Parts of a word

Here's another word game you can play, similar to What shall we name? that I wrote about yesterday. Start easy, then build up from there.

Come up with a common word part or word root, like -berry. Then, ask your child to help you come up with all the words you can think of that include that part:

• strawberry
• blueberry
• gooseberry
• raspberry
  

Don't worry if your kid starts making up words too (pickleberry, horseberry, schmoopberry), that's part of the fun of it (as long as it's not all made up). You can laugh, and call them silly if you like. As long as they're having fun with words, the game is a success.

This morning, the Painter (3;11) said: look at my eye. It's red. So, I picked up on his comment.

Me: Do you know what a red-eye is?
Painter: no.
Me: It's a flight that you take late at night. And do you know what a private eye is?
Painter: no.
Me: It's an investigator. Someone you hire to find out things for you. And a bull's-eye?
Painter: What?
Me: It's a target. Something you try to hit.

You can also vary it in many ways. Rather than a root word like berry or eye, come up with all the words that start with "s":

• silly
• soapy
• Simon
• stop
  

or that express the past:

• talked
• spoke
• went
• passed

This is a great opportunity for a teaching moment. You can explain what the past is, and that talked and spoke are synonyms. You can demonstrate irregular verbs went not goed... isn't that funny, we don't say goed, we say went.

You can trade off naming a word, then you or your child has to come up with synonyms or antonyms. Or you can list off verb pairs (present/past):

• go/went
• stop/stopped
• shop/shopped
• drive/drove

There's no end to what you can come up with together.