If you were Italian, you might say to someone asking to borrow a possession, “Si chiama Pietro e torna indietro” or “Its name is Peter and it comes back.”
Reading that in English is for sure a head scratcher. But in Italian it’s a clever play on rhyming words and commonly known idiom.
My oldest struggles with language in general. She doesn’t remember new vocabulary easily, so as you can imagine, recalling the meaning of nonsensical figurative language is a big frustration. Lately I have been on the hunt for resources to help her identify and understand all these weird albeit common sayings.
Here are a few of my favorite things (all found on Amazon).
Scholastic has a fantastic book set called “Idiom Tales” that groups the sayings into short stories by topic: sports, food, clothing, weather etc. Having a strategy to approach idioms for me has been super helpful. These guides are meant for kids in grades 2-5, but I think you could use the illustrations to work with a younger child. Always helpful to me to find resources that aren’t too babyish.
We also have been reading Amelia Bedelia books. The original series has been around forever, or at least since I was a small child and read them myself. Poor Amelia doesn’t know idioms either and gets into a lot of silly situations. Seeing her mistakes helps understand why figurative language just shouldn’t be taken literally.
Lastly I picked up some matching flashcards from Super Duper publications. These have been my least favorite items since Josie can match the illustrations rather than read and deduce the meanings. I explain more in this youtube video linked below. You have to forgive me; I rarely make videos and can’t for the life of me ever remember how to hold my phone. But maybe it’ll be helpful anyway!
So in summary for big kids struggling with idioms, I love the Scholastic “Idiom Tales” books. For younger kids you can definitely read Amelia Bedelia together or work on some matching games or go fish with flashcards from Super Duper.
Would love to hear other recommendations too!
