This book is for Parents and teacher of young children.I find it a great guide of how to make Spanish a part of your child's daily life, And is also filled with games and fun activities,
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Teach Your Child Spanish, while having fun!
This book is for Parents and teacher of young children.I find it a great guide of how to make Spanish a part of your child's daily life, And is also filled with games and fun activities,
Monday, July 14, 2008
The 5 Best Steps to Teaching Children Spanish
Congratulations! ~ ¡Felicidades!
2. Create a Spanish-English bilingual home environment. You want to offer your child as much Spanish-language exposure and interaction as possible. The following is a list of what you’ll need to accomplish this:
~Bilingual books. I can not stress enough how important reading Spanish to your child is. First of all, reading to your child is quality, interactive time between you and your child. Simply cuddling up on the sofa or sitting on the floor looking at the pictures will be an invaluable experience. And if your toddler/preschooler does not sit for the whole book, don’t worry. Just do a little at a time. Or, read the book aloud to yourself while she plays with blocks or something.
Read the book in English a few times before reading it in Spanish. This will get her familiar with the pictures and words and help her make connections between the two languages. If you’re intimidated about reading in Spanish because you don’t speak Spanish, do your best. Perhaps you can read the vocabulary words that go with the pictures. Or, turn your books into audio books by asking a Spanish-speaking friend to record herself reading the book.
~Charts, posters, and labels help transform your home into a bilingual environment. Their colorful presence will serve as instant Spanish-teachable moments. In a spur of the moment, you could point to the chart and say, “Show me the color that is rojo.” And of course, during your Spanish-learning time charts, posters, and labels are excellent teaching aids.
continued in next post
~Spanish area. This is a place where you’ll keep your Spanish resources. The area could just be one shelf on your bookcase or two or three baskets. You’ll need this Spanish area to help keep your materials organized and accessible. Having to constantly look for your Spanish books or cd’s can take the momentum out of your learning time excitement—and we don’t want that to happen. Also, when it’s time to put your Spanish materials away, your child will know exactly where to put them.
The above methods didn’t work for my family because my husband and I are not fluent Spanish speakers and it was difficult to speak only Spanish for a long period of time. In our house, our designated language-learning time is called Spanish Time! I believe that there should be a little Spanish exposure and learning every day. And we have Spanish Time for at least 15 minutes every day.
Over time, though, the 15 minutes can grow to 30 minutes and from 30 minutes to 45 minutes and so on. You don’t have to speak Spanish the whole hour, but there are many other things to do. Also, while I like to keep our Spanish Time set at the same time every day, you certainly do not have to. There’s room for flexibility. You could even do your Spanish time 2 or 3 times a week. The most important thing to keep in mind is BE CONSISTENT. You want your family’s Spanish time to be a part of the day that your child looks forward to.
~Optional resources for you to consider are Spanish-learning computer software and Spanish-learning programs. These resources will enhance and add variety to your family’s Spanish-learning adventure.
Okay, you have the books, shows, posters, music and you’ve set up a Spanish-learning time. You’re probably wondering, “What exactly do I do during our Spanish-learning time with all of these resources?” I’ll answer that question in my next post as I explain the remaining steps for teaching your child Spanish.
continued in next post3. Have a plan. Planning out your Spanish time will help you organize all the resources you have around your topic for the week, and it will help keep your family’s Spanish learning on track for the long-term.
Your plan should have a list of common topics or concepts you’d like your child to learn (ie. shapes, colors, greetings) and a collection of Spanish-learning games, activities, and projects for those topics.
4. Enlist the help of other Spanish-speaking friends or relatives and send your child to a Spanish music or immersion program. This step is extremely helpful, but not a necessary part of your child’s Spanish-learning mission. My husband and I don’t have Spanish-speaking relatives to send our kids to in the summer, and he only has a couple of Spanish-speaking friends. When we only had our daughter, we were able to enroll her in Spanish programs. Now that our family has grown to 4 children, doing so is not a viable option for right now.
So the best that we can at the moment is expose our children to as much Spanish as possible at home and have fun learning Spanish with them.
5. Invest in your own Spanish learning. Studying a Spanish program geared toward adults and covering pronunciation, grammar and sentence building, will bolster your confidence in reading and interacting in Spanish with your child. Furthermore, we don’t want to end up like the singer Madonna and her husband. Their kids attend a French immersion school and when their kids are home, they have these “secret” conversations because Madonna and her husband don’t understand French.
Teaching your child Spanish is a commendable goal. It requires preparation and dedication, and the 15 minutes or so a day you spend teaching your child Spanish will reap bountiful rewards that will last a lifetime.
¡Hasta luego!
Tools to Help Make Teaching Your Child Spanish a Success
Look for bilingual books with vibrant pictures and short, simple sentences and pronunciation help. Our family has many bilingual books, but I like Gladys Rosa-Mendoza's series of bilingual board books.
Music and songs are a fun way to liven up your family's Spanish time. Choose cd’s with bilingual songs that cover a wide range of topics.
Spanish kid-shows
Try to find your local V-me station and record kid shows on Spanish channels. Also, search for dvd’s that are bilingual or have English and Spanish-language audio tracks. Some dvd's that come to mind are: Professor Parrot, Brainy Baby, Spanish for Beginners** and Plaza Sésamo**.
**These shows are in Spanish only, but can still be entertaining.
Charts, posters, and labelsTwo places I would like to recommend for finding an assortment of Spanish language posters and charts are Classroom Direct and Lakeshore Learning.
Spanish-learning computer software and programs
There are many good Spanish software available for children. Look into Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart Spanish.
If you have a Leapfrog Learning System, they have several popular character titles in Spanish like Finding Nemo, and Disney Princesses and a bilingual title Fiesta in the Town.
A lesson plan filled with Spanish-learning activities, games, and projects
Having a lesson plan helps you to make the most out of your family's Spanish learning time. Save yourself time and energy by using an easy-to-follow lesson plan resource for your family's 15-minute Spanish-learning times.