In the Car

If there are two adults, read aloud a favourite story. You can also find lots of stories to watch on our website under the French Reading and English tabs.

Each player races to find the letter on a sign or other environmental print that is visible from the car. After they call out a letter and explain where it is, move onto the next letter in the alphabet, continuing in this way until you've reached the end of the alphabet.

A twist on the standard game is to look for objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. 

You can also work on letter recognition by finding the letters on license plates.

One player chooses something he/she sees out the window. Each player takes turns naming something that rhymes. See how far you can go until you run out of words.

Practice rhyming is the goal, so don't worry if they make up words. As long as they rhyme, nonsense words are acceptable in this game.

Choose a home, apartment building or other building that you drive by as the setting for the story. Have kids think about who lives there, what they are like, and what problems may arise in their lives.

This game helps develop your child's ability to segment words into syllables.

"Let's clap this word into parts."

Choose any word for your child to clap into syllables. Make sure you choose words with different numbers of syllables to keep it interesting: dri-ving, light, um-brel-la.

It's okay if they don't clap every word correctly.

This game allows your child to practice identifying the first sound of a word.

Teach your child to repeat the word a few times at the beginning, while listening for the first sound. I do mean SOUND, not letter name.

For example, Dad starts with a /d/ sound.

Choose things you can see out the window of your car and ask, "What sound does road start with?"

This game is to practice matching beginning sounds with corresponding words.

You think of a word that your child has to guess. As a clue, you give him the first sound of that word. For this game, it's easiest to play using categories to narrow down the options, otherwise it's way too hard!

For example, "I'm thinking of a [colour] that starts with /p/." Again say the SOUND, not the letter name.

Other good categories are: Fruit, clothing, names in our family, animals, things at the beach, things in this car, etc.

To play the Robot Game, choose a simple word, such as cat, and say each SOUND /c//a//t/ in a robot voice. The children try to guess the word, then they get their own turn to play robot.

Kids first choose a letter sound, then complete a sentence using words beginning with that sound: For example, "Bertie Bear is beautiful" or "Harry Hippo has horrible hiccups." This game can be played by all ages, and it is a fun way to encourage older children to think of elaborate adjectives.