A seven-year-old hears “my brother is a pig at dinner” and quietly checks the table for a snout. That small moment is the whole problem with teaching metaphors for kids. Children are literal thinkers first, so a figure of speech has to be shown, not announced. This guide is for the adult doing the showing: what to say, what to skip, and which games actually work.
If you only want a ready-made list of lines to read aloud, the site already has 35 metaphors for kids. What follows is the teaching side.
What a Metaphor Is, in Words a Child Keeps
Skip “figure of speech” and “comparison without like or as” at first. Those are grown-up labels. Try this instead: a metaphor says one thing IS another thing, even though it isn’t, because they share one feature.
“The classroom was a zoo” works because of the noise and the running, not because anyone brought in a zebra. Ask the child, “What is the same?” That question is the real lesson. Everything else is decoration.
Start with a game of “Is it true?”
Say “My bed is a cloud.” Ask, “Is it really a cloud?” The answer is no. Then ask, “So why would someone say that?” Soft, fluffy, nice to fall into. You have just taught the idea without a single definition.
A Gentle Order for Teaching Metaphors for Kids
Don’t rush. I’ve seen parents jump straight to poetry and lose the child by the second line. This order is slower and it sticks.
- Things they can touch. “The snow is a blanket.” “His hands were ice.” Physical comparisons come easiest.
- Feelings as objects. “Her anger was a volcano.” Now the comparison is about something you cannot see.
- Metaphors hiding in plain sight. “Time is running out.” “We’re in a tight spot.” Kids use these already and have no idea.
- Simile next to metaphor. Only now compare “busy as a bee” with “she was a busy bee.” Our page on similes for kindergarten works well for this step.
Five Activities That Take Ten Minutes
Weather report for my mood
Each child finishes the sentence “Today my mood is a ___.” Rain, a traffic jam, a bowl of warm soup. Then they explain it in one sentence. The explaining matters more than the answer. A shy child who says “a closed door” has told you something real.
Draw the literal, then the meant
Give a metaphor: “Dad is a bear in the morning.” One drawing shows the silly literal bear in a kitchen. The second shows what it means, a grumpy dad with coffee. Kids laugh at the first and learn from the second.
Sort the cards
Write ten sentences on slips, some literal (“The road was wet”) and some metaphorical (“The road was a river”). Children sort them into two piles. Expect arguments. Good ones.
Metaphor swap
Take a boring sentence, “The test was hard”, and have everyone rewrite it with a metaphor. “The test was a mountain with no path.” Read them aloud and vote for the one that makes you see the most.
Hunt at home
For one evening, listen for metaphors in songs, shows and your own talk. Parents lose this game a lot. We say “I’m drowning in laundry” without noticing.
Mistakes Adults Make
The first is explaining too much. If you have to unpack a metaphor for ten minutes, it was the wrong one for that child. Swap it for something closer to their world. A kid who plays football will get “the goalie was a wall” instantly.
Another one is correcting the child’s weird comparison. “My sister is a toothbrush” sounds like nonsense. Ask why. Sometimes the answer is “she’s always in my mouth, nagging”, and the child has just done something clever. Sometimes it is nonsense. Both are fine at that age.
Then there is the idiom mix-up. “Raining cats and dogs” is an idiom, not a fresh metaphor, and children are often given both under one label. It is not a disaster, but if you want clean teaching, our guide to using idioms in homeschool lessons covers that side.
Which Age Gets What
Rough guide only, because children vary a lot. Many five- and six-year-olds can enjoy simple “is” statements about objects, though they may still take idioms literally. Around eight or nine, most can explain why a comparison fits. By ten or eleven they can handle a poem and notice when a metaphor carries on for several lines. For a closer look at what to expect in each year, see examples of metaphors for kids by grade level.
Reading aloud helps at every age. Picture books are full of metaphors, and a quick pause (“why did the author call the moon a lantern?”) costs you ten seconds.
Why Bother at This Age?
Because metaphors are how children make sense of things they have no words for yet. A four-year-old who says “my tummy is angry” is not being cute by accident. He is reaching for a comparison because “hungry” and “nervous” haven’t been sorted out yet. When you name what he did (“that was a metaphor, a good one”), you give him a tool he already half owns. Reading comprehension later leans on it, too, since stories and textbooks lean on figurative language far more than most adults realise.
A Tip for Parents and Teachers
Use metaphors yourself, on purpose, in front of the child, and let them catch you. “This traffic is a parking lot.” Wait. If they grin, you are done for the day. My own rule is to keep the stakes low: no grades for a metaphor, only curiosity. The Academy of American Poets glossary entry on metaphor is a decent adult-level refresher before you start. If you teach writing, our list of metaphors for teaching offers some images to borrow for yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age can children understand metaphors?
Simple, concrete ones such as “the snow is a blanket” often land in the early primary years. Abstract ones, like “time is a thief”, usually take a few more years. There’s no single switch. Keep trying and watch their faces.
What is the easiest metaphor to start with?
Pick something the child touches every day: “The sun is a giant orange ball”, “Her room is a jungle.” If you can point at it, it is easy.
Should I teach similes or metaphors first?
Many teachers start with similes because “like” and “as” give children a handle. Then they drop the handle and say the thing outright. Either order works if the examples are fun.
How can I tell if my child really gets it?
Ask them to explain the shared feature. If they say “both are soft”, they understand. If they say “because it is a cloud”, try again with a closer example.
