Can anyone recommend a dictionary (english-english) to DD who loves reading book herself? (I try to show her how to use mine but it's too big for her).

I sell a children's picture dictionary through Learning Ladder. That type of thing would be good, especially if the pictures and text line up easily together.

Sticker picture dictionaries are also often cheap and have a bit more entertainment value. You can usually find them on sale in the cheapie shops or bookshops/ online.

HTH

We have the DK Dictionary for children - I think it is from Learning Ladder.

It has a big font & lots of pictures. As well as the meaning of each word it also uses each word in a sentence. It has additional stuff too like a map of the world, abbreviations, measurements etc.

Whilst it might be more expensive than other childrens dictionaries, I think they will use it for years and get the value from it.

I got DD the Oxford Junior Illustrated Dictionary and was really pleased with it. But it depends how well she is reading. If she's reading well then this is a better start than a picture dictionary.

However it's only really lasted just over two years, most words she needs to look up now aren't in it. But it's really easy to use and I'm lucky to have DS to pass it on to.

I'm still looking for the next stage. I bought a combined primary dictinary thesaurus that had a great font size but the first week she used it it only had three words she wanted to look up (out of 15!!).

Oxford Junior Illustrated is probably more suited to 6-9 years. It has quite small writing, and a 4 year old may struggle with it a bit. But I suppose it depends on how well she reads. I bought this one when my DS1 was 6 and it's still being used. And he is a strong reader for his age. He would never have managed it at 4 though.

The Oxford My First Picture Dictionary would be perfect though.

Thanks so much.

DD loves to read. She's read many of the usborne first reading and she now starts to read usborne young reading. When she was 3, I bought Childrens Illustrated Thesaurus (parragon). It was good but now, many of the words she asked me were not there, e.g., the words she asked me this morning: "stern", "ball" (not a sphere, but party).

I've to choose a dictionary for her wisely. If I get her a big/thick/difficult one, or a fancy/pictures/easy one, either will discourage her to use a dictionary.

Would an electronic one be a good idea?

I bought the Dorling Kindersley Dictionary for my 5 year old - it was $8 second hand. It doesn't have stern, but has both meanings for "ball".

Mind you, my DS usually asks for words that aren't in there, and is quite happy to read the definitions out of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (the 2-volume set)!

Maybe take her to the library or bookshop and see what appeals to her. I think we had the DK picture dictionary and also a Dr Seuss one which was quite fun.