Yesterday, July 19th was the anniversary of the finding of the ancient Rosetta Stone and that inspires some summer and kindergarten readiness fun and learning. The stone had the same message written in 3 different ancient languages, but the world could only read 1. It was more than 2 decades before the mystery of how to read the others 2 was solved by a young man who had a passion for languages.
Language, no matter which one, is an immense challenge for a child. A fairly recent study found that children hear millions of words each year. Before school starts children have heard from about 10 million to more than 40 million words. If only words were pennies, kids would be millionaires. But in a way, their brains already are. Each word a child hears is another deposit into a brain bank.
For some fun and learning activities today, can you and your child play with words? You can: 
- tell stories and read books
- sing songs and say nursery rhymes
- find words that end the same (rhyme) like wing, sing, ring, king,
- find words that start the same like pants, pear, pink, purple, pat, and punch, well the kind to drink
- have a puppet show and more.
Kids can also have fun with pen and paper, and practice what they know about writing. Can you imagine the entire world looking at squiggles, lines, and shapes, knowing there was a message and not being able to read it? Children might feel the same. Here are some activity ideas for letters: 
- look at some stories with only a few words per page. Some books have a picture of an object and the word “picture” underneath.
- go for a walk and see what letters there are on signs and buildings
- practice writing the names of people in the family
- draw some letters in sand, with chalk on the sidewalk, or even in chocolate pudding on a big plate
- roll some in playdough
These are just a few ideas for plays-of-the-day that kids might enjoy. Which ones will your kids try?