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Activity: Look Mum, No Vowels!

Materials:
None.
Time:
30 minutes
Skills:
Vowels

By the guys at todayisfun.com

If your child doesn't know what vowels are, tell them: A, E, I, O, U, and (that's right), sometimes Y. For "phase 1" of this activity, you guys just might want to talk about the vowels each day for a week. Once your child gets the concept . . . it's time to get rid of those special letters. No more vowels for you!

In our house, we like to imagine a world with no vowels. We start with simple words, such as dog and cat. First, I ask my boys where the vowels are in each of those words, and once each has been identified, we spell the words without vowels: dog and cat become dg and ct. The most fun part of this exercise is trying to pronounce the words without vowels. (I think dog and cat sound like dug and kit, both sounding kind of clipped and pronounced with a lot of emphasis. I also find that I clench my teeth when uttering these vowel-less words.)

Then we start talking about family members, and what would happen to their names without vowels. Daddy and Mummy's names are especially difficult to pronounce without vowels, but we try anyway. (Three impassioned D sounds and three long Mmmm's, respectively.) We talk about our friend Paul, whose name is manageable and still sounds relatively Paul-like, but then we discuss Alicia and Ana, whose names sound nothing like they do with all of their vowels.

In our house, things generally break down from there, and the children want to talk about every word without its proper allotment of vowels. It really is dctnl and fn, but sometimes a bit xhstng! (educational, fun, exhausting!)

 

"Today is Fun" provides free, fun and educational childrens games and activities each day. The site is the product of two dads who are constantly trying to think up ways to entertain the children in their families. Check out: www.todayisfun.com