How to Teach Your Kid Spanish
Fun Games to Reinforce your Child's Spanish Speaking Skills
Nov 3, 2008
Learning a new language can be daunting to anyone. This is why, when presenting a new language to your child, it's important to keep the learning environment fun and easy going. Below are some ideas to provide this opportunity with you and your child.
Spanish Audio Reinforcement
One way to reinforce your child's learning experience with another language is to make an audiotape or CD. Using a tape recorder, or using your PC's sound recorder with microphone (to burn to CD), record what you want to reinforce with your child. For instance, say the alphabet in Spanish or colors, shapes, nouns, etc. in English and then in Spanish, giving enough time between each word/letter for your child to repeat.
To add a visual aid to this, have flash cards available. For whatever letters or words you end up recording, you can make or purchase flash cards to correspond. When your child plays back the recording, hold up the flash cards in sync to what is being said. Now he has both a visual and auditory sense of his new language.
Spanish File Folder Games
To prepare the folder, follow the examples in these File Folder Games. Your child's interest will easily be drawn to learning Spanish with these new twists.
Using clip art (a good free clip art site is Microsoft Office Online - no pop up adds and a search function), print a page of 5-10 pictures you want to reinforce with your child such as cat, dog, car, pencil, etc. Then, using your word processor, or by hand with a marker, write the words for your chosen pictures in Spanish. Attach the pictures to the inside of the folder. Laminate folder and words. If desired, use the popsicle stick method mentioned in this Math and Reading File Folder Game article, or just let your child match the words with the pictures by hand. As your child's skill in the language grows, re-make the folder to be more challenging using English words instead of pictures.
This is just one example of how to use the file folder game method for teaching your child Spanish. Be creative and try several different methods. You could even print a paper with pictures on one side and their matching Spanish words on the other (in different order). Laminate those in the file folder and provide a dry erase marker. Children can draw a line to match the picture with the word, and wipe clean when finished!
Spanish Fishing Games
Follow the instructions listed in the Magnet Games article to prepare for the Spanish language version. Ahead of time, print pictures of numbers, colors, shapes, or nouns you are want your child to learn. On the back of each picture, using an address label or just plain marker, write the Spanish word. Attach paper clips per the instructions, and let your beginner fish out the pictures to learn the Spanish names.
As your child progresses, raise the skill level of the game by using pictures without the Spanish words, having him sound words out by himself. Another idea is to have the Spanish words laminated separately from the pictures and they fish out matching pairs. For example, a picture of a cat and the word "gato" would be a matching pair.
These are just a few ways to make the learning of a new language fun and entertaining. Almost any subject can be reinforced through games, and don't be afraid to use your imagination. Let your child help come up with new idea's to embrace her enthusiasm for the subject. A subject loved is a subject learned!
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