Books are a fantastic way to help your toddler learn about language related to time

What you need 

• A familiar storybook 

What to do 

1. Share a story with your child. 
2. On some of the pages, talk about what your child can see happening in the illustrations. 
3. If they tell you what they can see, give them loads of praise and say, “Brilliant, the goat and the chicken are on the farm now.” 
4. Before moving along in the story, find out whether they can remember what happens next. If you know the chicken leaves the farm, you might say, “I wonder whether the chicken stays on the farm?”  
5. Give your child time to think about the story, if they remember that the chicken leaves, say something like, “That’s right, later on the chicken jumps in the car with the sheep.” 

Good to know 

See you later, Alligator by Sally Hopgood is a hilarious tale of a tortoise, who bids farewell to all his friends, saying goodbye in many ways! You can encourage your child to think about who tortoise might meet next, and remember how they said goodbye to people that met earlier.