Some years ago, I saw a meme that showed a dad saying something like, “Want your kids to read more? Shut off the volume on the TV and turn on closed captioning. Boom. Now they’re reading.”
I thought it was funny—and mildly ingenious. After all, subtitles naturally draw the eye. Closed captioning will never replace books, of course, and it certainly won’t turn a TV-bingeing toddler into a reader. (Realistically, most families wouldn’t put up with sound-off shows or movies for long, either.) But having subtitles on along with the sound actually can be an easy way to expose kids to more print and help them absorb the spelling of trickier words. It won’t make excessive TV okay, but it can add a little learning twist to watching time.
This small tweak to family TV time got me thinking about how simple tricks can sometimes succeed in weaving parental priorities—for more enriching, educational, wholesome activities—into the tech-hijacked whirlwind of modern family life.
As another example, when I wanted to play board games with my growing kids, they just weren’t into it … until they discovered phone-app versions of the same games, but with the prompts displayed on-screen instead of on cards out of a box. It was a win-win compromise that was vastly preferable to forcing my version on them or giving on game night altogether.
So, in that vein, I’ve curated seven fun hacks for adding a little more reading, writing, spelling, or vocabulary practice into your family life. They range from the seriously simple to the simply goofy. They won’t replace good, old-fashioned teaching and studying, but I hope they’ll give you some inspiration for fun, lighthearted ways to keep mixing learning into your busy family life with growing kids.
Screen-Free or Screen-Optional Literacy Learning Hacks
Learn the lyrics. When you play music or sing songs together, give your child the lyrics to read along. They’ll probably love learning the words to some favorite songs, and you’ll be happy knowing they’re absorbing spelling and vocabulary. My kids learned a lot of vocabulary (and practiced a lot of sound awareness) memorizing Hamilton and Les Miserable lyrics, followed later by the words to countless popular songs.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to give them the lyrics on-screen—for starters, just printing out the words to a few songs or picking up a songbook will do the trick.
Bonus: Turn this activity into a Friday night party by doing karaoke.
Narrate micro-moments. When kids are small, narrating what you do and see with them helps them develop language and vocabulary. Keep it up as they get older, but turn it into a joke that facilitates introducing more complicated vocabulary or playing with sounds or homophones (words that sound the same but mean different things.)
For example, say, “I’m whisking vigorously so the sauce emulsifies” or “I’m going to pare a pair of pears” as you make dinner.
Write notes. Put up a whiteboard, chalkboard, or notepad in a convenient spot and leave messages for each other—or just post sticky notes. Leave goofy messages to get your child writing and reading back.
You can also write information about upcoming plans, reminders, chore lists, and so on. Anything that gets in more reading and writing is serving a double purpose!
Bonus: Take your note-writing up a notch by providing dry-erase markers and leaving messages for each other on a mirror or window. It wipes off, and writing somewhere they’re not “supposed” to feels exciting to kids. It may even get them writing longer stories or practicing spelling.
Act out skits together or put on family shows. Kids love making up plays or inventing shows. These can be performed live, or you can record scenes and then edit them into a video with special effects, credits, and even fun touches like a blooper reel at the end. (The bloopers are always the most popular part in my house.)
To sneak in literacy, write a script together first, and then have all the “actors” read out their parts.
Screen-Friendly Literacy Learning Hacks
Many parents of older kids, myself included, would advise keeping kids off screens in general—and smartphones and personal screens, especially—as much as possible for as long as possible. But whenever your child does have access to screens, it’s worth using them to introduce more language practice and other educational fun.
Turn on closed captioning. In line with the meme mentioned above, why not try using subtitles when your child watches TV or movies? My kids couldn’t resist reading the captions once they were there, even though we kept the sound on, too.
You can make it a game to notice when the captions are wrong or different than what the voices are saying. Once your child is fairly comfortable reading, you can even experiment with watching shows in other languages, so they have to read the subtitles!
Make texting part of literacy. My bilingual American-French kids learn most of their French spelling from texting with relatives. When your child starts having access to messaging, keep in mind that reading and writing texts is still reading and writing. Use proper spelling and slightly challenging vocabulary in your family messages, so your child can learn from your example.
They’ll still respond to you in a series of baffling acronyms, no doubt, but that’s fine. Your texts will reinforce the spelling of words and also model how to message more correctly when they need to communicate with teachers or other adults.
Share articles and word play in a family chat. Send interesting, age-appropriate articles that your child may enjoy. After all, reading newspaper or magazine articles is a valuable way to build reading fluency, get exposed to more vocabulary, and learn about all kinds of interesting, inspiring, and educational topics.
You can also share word play like riddles, puns, or other language-based jokes in family texts. If your child is interested, you could even start a “word of the week” chat where you share new vocabulary or spelling words. Just be sure to keep it light and fun.
Invent Your Own Literacy Learning Fun
You can probably think of other fun, simple, or simply goofy ways to mix word play, reading, writing, spelling, and vocabulary into your families routines and downtime.
When possible, encourage a little language learning in your child’s regular playtime and activities, too. Literacy-friendly boardgames, video games, and apps abound. If your child is playing games on a phone or tablet, try downloading some word games for them. There are a plethora of spelling games and other reading and writing apps for kids at different ages and stages.
Once you start viewing your family’s life and activities through a literacy-learning lens, you’ll likely spot all kinds of ways to insert some extra enrichment and educational twists. Have fun and get as playful and silly as you like!
