Teaching English grammar to kids, especially when they are in no mood to learn, can be a very ‘tense’ situation (pun intended). However, it is quite normal for children to struggle with verb tenses while writing and speaking in English.

As a parent and a teacher, what you need to do is find fun ways of teaching verb tenses to your child while giving them a concrete understanding of the same. And to help you in this endeavour, here are our 11 best tips to work on English grammar tenses for kids...

A lady writing on a piece of paper with a little girl smiling

1. Proofreading and Correcting

It is difficult to get the grammar 100% right in the first go. Hence, you can ask your child to go through their own (or others) writing and ask them to correct tenses (or any other) mistakes should they find any. This will develop a habit of proofreading in kids, making them better writers.

2. Listing and Referencing Incorrectly Used Tenses

Make a list of verb tense examples that are most used incorrectly – in general as well as by your little learner. Use this as a reference and a guide when teaching verb tenses to kids to ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated again and again.

3. Identifying The Tense of a Sentence

One of the best examples of how to teach tenses in English is by reading a selection of sentences to the learner and then asking them to identify the tense of each of them.

You can include examples of past, present, as well as future tenses for this exercise.

4. Listing Commonly Used Verb Tenses

You can create a go-to verb tenses book for your kid’s reference which includes the most commonly used verb tenses.

For instance, simple present tense is the most commonly used verb tense in the English language, so maybe you could include more examples of the same followed by simple past tense.

5. Giving Multiple-choice Questions

Teaching verb tenses to kids can be made easier by giving them multiple-choice questions. You can use a sentence in the question and ask them to identify the tense. The options can include 3 to 4 verb tenses to choose from. Or you could ask them a 'fill in the blank' question and give them 4 options out of which one should be correct.

This will improve their capacity and aptitude to recognize the correct answer.

6. Maintaining a Learning Curve from Simple to Complex

Every person’s learning journey usually progresses from easy to difficult. So, do not pressure your child to learn complex verb tenses beyond their capability. Let them absorb things at their own pace. This will ensure that whatever they learn is to the maximum of their ability.

7. Playing Fun Tense Games and Activities

It is proven that children learn better while playing. So, include some fun tenses activities and games to make the learning session lively. Examples of such activities are quizzes, singing out loud, match-up LEGO bricks, telling a story from a picture, etc.

8. Writing One Sentence for Each Verb Tense

Give your kids specific verb tenses and then ask them to form a sentence for each one of them. For example, ‘John walks his dog every morning’, for simple present tense.

You can make this fun by filling a jar with chits of verb tenses and asking your kid to pick one.

9. Amending Incorrect Audio Sentences

It is often easier to point out errors in words spoken by others than in words spoken by ourselves. Use this to your advantage by having your child listen to examples of sentences with incorrect verb tenses and then asking them to identify and correct the errors.

10. Discussing the Importance of Correct Verb Tenses

Discuss the importance of English grammar tenses for kids in written and oral communication. You can also use examples of sentences with incorrect verb tenses and explain to the learners what sort of confusion can happen when the verb tenses are used improperly.

11. Practising Consistently

To get better at verb tenses, practising them daily is very important. You can slot a particular time in your little one’s schedule and ensure that they work on improving their tenses in that time.

While your child is trying hard to get their verb tenses right, encourage them by praising them every time they get a correct answer or when they solve a complex question accurately. This will help build self-confidence and keep the learning sessions attractive.

Meet the author:

Samidha Raj works as part of the content marketing team at Planet Spark, a platform that provides online classes to K8 learners on "New Age Skills" like, English Communication, Public Speaking, Grammar, Creative Writing, Debating, etc. She is passionate about empowering the youth by educating parents about the importance of 21st-century skills. In her free time, you can find her watching documentaries or animated movies and organizing game nights (board games are her thing)!