Teaching Your Kids About Family?

Devaki Bhujang Gajare, Founder and Chief Book Lover at Little Readers’   Nook tells us how to make family time fun for the little ones!

Don’t miss the free printable linked to the article to make the activity fun!

To a child, family is at the core of its being, almost its entire world. Family is where children feel safe and important. The United Nations recognises the importance of family by celebrating 15th May as the International Day of Families. As parents, let’s do our bit to teach our kids to honour and appreciate this vital social unit.

Rather than the sledgehammer approach of conventional family themed books that talk about how great mom or dad is, we’ve chosen Make Way for Ducklings for our family themed literacy unit, an award-winning picture book about a warm and loving family unit… of ducks!

Anxious duck parents in search of a good home to raise their family in, the merry chaos of the Boston Public Gardens and eight baby ducklings named Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack crossing a road helped along by a kind traffic policeman – you cannot go wrong with this unique book pick for kids!

A sneak peek into the book is available here, but we strongly recommend you buy a copy:

BEFORE READING

• Talk to children about family. What constitutes a family? Who do we live with? Why is family important?
• What do our parents do to keep us comfortable and safe?

BRING THE STORY TO LIFE

• Print and cut the duck family and policeman picture cards.
• Use the picture cards during the story reading to enhance your story experience.
• Use the picture cards post the story reading to recall important parts of the story and retell them.
• Add dialogues and finer details to personalise the story as you retell it.

DISCUSS TO EMPATHISE AFTER READING

• Why were Mr. and Mrs. Mallard so concerned about finding the perfect place to raise their family?
• What difficulties did they face and how did they overcome them?
• How are duck parents similar to or different from human parents?

LEARN VOCABULARY

• Find these words in the story – enormous, waddle and cozy. What do they mean?
• Now let’s make a personal connection to these words to remember them forever.
• Which is the most enormous thing you have ever seen?
• Can you waddle like a duck?
• Snuggle under a cozy quilt at bedtime!
• Can you find more such WOW words in the story ? What do they mean?

LEARN GEOGRAPHY

• Locate Boston on a map of the world.
• Visit a public garden in your own city. How far away is it? How many streets did you cross to reach there?

EXPLORE WORD FAMILIES

• Just as people and animals have families, words have families too!
• Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack are all rhyming words belonging to the family of words ending in ‘ack’.
• Many of these words are nonsensical. Can you think of another real word from this family? (Stack)
• Can you think of more such families of words ? (Den-hen-pen-men-ten, bat-cat-mat-rat-sat…)
• Rearrange the eight duckling picture cards in alphabetical order.
• Observe the D is for Duck picture card. Dolphin, desk, deer, disk, dice, duck, dog and dinosaur are all words belonging to the ‘starts with D’ family.
• Can you think of another word from this family?
• Can you think of more such families of words ? (Starts with F for Family)
• A third type of word family could be a set of related words such as duck, pond, duckling, quack, hatch and so

Can you extend this family and think of more such families?

KNOW YOUR OWN FAMILY

• Print the family tree. Work together as a family to discuss your own family and complete your family tree.

Liked what you just read? Explore more at Little Readers’ Nook. Good questions make us think. Good stories help us understand. Little Readers’ Nook sessions leverage both to build the 21st century Cs – critical and creative thinking, communication and collaboration.

This article is part of a collaboration with The Little Reader’s Nook.

Shape engaged readers, creative thinkers and expressive communicators, beat digital distractions and sow lessons for life! 

Also read: Spreading The Love This Valentine’s Day With Books!

Explore the entire collection of articles: Early Learning & Brain Development

#toddlerlearning