For Babies and Toddlers

Bouncy, Bouncy, Baby
Develop your baby's language skills and sense of rhythm by playing bouncing games. Sit in a comfortable chair with your baby on your lap facing you. Bounce your baby up and down while repeating a favorite nursery rhyme ("To Boston, To Boston") or a simple sentence ("Where is baby? Where is baby?" There he is!") in time to the beat. End by dipping your baby between your legs or lifting her up high ("And up she goes!").

Up the Stairs
Carry your baby up the stairs, singing the word "up" to the tune of an ascending scale ("up, up, up" instead of "do, re, mi"). Sing the word "down" in a descending scale on the way down. As your child's sense of humor develops, you can make him or her laugh by exaggerating the song like an opera singer at the top and bottom of the stairs.

Pictures of Me
Make or buy a small photo album with a soft cover to hold pictures of your baby and the people who love him or her. Label the pictures. Your child will love looking at it independently and reading it with you at story time.

For Preschoolers

A Tisket, A Tasket
Use a large laundry basket to help preschoolers explore initial-letter sounds. Choose a letter (start with consonants such as t, w, or s) and take your child on a hunt around the house to find objects starting with that letter, placing them in the basket as you go. The bigger the basket, the more fun the game — kids will love seeing a tea kettle, a top, kitchen tongs, and a stuffed tortoise jumbled together. Leave the items in the basket for a few days, and spend some time looking at them and saying their names with your child.

Silly Billy, Willy Nilly
Get your preschooler giggling by making up silly rhymes together of both real and nonsense words. Start the game by saying something simple like "The fat cat sat on the..." and then ask your child to fill in the blank. See how long a rhyming sentence you can make together.

For Early School-Age Children

Creative Collages
Stop throwing away all the catalogues and glossy junk mail. Save them and then help your kindergartner cut out familiar letters, words, and pictures and glue them to construction paper. Let your child decorate them with glitter, markers, stickers, or other art supplies, and display them prominently or tie multiple collages together to make a keepsake book.

Stop, Slow, School
While running errands, ask kids to tell you words that they see on signs. When you get home, write down the words. You can put word pairs on index cards to use in matching games or have kids write a story using the words.

Read to Me
Even before kids can read fluently, they can "read" the story in favorite books. Turn the tables at story time and have your child share an old favorite.

From the health and parenting
experts at KidsHealth.org.