Challenge Your Child to a Game of "Expensive Words

Here’s a fun way to motivate your child to practice addition (and spelling).

1. Write out an alphabet code, giving each letter of the alphabet a number. For instance, A=1, B=2, Z=26.
   
2. Ask your child to see how many “expensive” words he can find around the house and in the grocery store.
   
3. Ask him to show his addition for each example; for the word “cereal,” it would look like: C=3  E=5  R=18  E=5  A=1  L=12
   
4. Also, where needed, show him how to group similar letters and numbers for easier adding.
   
5. Your child will discover that longer words aren’t necessarily the most expensive ones; words that have more letters appearing in the second half of the alphabet are.
   
6. Add to the fun by giving hints of places to look for high-cost words.
   
7. For a twist, see if your child can find a variety of inexpensive words.