How to make a walk more interesting and how improve your child’s talking and vocabulary at the same time.

Your everyday environment is an excellent source of ideas for increasing your child’s vocabulary and language development. A walk in a familiar place can be made into a new and different experience by changing your perspective on it.

Talk about what you can see on your walk. Find books and poems which are inspired by the settings, theme and time of day. Then make a scrap book of pictures, photographs and ideas based on the walk. Ask you child to write their own stories and poems inspired by the walk. Find new words and keep a word list.

Set targets for each walk and try to beat it. Make a word list before the walk and try to find those things on the walk.

Walk in the fog and go for a very early morning walk when it is foggy. It’s great for telling spooky stories.

Go for bird watching, pet watching, cat spotting walk.

Go for a walk at different times of day. Go for a ‘midnight’ bat spotting walk in the dark, go for a bird watching or insect spotting walk early in the morning.

Collect craft items which you can use later for making things or starting a collection.

Have a ‘what’s needed here’ walk. For example the lawn needs cutting, garden needs weeding. Spot things which could be improved in the area.

Go on a ‘what’s right’ walk and a ‘what’s wrong’ walk.

Notice as many new and different things as you can. Go for a ‘never seen before walk’.

After a rainstorm go for a ‘puddle walk’. Take a stick or ruler to measure the depth of each puddle and splash about wearing wellington boots.

Look around town and give each building a score as you walk past for different features such as the design, color, or tidiness.

Make up life stories for the people who live in the houses you pass by and imagine who lived their.

Play ‘count the cats’ or ‘count the dogs’ and make up names for them. Make up a story about them.

Have an urban picnic. Walk a long way and when you feel like it, find a suitable place to enjoy a snack.

Take a map and explore the streets. Drive to a different part of town. ‘Get lost’ and use the map to help you back to the car.

Use your imagination and have fun!

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