I Spy with my little eye… ideas for games to play when you are travelling

There are so many opportunities to develop the language which is at the root of early reading skills throughout the day. 

When you are travelling by car, bus, train or tram and you can see out of the windows, ask your child to point out letters from their name that they can see on shops and other buildings as you are travelling along.  

Games of I spy when travelling are enjoyable. If you say “I spy with my little eye, your letter from your name,” or letters from other names your child knows, they will enjoy looking for the letters. 

Another game you could play is matching rhyming words - take it in turns to add another to the list as you go along. 

Your child will be thinking about the sounds of the words and experimenting. Encourage nonsense words, this helps your child to find rhyming sounds. Building this knowledge of sounds and rhymes helps to build words when reading independently later. 

Of course, these games work just as well if you are not travelling. Inside your home, a bag of shopping is full of letters to be discovered while you are unpacking it together. Your child is discovering print in their wider and home environments.