teaching kids their address

Teaching Kids Their Address And Other Details

teaching kids their address

Recently someone asked our youngest child what his name was,  he responded with his first name.  They then asked him what his other name was and he quickly responded with the nickname his siblings call him.

Pressed further for what his full name was, it was evident he didn’t know his surname!  So over the holidays we will undertake a few simple activities to help him identify with his full name, know his address and phone number.

Name and address poster

I did this with the other children, so am not sure why I forgot to do it with the little one!  We will write up and print out an A4 sign which includes his name, address and phone number.  It will then be stuck on the fridge and when he is the kitchen keeping me company as I cook (which is often) I will refer to it and get him to look and point at the different words on the sign.

Putting the address into context

It is easy enough to have a child rote learn their address, but do they really understand what it means?  On a walk, we will take out our address sign and point out what all this information means:

  • We will look at the number on the letterbox and see how it matches the number on our sign.
  • We will read the street sign and see how the letters are the same as we have on our piece of paper.
  • Walking about as we see the name of our suburb, we will point that out and match it up to our sign too.

When we return home, we will then look at a map and show how our suburb sits in the state of Victoria and the country of Australia.

Writing a letter to ourselves

We are going away for awhile in the holidays, so while we are away, I will take the opportunity to send ourselves a postcard.  I will have a copy of our sign so he can see me transferring the address details to the postcard and explain how all this information lets the postman know where to take our postcard.  He will then know it will make its way from the top of our state of Victoria to the bottom using the address and will be waiting for us when we get home.

Calling dad

Mr I will not be with us for all of our time away, so we can use this opportunity to call our home phone number to show him how these specific numbers mean he can call our house.  He can press the buttons (which he will love) and tell his dad all about the fun he is having on holidays.

Using his full name

Kids pick up things very quickly, so it will be just a matter of me using his full name at different points through out the week, pointing it out on the sign and the postcard when he gets to read it and he will hopefully begin to identify with his full name.

What ways do you teach your kids their name and address?