Teaching conversation skills at an early age

I have some older videos of my son on my phone. In the first video, he is telling me about his fantasy car in a game he invented when he was three. We would go back and forth explaining all the great features of our made-up cars (ability to throw ice cream cones at people, rocket boosters, transform into a boat, change colors at every traffic light). I loved hearing what he was coming up with to top my car. In the second video, we are having a Q&A session about the activity he is doing. He explains that he is making paper from a science kit he received from his Aunt and Uncle.

I keep both of these videos on my phone for several reasons:

• They instantly remind me of how much my son has grown
• They cheer me up whenever I watch them
• They are great examples of early conversations I would have with my son

Conversation is big in my family. We talk on the way home from school, we talk at the dinner table and we try to make sure we are distraction-free whenever someone wants our attention. I learn so much about my family through our conversations.

I never realized that I was teaching my son how to have conversations. As parents, we are used to telling our children things (sit there, don't touch that, say please). But, it is when we teach them how to converse with us that they get the biggest benefit. And that benefit lasts throughout their lives.

Of course, my son is still young, so he is still learning - learning how to change the subject, and the amount of detail to include and to use more nouns than pronouns so we can follow along with his side of the story. But, it is amazing to shear his thoughts.

What topics do your children like to talk about with you? Tell me in the comments.