Summer is the perfect time to build vocabulary: There are no school assignments. No reason to balk at reading. Nothing future-defining at stake. Except for vocabulary-building, so that your child can read and write the materials required as they advance in school and their career.
Concept Words
We’re big on this mode of vocabulary-building. We start with the word for a concept the kids already know, then ask them how to express degrees of that concept. For instance: HOT. They typically say, “Very hot; very, very hot; a little bit hot …” That’s fine, but we know there are words that mean very hot, a little bit hot, etc. More than that, many pieces of writing use those synonyms rather than writing very, very hot, etc. It matters because if a book talks about scalding water and your child has no idea what scalding means, they are left to miss the impact of the sentence or hope for context clues.
Make the Summer Count
It’s summer. For most of us, dedicating 10 minutes a day during a carpool, or sitting at the beach, or eating pizza together is not that big a stretch. (At least it’s not as big a stretch as during the school year.)
Rain-Related
Rain Storm – When you say there is a rain storm, most people visualize very bad weather. But there are other degrees of a storm that lead up to and come after the actual storm. Kids need to have the words they need to communicate what they have in mind, but they don’t need to memorize the exact definition of each term if they can visualize it as being more or less than a rain storm.
Drizzle – It’s raining a little. So rather than say it’s hardly raining, you can say it’s a drizzle.
Sun shower – It’s raining only it’s not because they sun is shining. You can say it’s a sun shower — one of our favorite
Driving rain – Those drops are coming and they’re coming down hard. Why? Because it is a hard or driving rain.
Sprinkle – So, it didn’t rain long. And it didn’t rain hard. It was a sprinkle of rain.
Hurricane – This is so much more than a rain storm. There is howling wind, driving rain, and dark skies — all at once.
Thunder storm – It’s not as bad as a hurricand, but it’s more than a rain storm because thunder is rumbling and the sky is streaked with lightning.
Downpour – You’re out for a walk. It looks like it will rain. Then, the rain comes down so fast that puddles form right away. Why? Because it’s a downpour.
Your Turn
Okay. the words we’ve used to describe the concept of rain storm are:
drizzle; sun shower; driving rain; sprinkle; hurricane; thunder storm; downpour; and rain storm.
Help your child to put them in order from most to least intense. Doing this helps them to describe more and less of the concept without using words like very; very, very; more; a little less; a lot less; etc.
When you’re done, drop your answer in the comments!