e’ type of words in their story, like ‘peg-leg’, ‘patch’ etc. Children tend to like stories as they can let their imaginations go wild and they can be creative in their thinking.
Creativity is my second recommendation and is also very good, if your child likes making things or is artistic, getting them to be creative with paper, cardboard, pens and paint etc, is a great way for them to use and build on the vocabulary they have learnt.
You can ask them to make a house for example out of old shoe boxes and cardboard roles, then get them to explain what things are in the house, or ask them to make something like a chest of draws for the bedroom, or even get them to label the things that they have made.
Another good way is by using a ‘word web’ or an ‘association bubble’ to get children or students to remember new words, for example:
If you get them to give you an example sentence for each bubble, they also practice the sentence formation with the associated word.
In conclusion, making learning enjoyable for the learner is more productive even if it seems a little off track. Students of all ages, especially children will remember more when they are having fun, so make any English tuition enjoyable for them. I quite often make jokes and act a bit silly in class, this works; even ‘Grammar time’ can be fun ;-).
Homework from their main stream school might be boring, one good thing that works for me and my son, is to do something fun with them if they complete their homework, could be something as simple as going out for an ice-cream. FUN is key when teaching children!
Neil Waters (Coordinator LuckyKids)