Teaching with everyday objects- The Bus

My younger boy has this fascination with buses. Ever since he was 9mths old he would excitedly point to a bus and shout “ there!!” whenever a bus passes by. Fast forward to today at 23mths he is still as excited about buses and would exclaim, “ Mummy, bus over there,” as he points to it or “ Big white bus, there!”. His vocabulary has gradually expanded and am speaking in simple short sentences now.

On our recent trip to Hong Kong he was extremely excited as he manage to ride on the bus daily as we commute from one place to another. I took the opportunity to incorporate some teachable moments during the time we spend commuting by bus.

At nearly two years old I find my toddler more receptive to the stimulus he receives from the environment. I also feel that it is the best time to massively build up his vocabulary and start indirectly teaching him grammar rules in speech.

Here are some ways which you can make traveling by bus interesting and educational.

1)Singing songs like “The wheels on the bus”
2)Pointing out places / items. Eg: What is over there? ( Traffic light, bus stop, big bus, small bus, car, van, lorry, taxi, motorbike etc)
3)Counting the number of buses that pass by. I normally start counting 1-10 in English then we switch to Mandarin, Cantonese or Japanese.
4)Describe the colour of the other buses that pass by – white bus, black bus, green bus etc
5)Describe the actions/ movements – bus is moving, stopped, open the doors/close the doors,
wipers of the bus swishing up and down etc
6)Describe direction of the other vehicles relative to the bus. Eg: There's a car on the right/ left, in front or behind.

My son is normally so preoccupied pointing out the other buses on the road and telling me that the bus has stopped or started moving from the bus stop that he didn't realize that we have spend nearly an hour traveling by bus.

How do your kids react when they are traveling by bus?

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Dominique Goh, Mom to two active boys, elementary school educator, freelance writer, blog consultant and budding website designer. Catch me at my parenting blog- From Dominique's Desk (www.dominiquegoh.com) If you are interested in a budget holiday vacation in Philippines Best Budget Travel Cebu - www.bestbudgettravelcebu.com Best Budget Travel Cagayan- www.bestbudgettravelcagayan.com

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