Language Development

Language is something we use every single day. Even if you are sitting at home by yourself you are using language with all the thoughts that are running through your head. One of the earliest things we want our children to learn is language. We long for those first days when our little one says "Mama". We dance with joy when he says, "Dada." But do we ever stop to think about where our language comes from? While searching around the web this week I found a site that teaches language skills. I found this great site that plays games to teach where our language comes from using Latin matching games. I love playing the matching games. They make me feel a little less "illiterate". Okay, I know that these are games for elementary aged kids, but they still make me feel good about myself.

A lot of the language skills that our kids are learning are based on the Latin Roots of the words that we use every day. I don't think most of us even think about that. I know I don't. I am trying to teach Dakota a bit of Spanish. I think it's important for him to know that language of his heritage. The more we dig into Spanish, the more I realize the similarity of the English words to the Spanish words and to the Latin root words. Flores - Flower - Flos. They are all very similar words.

I hope that learning where the root words in our language come from will help my son learn Spanish as well as improving his skills in English.