him if he would like you to write the story down on each page as he dictates it to you.
Lesson 11
Materials:
None
Ask your child, “What would you do if a dinosaur walked into the backyard today?” Allow him to explain just what he would do while you write down his dictation. If he is unsure exactly what he would do try jumpstarting his imagination by telling a short story about
what YOU would do.
Lesson 12
Materials:
Video camera
Help your child become a news reporter. Set up a video camera and
let him announce the weather or what you will have for dinner. Let him go with
this as long as he desires or until you run out of blank tapes. If he is unsure
as to what a news reporter does you might allow him to watch a carefully selected portion of a live news program or you may
simply demonstrate for him.
Lesson 13
Materials:
None
Talk to your child about different holidays and explain how some holidays originated. Help your child to create his own holiday and come up with special traditions for it. Afterwards be sure to actually celebrate it in exactly the way he suggested… if possible of course.
Lesson 14
Materials:
None
Introduce your child to other languages through CD’s, videos, books and/or live speakers. Explain that people speak lots of different languages and are able to say the same things in many different
ways. Encourage him to create new words for familiar items. Help him to create his own language!
Lesson 15
Materials:
None
Go to the grocery store with your child. Pretend that you (the parent)
are from another place. Ask your child to explain the things around you as you
walk through the store. Let your child know that when explaining things to a
foreigner we often need to use simple terms and lots of explanation. Point to
things, such as fruit and vegetable scales or the cash register and ask questions such as, “What is that?” “What
is it used for?” Try to ask lots of questions in order to solicit a detailed
picture of the item.
Lesson 16
Materials:
None
Ask your child to pretend that he lives on the moon. Encourage him
to explain the kinds of things a visitor might see there. What do people do for
fun? What kinds of food do you eat? How
do you travel on the moon? What language do these people speak? If he is so inclined he might even draw a picture of his new civilization.
Lesson 17
Materials:
Magazines
Scissors
Glue
Paper
Help your child use scissors to cut out pictures from the magazines. Ask
him to arrange and paste them on the paper. Ask him to create a story involving
all of these pictures on the paper. Remember that each picture must fit into
the story somewhere… even if it doesn’t make sense to you.
Lesson 18
Materials:
Joke books
Read several jokes from a joke book to your child. Ask him if he would
like to make up his own jokes. If he chooses not to make up his own maybe he
will enjoy memorizing some simple ones such as, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” You might even tape record his stand up act to show the family later.
Lesson 19
Materials:
None
Ask your child, “How does lightening happen?” Afterwards,
ask him if he would like to look it up to see if he was correct.
Lesson 20
Materials:
None
Ask your child to close his eyes. Ask him what he sees. Encourage him to describe it in as much detail as possible. What
do you see, hear, feel, taste, smell etc? Are there other people or animals around?
Lesson 21
Materials:
An unfamiliar book
Read your child a book he’s never heard before. At several intervals
throughout the story encourage him to guess what will happen next.
Lesson 22
Materials:
A book of your child’s choosing
Read a familiar book to your child several times. Now ask him to retell
the story from another character’s point of view. For instance, retell
Cinderella from the sister’s point of view or The Three Little Pigs from the Wolf’s point of view. Help him to understand why the story may sound different depending on who is telling it.
Lesson 23
Materials:
Tape recorder
Various items that will make noise
Ask your child to tell a story on tape and use various items from around the house to make sound affects. It isn’t important that the sound affects be realistic, it’s important
that it is fun and exciting.
Lesson 24
Materials:
Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Read through the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Ask
your child to think up a new room to add to the factory. What kind of candy would
be made there? What kind of machine would make it? When you have finished reading the story ask him what he things happened after the story ended.
Lesson 25
Materials:
None
Sing a familiar song with your child. Help him to come up with new
words to fit the beat. Try to make the words as silly as possible. You might even try to include your child’s name in the new song.
Lesson 26
Materials:
A pet
Encourage your child to talk to your pet. Ask him what the pet is
saying back to him. Try to engage him in a conversation where he and the pet
are “talking” to one another.
Lesson 27
Materials:
Tape recorder
Ask your child to tell a story on tape. If he is interested he may
wish to illustrate it and allow you to write down the words to make a book on tape combination. This would make a wonderful gift for a grandparent’s birthday.
Lesson 28
Materials:
None
Ask your child to create a story about how an elephant got his long trunk or how a giraffe got its long neck.
Lesson 29
Materials:
Pencil
Paper
Write a story on paper and create a blank space in each sentence. Read
the story to your child and ask him to fill in the blanks. Don’t be concerned
if the word isn’t grammatically correct and don’t try to lecture about parts of speech. Simply allow him to add any word he thinks will fit and then read the silly story back to him.
Lesson 30
Materials:
Computer
Printer paper
If your child already knows the alphabet and how to spell some words but does not have the dexterity to write encourage
him to use the computer to write a story. He might even want to add in clip art
in place of hand-drawn pictures.
Lesson 31
Materials:
None
Talk to your child about bears and hibernation. Explain that bears
sleep through the winter by storing up enough food to keep them warm. You might
even want to read the book, “Blueberries for Sal.” Ask your child
to imagine that a bear has decided to stay awake all winter. What did the bear
do? How did he find food? Was he
lonely? Etc.
Lesson 32
Materials:
None
As an offshoot of lesson 32 you may again read “Blueberries for Sal” and then ask your child what he
would do if he had to hibernate in the winter. What items would he take
with him? Where would he like to hibernate?
Lesson 33
Materials:
Previous knowledge of different animals
Talk to your child about different animals. If possible allow him
to visit a zoo, pet show or farm to see many animals up close. Now ask your child
if he could be any animal, which would he like to be and why. Encourage him to
make up a story about himself as that animal. What sort of adventures would he
go on? Where would he live? What
would he eat?
Lesson 34
Materials:
None
Ask your child to pretend he is walking in the woods when suddenly he came upon a tree house. What would he do? What does the tree house look like? Is there anything or anyone in the tree house?
Who do you think built it? Why is it here?
Lesson 35
Materials:
Any movie of your child’s choosing
Allow your child to watch any movie that captures his interest, with parental approval of course. When the movie is over ask questions about the characters and the plot.
Then ask him to tell the story of what happens after the movie… a sequel.
Lesson 36
Materials:
Various materials that he is familiar with
Show your child an ordinary item that he is familiar with. Ask him
to come up with new ways to use it. For instance, hand him a comb and say, “What
else could we do with this?”
Lesson 37
Materials:
An item that your child has never seen before
Show your child an item that he has never seen before. The item should
look interesting but its use should not be easily deduced. Ask him questions
like, “What do you think this object is? and “What do you think it is used for?” If you wish you may tell him what it is and what it is used for after he guesses.
Lesson 38
Materials:
None
Start a series of never ending questions and see how far your child will go with it. The dialog might look like this.
Adult: What would you do if you were all alone on a desert island?
Child: I would play all day.
Adult: But what would you do for food?
Child: I would cook it.
Adult: But what would you cook, you didn’t bring any food with
you?
Child: I would eat berries.
Adult: But what if there were no berries?
Child: I would eat fish from the water.
Adult: How would you catch the fish?
Child: A fishing pole.
Adult: What fishing pole? You
didn’t bring anything with you.
Child: I would make one.
Adult: Out of what?
Child: A stick and some string.
Adult: Where would you get the string?
Child: It was in my pocket.
Adult: What would you use for bait?
Child: Worms.
Adult: Where did you get the worms?
Child: The dirt.
Adult: How would you get the worms out of the dirt?
Child: Dig.
Adult: What would you dig with?
And this goes on and on until one of you gets tired or you run out of questions and answers. This activity really gets the imagination flowing. It also
helps with problem solving skills.
“Why”
Questions
- Why is the sky blue?
- Why is the grass green?
- Why do birds sometimes fly in a V formation?
- Why do pennies sink and feathers float?
- Why do great big airplanes look so tiny up in the sky?
- Why do the leaves change colors in the fall?
- Why do bears sleep in the winter?
- Why do people have 2 legs, dogs have 4 legs and octopi have 8 legs?
- Why don’t ducks get wet in the water?
- Why do pigs like the mud
“How”
Questions
- How do the clouds stay in the sky?
- How do birds fly without falling?
- How do fish breathe under water?
- How does the light switch turn on the light bulb?
- How does the radio work?
- How long does it take a bird to fly south for the winter?
- How do balloons float in the sky when you let them go?
- How is rain made?
- How do bees make honey?
- How does a tree know whether it is an apple tree or a pear tree?
“What”
and “What if” Questions
- What would you do if you were trapped on a space shuttle?
- What if dinosaurs still roamed the earth?
- What if cars had never been invented?
- What if we could visit the moon on vacation?
- What if we lived when George Washington lived?
- What happens to water when it runs out of the tub?
- What would happen if we could get inside of the television or computer?
- What is snow made from?
- What happens to the sun when it goes down? What happens to the moon when it goes down?
- What if the earth was flat like a map instead of round like a globe?