A Fun Way to Introduce Compound Words

Anyone who knows my son knows that he is obsessed with all-things trains! Needless to say, our home is filled with all sorts of train books and, of course, trains.  Last year, we checked out this great book from the library, All Aboard Overnight: A Book of Compound Words by Betsy Maestro. Not only is this a great book for train fans, but it has a secret bonus built right in: it teaches the concept of compound words! What I love about books is that they are a fun way to teach things without formally teaching in a structured way.

All Aboard Overnight has great features:

• All of the compound words are in bold print, so those words stand out, making them easy to point out to young readers (and vice versa, it's easier for young readers to point them out to someone else)
• Contains "hidden" compound words in the illustrations that the readers can also point to or identify.  This offers another way to engage a child's mind to discover compound words through pictures!  
• Introduces extensive train-related/transportation/travelling vocabulary words

So, no matter how old your child is, there are several levels of enjoyment in this book, several ways to access and teach the concept of compound words.

Now, when my son reads his other books at home, he'll stop mid-sentence and say, "Look, Mom, 'snowman' is a compound word! It's 'snow' and 'man' put together to make the word, 'snowman.'"  Almost through "reading osmosis," he just soaked up the concept of compound words, all thanks to Betsy Maestro's All Aboard Overnight, which combined his favorite things: trains and reading!  Awesome book!


If you are interested, All Aboard Overnight: A Book of Compound Words by Betsy Maestro can be purchased through the following links (but you can also check it out at your local library):

http://www.amazon.com/All-Aboard-Overnight-Compound-Words/dp/0395511208

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/All-Aboard-Overnight/Betsy-Maestro/e/9780395511206