1. Tell your children you will say a word, and they need to respond with a word back that rhymes.
Use simple words at first – car, boat, mat, date, etc. Try to hit all of the short and long vowel sounds.
2. After the first “round” tell them what a great job they did. Then, on the next round, they’ll need to give you two words that rhyme with the word you say. Have them add a word each round, or ask them to see how many rhyming words they can give you for each word. You can even reward them. For instance: “If you can come up with more than five rhyming words for my word, we’ll play Monopoly (or another game) when we get home.”
Variations:
1. Let your child come up with the first word, and you come up with the rhyming words.
2. Make up silly rhyming lines. You go first, then let them try.
See if they can think of words that rhyme with their name. If there aren’t many – or any – have them recite words that start with the first letter of their first name.
