We learn language as children by listening to the conversations around us, and to what people are saying to us specifically. Because this is an automatic process at the beginning, children are often not sure why they should deliberately learn new words. After all, if they made it to the age of 7 just by picking up words from what they heard and read, why should they study and memorize a list of uninteresting vocabulary words in school? You can help children develop a love of learning new words by making them understand the benefits of a good vocabulary, and by making the process fun.

Give them something tangible. Have children use the words they’re learning to create a short story, and then help them illustrate the story with clip art or images cut from magazines, or with hand-drawn pictures if they enjoy working with crayons or colored pencils. Keep a binder for these stories so that you end up with a “book” that the children have written by themselves, and that you can use to read out loud.

Help them see connections. Learning is most effective when there are many methods involved, because multiple learning styles create stronger memories and associations. For example, you can create lists of words like volcano, igneous, sediment, and erosion that all relate to the topic “geology” and then go on a field trip to a nearby river or stream to illustrate sediments and erosion, or show a documentary about volcanoes and igneous rock. Give kids ice cubes and glasses of water along with the word iceberg so that they can see for themselves how ice floats in water.

Teach cooperation as well as vocabulary. If you’re a teacher, or lead a school group, or have more than one child, you can take advantage of this by having children work together and help each other. The best way to learn something is to teach someone else about it, so have older children help younger ones with words, and have students correct each others’ tests. Remember to emphasize that learning is a process, so a wrong answer isn’t something to make fun of or be ashamed about, but just another chance to focus and get it right.