Label your Kitchen and Your House – Learning Words at Home

You know what they say – learning often requires frequent affirmation and repetition.
I found a wonderful secret. We visited our friend during Christmas and her house was plastered with words. She has a 2 year old and she was constantly looking at words because everything in the house from the chair to the stairs and things in the garage and kitchen were labeled!


What better way to teach words and spelling to our little ones or even the slightly bigger ones. It provided us with a reminder on spelling too. As adults we often rely on the computer to correct our spelling.

Labeling stuff in the kitchen is a brilliant way to teach kids about things in the kitchen. You can go one step further by identifying and labeling kitchen things that are dangerous.



This is an easy way to teach kids words especially while cooking. To save time you don’t need to refer to books on teaching kids reading and spelling too much because the words are all around you. And it practically costs nothing – except for the paper (card board) and pen that you are using.

Labeling stuff can take a bit of effort but it is worth it because it saves us a lot of time afterward.

A Way with Words – Teach Words While Shopping and Cooking for Dinner

Kids learn words all the time and often it is hard to get them to say it right. It takes a lot of patience especially with smaller kids. My husband and I are constantly looking for ways to teach them proper grammar, saying and speaking right and politely - when they answer the phone, when they greet their friends and family, when they speak to us and others. We even have mini toastmaster’s sessions in our hall, just to teach them a bit of public speaking and putting words together correctly and clearly.

Books also provide a good guide to teaching kids words. We found some great books , not too expensive (less than USD15 some as low as just below USD4.00) just to get them to read and say the words as they read. It also helps with the teaching.

One method that we found was an absolute delight was through the whole cooking process – shopping and cooking. It also helps with managing our time. Between working, caring for the kids and household work, it can be a challenge finding time to teach them anything!

Decide on a menu for the meal or just a list of things you need to get from the market or supermarket.

For example
First Make a list – get your children to sit with and decide what you need to buy:
1. Loaf of Bread
2. Butter
3. Chicken Meat
4. Vegetables – carrots and cabbage
5. Bunch of flowers
6. Small vase
7. Dishwasher
8. Stationery for school
9. Tin opener

2. Start simply – don’t need to complicate it:

“Let's write a list of things we need from the market”
For younger kids, say the alphabet and show them what you have written. They would automatically start recognizing words.

Continue the process purposefully.

‘Do we need this or do we need that.’
The most important of all is to ensure that your kids are involved in the shopping process. Make sure that they hold the list – it works wonders to ensure that they are focused, them and a sense of accomplishment.

Remind them what a great job they did by complementing their efforts and responsibility in getting the shopping done and that you had not forgotten anything.