One of the easiest—and funniest—ways grandparents can help build literacy skills is by getting things wrong on purpose.

Yes, on purpose.

I tried this recently while visiting my grandkids, and they had a blast. I deliberately called things by the wrong name, mixed up familiar words, and acted completely confident about my ridiculous answers. They caught me every time—and were absolutely delighted to be the ones correcting Carma.

Call the dog a cat. Skip a word in a favorite story. Point to a cow and confidently say, “Look at that beautiful horse!”

You're standing at the stove making pancakes, chattering away to your grandbaby strapped in the high chair about the batter, the bubbles, the smell of it all, and you catch yourself wondering, does any of this actually do anything?

Yes. It really does.

Here's the idea in plain terms: think of words like food for a growing brain. The more good "language nutrition" a child gets in those first few years- real talk, real back-and-forth, real attention. The stronger their vocabulary, thinking skills, and eventually their reading will be.

The first time my grandson asked me how to spell a word, I answered so fast you would have thought I was competing in a spelling bee. I thought I was helping by correcting every mistake.

If he wrote “frend” instead of “friend,” I pointed out the missing letter. If he wrote “sed” instead of “said,” I quickly showed him the correct spelling.

My intentions were good, but soon I noticed a problem. Instead of trying a word independently, he began stopping and asking, “Is this right?” Sometimes he waited for me to spell the entire word before he wrote anything.

My help was making him less confident.

Three- and four-year-olds are curious, imaginative, energetic, and eager to understand the world around them. At this age, children are developing longer attention spans, expanding their vocabularies, learning to manage emotions, and beginning to recognize letters, numbers, patterns, and sounds.